Creative Communities

The mission of Creative Communities is to expand access to serious, progressive instruction in the performing, literary and visual arts for children and youth living in public housing communities in order to improve their quality of life and promote skills leading to greater self-sufficiency. Through a competitive application process, 20 community schools of the arts and their housing partners were awarded three-year grants of $135,000 to implement Creative Communities projects in their respective cities.

Integral to the success of the Creative Communities mission is the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts’ role in providing training and technical assistance to each of the 20 sites. The National Guild is also responsible for the initiative’s strategic planning; evaluation; sharing of best practices and marketing strategies.

Creative Communities is more than a "project." It is an arts education, youth development and community building strategy that partners community schools of the arts with their local housing authorities to provide youth in public housing communities with high quality, sequential arts instruction during non-school hours and on weekends. The National Guild, through a cooperative agreement with the National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is responsible for the overall implementation of the Initiative in 20 separate states. Creative Communities represents a $4.65 million investment in and commitment to community arts education.

One example of a Creative Communities Project is the Cleveland Public Theatre.

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT), founded in 1981, presents performed work that addresses the issues and challenges of modern life. It is CPT’s philosophy that the arts can literally change the world, enhancing the quality of life in the community, and enhancing the dignity of human beings with whom the arts come in contact. CPT seeks to achieve this objective through the strategic selection of programming and through the investment of its resources in artists and communities that are traditionally "under served." CPT’s mission to bring arts into the lives of under served populations extends naturally into its educational program. Since its inception, CPT has been conducting free theatre classes for youth, focusing on inner city teenagers and their needs for a creative avenue for healthy self-expression.

Partnering with the Free Clinic and Safe Space (a runaway shelter), Cleveland Public Theatre began workshops for teenagers in 1985. Offering theatre classes for local youth, CPT expanded its classes into a full educational program in 1990, creating CLEVELAND ACT NOW!, which began building theatre education partnerships in the Cleveland Public Schools using the excitement of theatre arts as a powerful tool for nurturing personal, social, academic and artistic growth.

Cleveland Public Theatre: www.cptonline.org