Above: Artify, St. Paul. Photo credit: Bill Kelley.

At Springboard for the Arts, we just launched a new national home for creative ideas. We’re calling it the Creative Exchange.

What exactly is it? The short answer is, that it’s up to you.

It’s a place for exchange: of stories, practical resources and conversation. It’s a place for artists and community members to come together to share and build connections. Creative Exchange will be built by all of us that use and contribute to it.

That said, I want to share some of the thinking and people that led us to this exciting place.

At Springboard for the Arts, we believe that artists are vital contributors to their communities. We are all artists on our staff, and we’ve been doing the work of connecting artists to resources to make a living and a life for the past 23 years from our offices in Saint Paul and Fergus Falls, Minn. We’ve been able to create programs around artist entrepreneurial development, artists’ access to healthcare, community supported art and artist-driven community development.

The more we do this work and grow, the more we want to share our work with others. We’ve created toolkits that can be used by others, consulted, traveled and talked to lots of people all over. We’ve been inspired by the great work that is being done in communities across the country, and want to elevate that. That desire for widespread sharing and inspiration has led us here, to Creative Exchange.

We are thrilled to have Issue Media Group as our partner in this endeavor. With 20 media outlets across the country, they have expertise in sharing compelling stories of individuals and groups who are truly making a difference in their communities. Through their Detroit-based Urban Innovation Exchange program, they know just how important local connection, action and resources can be – and how those stories have national resonance and importance. They will help us share revelatory stories of artists and their communities, stories about building new connections, creating new resources, and re-framing community issues – stories that give the reader bursts of inspiration to take action. Those are the stories that we’ll be sharing on Creative Exchange. 

We also want to back up that inspiration with the resources and direction to go out and make change happen.  Creative Exchange will be a platform featuring toolkits for proven programs that help communities engage their artists. Right now you can find toolkits from Springboard, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and Block Party in a Box, with many more to come. These toolkits are for artists, arts organizations, neighborhood associations, city councils, and anyone looking for new, creative ways to build resources and reframe the issues in their community. Many of these toolkits will need more than one person to execute – and that’s by design. It’s by building shared relationships and working together that we get the deepest change. 

Finally, to build that shared relationship, Creative Exchange will have lots of opportunity for connections and conversation. Go to our Civic Commons page to participate in conversations going on there, pose a question, or find new insights.

Here’s where we’d love your participation:

-Let us know which artists and projects you’d like to see featured. Right now we’re particularly interested in projects based in the eight Knight communities, but we’ll take nominations from anywhere.

-Do you have a proven program you want to share? We want to hear about existing toolkits that we might be able to help you share or programs for which you’d like to create a toolkit.

-What resources would you like Creative Exchange to provide? What tools do you wish you had?

If you have any direct questions or feedback, you can always email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

We are so grateful to Knight Foundation for making Creative Exchange possible. They are our founding partner and are helping us provide tools and share stories in all eight of their focus communities. We will be announcing more lead content and toolkit partners as Creative Exchange grows and as we find out more from you about what resources you are looking for.

Still have questions? Us, too! We’d love it if you would let us know your questions and ideas for how to make the Creative Exchange as useful, engaging and fun as possible. We believe that the work that we do together is transformational and joyful, and we can’t wait to share.

Laura Zabel is Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts, an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists based in St. Paul, Minn.