FORWARD: Issue #8: Civic Health
Welcome to FORWARD, a digital publication and conversation series from Forecast, a nonprofit that activates, inspires, and advocates for public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity. FORWARD highlights how artists are partnering with cities, institutions, and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time.
This eighth issue focuses on civic health and engagement, particularly in the spheres of civic knowledge, relationship building, and transformation. The publication is guest-edited by Richard Young, the founder and executive director at CivicLex, a nonprofit in Lexington, Kentucky, dedicated to strengthening civic health at the local level.
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Image: In 2024, the New York City Civic Engagement Commission (NYC CEC) employed lively little yellow figurines to raise awareness of participatory voting; this initiative attempted to change the way New Yorkers offer input into the city budget. Photo © The People's Creative Institute, courtesy Yazmany Arboleda.
Join Our New 2026 Series:
Creative Power, Civic Purpose: How Artists Strengthen Democracy
Registration for the full six-part series is now open
We’re excited to launch Creative Power, Civic Purpose: How Artists Strengthen Democracy, a six-part virtual series. The series explores how artists and culture bearers strengthen civic health, deepen democratic participation, and help renew the civic fabric of communities across the country.
At a time of deep polarization and eroding institutional trust, artists are helping communities to rebuild the foundations of democratic life, helping people understand how systems work, fostering belonging across differences, and collaborating to shape more transparent and responsive civic institutions. Thanks to EFA’s support, we are able to bring this much-needed series to the field and build stronger connections between practitioners, funders and artists.
Grounded in the civic health framework of FORWARD Issue 8, and aligned with national conversations around democratic renewal, the series blends field-framing conversations with practical learning designed for artists, cultural leaders, civic partners, funders and community practitioners.
Register Once to Attend the Full Series
Sign up today to access all six sessions, including calendar holds, Zoom links, updates, and session recordings.
Please consider a donation to help make events like this possible.
2026 Series Lineup & Dates
1. Arts & Culture as Vital Civic Infrastructure: Why Art Matters for Democracy
Thursday, Feb 26 · 12–1:30 PM CT A grounding session on civic health and how artists build and strengthen the cultural and civic systems that support democratic life.
2. Knowledge Is Power: Demystifying Civic Systems Through Creative Practice
Thursday, March 26 · 12–1:30 PM CT How artists restore civic understanding, expand public access to complex systems like budgeting and voting, and increase community engagement in democratic processes.
3. Deep Roots of Belonging: Lessons from Rural and Southern Cultural Leadership
Thursday, May 28 · 12–1:30 PM CT Place-based creative leaders in the South and Appalachia offer national insight on bridging divides, cultivating belonging, and strengthening democratic participation.
4. What Binds Us: Trust, Neighboring, and the Cultural Work of Democracy
Thursday, June 25 · 12–1:30 PM CT How artistic practices rebuild trust, foster connection across difference, and strengthen the relational fabric that democracy depends on.
5. The Art of Governance: Artist–Government Collaborations for More Responsive Institutions
Thursday, September 24 · 12–1:30 PM CT How artists embedded in civic systems advance transparency, equity, responsiveness—and help strengthen public institutions through creative collaboration.
6. Funding Creative Civic Power: Investing in Artists Who Strengthen Democracy
Thursday, October 29 · 12–1:30 PM CT Practical strategies for resourcing artists’ civic work and sustaining arts-driven democratic participation at scale.
In this FORWARD conversation, Public Art Now guest curator Ebony Dumas (Director of Planning + Engagement at Forecast Public Art) sits down with artists Ashley Teamer and Monique Verdin to discuss their respective artworks, Tambourine Cypress and Nanih Bvlbancha—both in Public Art Now—and the neighborhood, historical, and urban design context.
Join us to explore how these public artists consider context in their work and create spaces alongside community.
This event was held via Zoom on September 25, 2025, at 11:30 am CT.
Please consider a donation to help make events like this possible.
A FORWARD series cross-sector discussion
Explore how art and culture are central tools advancing civic health in local communities around the country. Leave inspired by how initiatives from Philadelphia to rural Kentucky to Arkansas can be models for cross-sector practice to create a healthy democracy in your community.
This panel, hosted by Forecast, features the following speakers:
- Lisa Hicks Gilbert, mayor, historian, community builder. Born and raised in Elaine, Arkansas, Lisa serves as the volunteer program manager at the Lee Street Community Center and as the founder and managing director of Descendants of the Elaine Massacre of 1919. She leads with a spirit of resilience rooted in community, believing that leadership is not measured by title alone, but by service, sacrifice, and the courage to uplift others—especially in places where silence and struggle have long endured.
- Phoebe Bachman, (she/they), a South Philadelphia–based artist, facilitator, and curator, whose interdisciplinary practice is grounded in collaboration and social justice. Their work amplifies resistance movements, focusing on economic and criminal justice through methodologies such as public art installations, popular education, and community mapping.
- Savannah Barrett, exchange director for Art of the Rural, a national organization that works to resource rural and Native artists and culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. She co-founded the Kentucky Rural–Urban Exchange in 2014, and leads this work alongside hundreds of Kentuckians to combine grantmaking, leadership and network development, narrative change, and institutional bridging to strengthen Kentucky’s communities across racial, economic, and geographic divides.
Moderated by Richard Young, FORWARD Issue 8 guest editor and the founder and executive director at CivicLex. This conversation was held via Zoom on June 26, 2025.
Please consider a donation to make events like this possible.
Forecast's next Change Lab Research Fellow will focus on civic engagement in public art.
Apply by July 13, 2025.
The Fellowship begins at the end of August 2025.
At a time when civic life is strained by polarization, disconnection, and declining trust, artists across the country are quietly building the infrastructure that democracy depends on. Through public art, they are helping people understand local government, connect across difference, and participate in shaping the places in which they live.
Forecast’s Change Lab is seeking its fourth Research Fellow to explore how public art contributes to civic engagement and democratic participation, defined as:
- Building civic knowledge and capacity: how people understand civic life and how they can participate in it
- Strengthening social cohesion: building new connections and relationships between different types of people
- Creating more responsive institutions: reshaping how our democracy works
We’re looking for a Fellow to research and articulate how artists are renewing civic life by using public art to foster connection, knowledge, and change, especially for historically excluded communities. The resulting report will contribute to a national public art policy platform, rooted in justice, human dignity, and democratic vitality.
Please consider a donation to support the Change Lab.
FORWARD: Issue #8
Civic Health
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