HOW WE DEFINE Community ENGAGEMENT

Engaging with community can take many forms— it could be permanent or transient. Creative projects can be a powerful way to engage with ideas of community, and with communities. Community-engaged projects can be a way to share the values, voice, or creative practices of a specific community with a wider audience.

We believe in questioning what traditional public art looks like and how it functions. We value surprise and delight and the ability of art to shift perceptions of the world around us. We know each community is different, and artwork can be an important way to question ownership of space and identity. Strong, equitable, community-engaged creative work is often made by and with a community.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

We prioritize funding and supporting work by those who historically have had less access to arts funding. This includes individual artists who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color as well as self-taught creatives and those working in less-recognized art forms whose creative work might not be supported elsewhere.