A team from Iowa showed how state government agencies can creatively collaborate to help Iowa communities meet civic challenges through the arts at the Iowa Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) Annual Conference in Iowa City, Iowa on October 9-11, 2019. APA is a membership organization of professional planners, planning educators, planning commissioners and planning students from across the state of Iowa. APA Iowa’s mission is to strengthen planning to create thriving communities.

Arts Build Communities Grant

I had the pleasure of presenting with Jennie Knoebel of the Iowa Arts Council, Jennifer Drinkwater of Iowa State University, and Leslie Finer from the University of Iowa to share past successes and challenges encountered through the Arts Build Communities Grant. This innovative biennial grant program is a collaboration between the Iowa Arts Council and the University of Iowa’s Office of Outreach and Engagement, the Iowa State University College of Design, and the University of Northern Iowa.

The grant started as a pilot project with the University of Iowa working with the Iowa Arts Council to craft the grant structure. An overwhelming success, it was quickly expanded to include the other Iowa Regents institutions. Grantees receive financial and technical assistance as well as faculty and student resources to carry out project activities outlined in their grant proposal.

Creating a Dream Grant

Because the Arts Build Communities grant is designed to provide support to initiatives that uniquely address civic challenges and community issues through the arts, the grant needed to be less restrictive than most. The Arts Council regularly describes the program as a “dream grant” because is it only limited by the imagination and creativity of the applicant community.

Each community can craft a grant narrative that works for them, rather than trying to fit their creative idea into the parameters of an existing grant program. While most state granting programs are solely project focused, Arts Build Communities supports arts projects that build stronger communities through the relationship between civic and arts organizations by using the arts as a tool to foster collaboration across diverse community sectors.

More information on the Arts Council and Arts Build Communities is at https://iowaculture.gov/about-us/about/grants/arts-build-communities-grant.

Building Sustainable Partnerships

The grant also requires that communities identify a committed team of project partners who will assist with the planning, execution, and completion of the grant. Each project develops through a collaborative process with the Iowa Arts Council and assigned university representative helping facilitate throughout the 18-24 month project timeline. Grantees are creating new partnerships because of the grant and strengthening current partner relationships as they work together.

These relationships continue long after the project is finished and the grant has been closed out creating lasting positive impact in each community.

While the Arts Build Communities Grant is a relatively modest investment for the state at $10,000 per project, most of the communities have been able to leverage far more support once their project receives approval from the Arts Council. Community agencies and businesses in every community have come together to offer additional financial or professional support that further expands the reach and impact of each project.

Putting Classroom Learning to the Test

Having university students involved in each community also increases what communities can accomplish and adds vitality and new ideas to the partner group. The students have also had an overwhelmingly positive experience working with the communities. They’re learning collaborative skills and putting the ideas they formulate in the classroom into practice.

Presenters also gave an overview of their fiscal year 2020 grant projects which are currently in the planning stages. In each community a lead artist or arts organization is identified to assist with the design of the project from the start so that the arts help lead the thought process.

• The Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health is working with the University of Iowa to make school bus stops safer and more visible on a busy road in Plymouth.
• The city of Fort Dodge is partnering with Iowa State University to consider new ways to handle garbage and recycling in downtown Fort Dodge.
• The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa are teaming up to tackle language barriers at an outdoor community space in Des Moines.

The afternoon wrapped up with conference attendees breaking into smaller groups to brainstorm civic challenges in their own communities that they might solve through an arts partnership. Each group then identified possible community partners and began to imagine their own dream grant projects.