New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development [Hardcover]

An inspiring, foundational book that defines the burgeoning field of community cultural development.

An inspiring, foundational book that defines the burgeoning field of community cultural development. Through personal stories, rousing accounts, detailed observation and histories, Arlene Goldbard describes how communities express and develop themselves via the creative arts. This comprehensive, photographically-illustrated book, which covers community-based arts such as theater grounded in oral history and murals celebrating cultural heritage, will appeal to the curious non-specialist reader as well as the practitioner and student.

Author Arlene Goldbard is one of the best-known authors on community cultural development. Her seminal books and essays are widely read in the US and other English-speaking countries -- among them,Community, Culture and Globalizationand this book's antecedent,Creative Community.

It is an impressive feat that Goldbard achieves in this book, giving the reader such an appreciation and understanding of this concept that one is left wondering why community cultural development isn't something that is an essential part of all our lives. Goldbard equates it with with universal education and the provision of emergency health care. After reading the passionate and convincing arguments laid out by Goldbard, it is hard to disagree. Arlene Goldbard is one of those writers who not only writes about culture--she lives culture. She manages both to persuade us about her research but also convince us about the importance of community cultural development, which is why her latest book should be read not only by those interested in community cultural development but moreover by those who still need to learn and understand why is it so important. Goldbard gathers [remarkable stories] to show how arts projects can restore the spirit and animate the hopes of struggling communities. But more than just inspiring ul£»