The third annual Soul of the Community report prodcued by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Gallup was conducted over three years in 26 cities across the United States where Knight Foundation is active. It was designed to find out what emotionally attaches people to a community — what makes them want to put down roots and build a life there.

The development of affordable spaces for artists to live and/or work is certainly an important matter for artists, but it can also be an important issue for people concerned with a range of social issues, including economic development, civic engagement, community collective action and community quality of life. This report considers how artist space developments have been positioned and the arguments made to garner support for them, the advocacy strategies used, and the impacts claimed or anticipated.

This analysis offers recommendations to help decision-makers in the city and region make the corridor safer for everyone, improve the economic prospects (and equity) of the area, and provide new opportunities for adding housing and jobs — all while avoiding displacement of the vital communities of residents and businesses that call the Pike home today. [Executive Summary]

Due to the financial consequences from the Great Recession, many US communities have been unable to make significant progress in preparing to meet the needs of the country’s rapidly aging population. The Maturing of America—Communities Moving Forward for an Aging Population, a follow-up to an extensive survey conducted in 2005, reveals that at best, communities have managed to maintain the status quo for the past six years due to the decline in the overall economy and local government budgets.

To better understand the impact of local arts and cultural events on Americans’ choices about where to live, researchers at the National Endowment for the Arts worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to ask a series of questions as part of the 2015 American Housing Survey (AHS). The AHS is a HUD-sponsored national household survey that the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) administers every two years. The questions were designed to measure the value that U.S. residents place on living convenient to arts and cultural events, householder satisfaction with access

This infographic provides highlishts from the National Endowment for the Arts work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to produce a survey to better understand the impact of arts and cultural events on Americans’ housing choices.

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times.

Local arts agencies—arts councils, arts commissions, cultural affairs departments—are an essential tool for community leaders as they rebuild their economies and promote social cohesion. The nation’s 4,500 local arts agencies (LAAs) support, present, and promote the dynamic value of the arts. Through their partnerships and leadership, LAAs are building healthier communities through the arts.

In this paper, Lyz Crane draws on the work of practitioners and researchers to characterize the field of arts-based community development in which arts and culture can help achieve place based change related to the physical, social, and economic dimensions of place.  From the premise that the existence of arts is considered a powerful end in itself, Crane then outlines the variety of ways that the actors and activities involved in arts and community development work can relate to and interact with each other to create sustainable communities.  Looking at the cultural ecology of