Episode Details

This week we visit with researcher, writer, planner, Lorrie Chang to talk about her work with ArtPlace America's Community Development Investment (CDI) program. Along the way we will explore how artists from the Zuni Pueblo, and Southwest Minnesota worked with community developers to integrate arts-based tools and strategies as an enduring core of their practice?

BIO

Lorrie Chang centers an arts and cultural-based approach to community change and development as a path to collective liberation. At PolicyLink, she designed and evaluated the nation’s first Creative Placemaking technical assistance program for The National Endowment for the Arts, served as the research partner for ArtPlace’s experiment to integrate arts and culture strategies into community development organizations, and supported six arts organizations advancing equitable policies across the country. In East Portland, she led community engagement rooted in storytelling for The People’s Plan-- a plan by and for the people projecting a vision for a thriving Black community. As a Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Truth Fellow, she explored, "How do we find and empower TRUTH?". Last year, in stillness, she humbly pursued, “What does liberation look like for me?”. She now seeks to alchemize her journey of personal liberation to serve collective liberation. Lorrie holds a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning and resides in San Francisco. 

Notable Mentions

The Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SWMHP) is a non-profit community development corporation serving communities throughout Southwest and South Central Minnesota.

Partnership Art: In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace America to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work.

Place-based Productions: We are a production company that explores community stories through site-specific performance and the arts. Our work cultivates stewards of community identity by connecting people to their common places, stories and relationships.

Our goals are to foster creativity, play, and, above all, a sense of place.

ArtPlace America was a ten-year, $150 million collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that operated from 2010 to 2020. Our mission was to position arts and culture as a core sector of equitable community planning and development. You can learn about the story of ArtPlace 

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