The Prison Creative Arts Project’s mission is to collaborate with incarcerated adults, incarcerated youth, urban youth and the formerly incarcerated to strengthencommunity through creative expression.

The Prison Creative Arts Prjocet believes that everyone has the capacity to create art. Art is necessary for individual and societal growth, connection and survival. It should be accessible to everyone. The values that guide PCAP’s process are respect, collaboration in which vulnerability, risk, and improvisation lead to discovery and resilience, persistence, patience, love and laughter. PCAP makes possible spaces in and from which the voices and visions of the incarcerated can be expressed.

The mission of OneWorld Classrooms is to foster cross-cultural understanding in the context of the K-12 curriculum by building bridges of learning between the classrooms of the world through the arts and technology.

From One World Classroom Website

Based in the Blue Ridge Mountains, HandMade in America was founded in 1993 with a belief that economic revitalization wasn’t necessarily tied to luring “modern” industry to the region but in making known the hidden heritage and craftspeople that are so vitally a part of Western North Carolina. Today, HandMade is a nationally recognized, multidimensional institution that has sparked initiatives and creative collaborations in education, small town revitalization and community development, economic development, environmentally sustainable strategies and enhanced opportunities for makers of the handmade object, heritage tourism, and incorporating crafts into building design and furnishing.

Handmade in America also serves as a support system for craftspeople and the craft industry.

Arts for Life builds bridges and makes lasting connections between the art and healthcare communities of North Carolina. Staff members are artists and teachers who believe the arts are key to creating vibrant, healthy communities. Arts for Life works to transform and improve healthcare environments, boosting patient self esteem, encouraging relationship-building through collaboration, and giving patients a sense of control in their hospital environments.

The South Florida Environmental Art Project (SFEAP) honors all forms of art that seek to raise awareness about environmental degradation, and to encourage/spark responsible public action to address it. Emphasis in all SFEAP programs is on Ecoart, which is art that involves environmental activism and community engagement.

Appalshop is a non-profit multi-disciplinary arts and education center in the heart of Appalachia producing original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books. Education and training programs support communities’ efforts to solve their own problems in a just and equitable way. Each year, Appalshop productions and services reach several million people nationally and internationally.

Photo of Appalshop Participants From Appalshop Website

Project Row Houses is a nonprofit arts organization, established by African-American artists and community activists to create a positive presence in Houston’s Northern Third Ward community. Artist and community activist Rick Lowe took 1 1/2 blocks of 22 abandoned shotgun houses and has turned them into artist residences, exhibition space, artist studios, and classroom space. PRH is a force of revitalization in depressen inner-city neighborhoods.

From Project Row Houses Website

StoryLine is a storytelling initiative that works to illuminate the rich diversity of voices in the Winston-Salem community and to celebrate our common humanity.  This volunteer-led program uses a mobile recording studio to collect stories from the community. StoryLine believes that listening carefully to the stories of others will help all people to see their similarities and appreciate their differences. StoryLine hopes the sharing of these stories through radio will create a culture of inclusion in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County in which residents throughout the community become more understanding, trusting and respectful of one another.

StoryLine Bus

(WSYAI), a local nonprofit, brings professional artists together with disenfranchised youth. The mission of WSYAI is to develop youth authors who publish, stage, and film their life experiences so that they can transform their lives, become leaders, and effect change in the world.

THE PIEDMONT TRIAD INITIATIVE FOR COMMUNITY ARTS HAS MOVED AND IS NO LONGER POSTING TO THIS SITE.. Click here to review new posts on new blog.

This blog is designed to offer a venue for nonprofits, arts organizations, artists, and local citizens to network about current community arts projects and brainstorm about projects in development. Below we have listed eight categories of social issues under which many community arts projects fall. Please use the blog posts as a way to comment on particular issues, suggest new programs, and converse with organizations who also have a stake in a particular community issue.

We have a separate page of potential organizations who may be interested in participating in a community arts project- be sure to check them out as it may get the wheels turning in your head when you develop new projects.

We also offer a community arts events calendar for those who like to attend or keep up on local events. Please be sure to check out the calendar as it can also serve as a great networking tool.  Thanks and enjoy!

Community arts projects are art-based programs intentionally designed to address community issues.

For more information on PTICA, visit our website.