Episode Details

Today we continue our Building Blocks of Effective Community Arts Practice series with two longtime fellow travelers: activist poet and cultural organizer Alice Lovelace, and educator, cultural policy leader, and Animating Democracy co-founder Barbara Shaffer Bacon.

Together we wrestle with a question many artists are asking right now: Should we prioritize safety—or bravery?

Drawing on decades of experience—from the culture wars of the 1980s to today’s debates over censorship, public funding, and democracy—they explore how artists can respond with creativity rather than fear.

Three reasons to listen

• Creative courage takes many forms. Bravery isn’t only public protest. It can mean telling difficult truths, creating work without waiting for permission,

• Healthy cultural ecosystems make courage possible. Artists, organizations, funders, and communities can build networks of mutual support that allow creative work to flourish even during periods of political and economic uncertainty.

• Artists possess tools society needs right now. From improvisation and storytelling to visioning and collective imagination, the very skills artists practice every day may be among our most important resources for helping communities navigate uncertainty and build a more hopeful future.

Notable Mentions

People

• Alice Lovelace: Poet, educator, Executive Director of ArtsXchange, and longtime leader in community-based arts, cultural organizing, and social justice.
• Barbara Shaffer Bacon: Cultural policy leader, educator, and founding co-director of Animating Democracy, widely recognized for advancing arts-based civic engagement and cultural policy.
• Lenny Sloan: Beloved community arts advocate, cultural organizer, and longtime colleague remembered as one of the inspirations behind this conversation series.
• Maynard Jackson: Atlanta's first African American mayor, remembered for expanding civic participation and public investment in the arts.
• Shirley Franklin: Former mayor of Atlanta whose administration continued significant investment in the city's cultural infrastructure.
• Robert Peters: Mashpee Wampanoag artist, writer, and cultural leader whose work integrates Indigenous traditions, storytelling, ceremony, and community healing.
• Roberta Uno: Founder of New WORLD Theater and one of America's leading advocates for culturally specific and community-based theater.

Organizations & Initiatives

• Center for the Study of Art & Community: Producer of ART IS CHANGE and advancing arts-based community development and cultural organizing.
• ArtsXchange: Atlanta-based interdisciplinary arts organization dedicated to community cultural devel