FORWARD: Issue #8: Civic Health

Artists at the Heart of Civic Renewal

Creative projects and partnerships are building civic health infrastructure

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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.

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How Art & Culture Builds Civic Health

A FORWARD series cross-sector discussion June 26, 2025

Join us to 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.

This panel will be moderated by Richard Young, FORWARD Issue 8 guest editor and the founder and executive director at CivicLex. Register. This conversation will be held via Zoom.

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.

Learn more about the Fellowship.

Please consider a donation to support the Change Lab.

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