FORWARD: Issue #8: Civic Health
Toolkit
A creative Dream Ordinance description, plus resources for making connections across sectors, or working creatively in civic health and engagement
04
Dream Ordinance—Measure ACE
Amanda Carlson
Chicago-based cultural strategist Amanda Carlson asks us to look at local systems and the ballot box as sites for change.
With Measure ACE, we appreciate that Amanda approaches a deeper view of creatives in civic systems by asking us to think about what percentage of a local community’s budget should be dedicated to artist-led work, and how that money should flow.
A popular recurring section, FORWARD's Dream Job is a space where we ask creatives and leaders embedded in cross-sector work to propose a creative job that doesn't exist—but should. For this issue, rather than a dream job, we offer a dream ordinance.
05
Change Lab Fellow on Civic Engagement in Public Art
Forecast Public Art
Forecast is engaging 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.
07
Urban Futures (The Lab)
Public Matters
The Lab is a two-year stipended fellowship, training and mentorship program geared toward young adults of color, ages 18-26, from under–resourced Los Angeles communities, who are committed to social change. The Lab is part on-the-job training, part professional development, part network building, and 100% community-focused.
08
The Democracy Cycle
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and Civis Foundation (a Galvan Initiatives affiliate)
Over a five-year period, The Democracy Cycle will commission and develop 25 new performing arts works across the fields of theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance. The commissioned works, to be selected over the course of three annual Rounds of Open Calls (2024, 2025, and 2026), will explore themes relating to the nature, practice, and experience of democracy.
12
Field Guide for Working with Artists
Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD)
The Field Guide for Working with Artists outlines recommendations and existing models of working with artists to facilitate integrating art and artists into the work of CRWD. The guide covers a broad range of art approaches that include a residency model, short-term engagement, internships, commissions, and inclusion of artist on project teams. It is intended as a flexible, living document rather than a static list of prescriptive recommendations.
Photo by Caroline Yang. CRWD’s 20th Anniversary Celebration and Mississippi River of Iron Pour, September 21, 2018.
13
Creative Catalysts: Artists at the Heart of Civic Engagement
Forecast Public Art AFTACON 2025
Forecast’s team of directors—Ebony Dumas, Jen Krava, and Theresa Sweetland—presented to a packed house in Cincinnati for Americans for the Arts’ annual convention, AFTACON.
We know that artists are more than creators. From reimagining public spaces to shaping policy with bold vision, they’re catalysts for civic transformation. On June 12, 2025, Forecast's team presented a dynamic session, exploring how artists partner with governments, community organizations, and urban planners to tackle local challenges. Through case studies and group discussions, they examined the future of artist-led civic engagement to an audience eager to connect with this topic.
14
Public Art Review Public Policy Content
Forecast Public Art A curated selection from Forecast's legacy print magazine.
Artists and other cultural professionals are going beyond simply planning and creating art for municipal public art plans. They're contributing to the direction of government at many levels.
Photo: People emerge from the NoHo Arts District metro station on L.A.'s red line. Photo by Chris Yarzab / flickr / CC license.
15
Native Land Map
Native Land Digital
Native Land Digital honors the sovereignty of all Indigenous nations, their lands, and their waters. We recognize that these boundaries and territories are representations of the sacred. We respect the rights of Indigenous data sovereignty, and we are committed to an ongoing process of collaboration, growth, and learning. We work to update and replace information that is a continuation of trauma caused by theft, injustice, misinformation, and ignorance. The map is a living document, informed by the contributions of Indigenous communities, Indigenous knowledge holders, and their stories. It does not claim to represent official or legal boundaries. We encourage you to connect directly with the Indigenous nations to learn more about their territories and histories. This is an honoring of Indigenous resilience past, present, and future.
16
Native Civics: Commitment to Community
Produced in partnership with Twin Cities PBS and producer/director Missy Whiteman. Special thanks to Dr. Twyla Baker and Levi Brown.
Native nations are building a future for their communities with a foundation of tribal knowledge and alliances. Civic engagement is both an individual and collective effort.
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Tribal Civics: A Guide for Fostering Engagement
Native Governance Center
A Tribal civics initiative is a formal or informal learning opportunity for Tribal citizens to learn about their people’s history, cultural values and practices, traditional forms of governance, and current governmental structure and administration. This guide is for anyone who aspires to create and implement a Tribal civics engagement plan for their nation.
19
CHART Santa Fe (Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth)
Artful Life, LLC
The goal of the CHART project is to engage the diverse citizenry of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in activities that will solicit their perspectives, and to foster a mutual understanding of shared values. Though sparked by controversies about monuments and statues, the project is much broader in scope and purpose. The City of Santa Fe Governing Body decided on a grassroots process that invites and facilitates community member–to–community member dialogue.
20
ART IS CHANGE
Hosted by Bill Cleveland
Can your art help dismantle injustice, shift systems, or spark healing in places like homeless shelters, emergency rooms, or city planning meetings? If you’re passionate about making a real difference through creativity, ART IS CHANGE (formerly known as Change the Story / Change the World) is your front-row seat to the real-world impact of art and social change. Hosted by author, musician, and researcher Bill Cleveland, each episode brings you deep into the lives and work of activist artists and cultural organizers who are doing more than dreaming—they’re transforming communities around the world. You’ll discover: • Proven strategies for thriving as an artist for change in complex, real-world settings • How to build meaningful, lasting partnerships that support your mission and your art • Lessons from global leaders creating cultural blueprints for justice, empathy, and resilience.
21
Activate Rural Public Workshop: Northwest Minnesota
Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) June 24, 2025
Join DoPT at our Northwest Activate Rural Public Workshop in Mahnomen, MN (pop. 1,210). This one-day workshop will provide connections for artists, creative entrepreneurs, small business owners, activators and leaders developing creative physical places of connection for their communities. Participants will take away community engagement strategies, funding resource ideas, and structures for stewardship and operations for rural creative gathering places.
22
Democracy as Creative Practice: Weaving a Culture of Civic Life
By Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer
This book offers arts-based solutions to the threats to democracies around the world and features chapter authors who are artists, activists, curators, and teachers applying creative and cultural practices in deliberate efforts to build democratic ways of working and interacting in their communities around the world.
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Libraries Transforming Communities: Libraries as Leaders in Bridging Divides
American Library Association
Libraries as Leaders in Bridging Divides aims to enhance the role of libraries as vital centers for building community connections, encouraging civic engagement, and fostering critical thinking.
24
A Good Mischief Toolkit for Neighborhood Self-Determination
Public Matters
A Good Mischief Toolkit for Neighborhood Self-Determination, led by Public Matters in close collaboration with Visión City Terrace (VCT), a volunteer-based community group, is a multifaceted social practice public artwork aimed at building VCT’s capacity for self-advocacy around environmental justice—air quality, noise pollution, and basic service requests—in East LA’s City Terrace neighborhood.
25
If Not Us Then Who? Guide to Screening Films
If Not Us Then Who?
Tips on screening films in your community. Suggested films include Hope (Indigenous climate change solutions), Brazil’s Warrior Women (women’s movement for access to Babassu oil), Our Fight (illegal logging and murder in Peru), and Eviction (land rights conflict in Indigenous territory).
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Beyond the Clock on Rural Remix
Ash Hanson and Anna Claussen
Ash Hanson from Department of Public Transformation and Anna Claussen from Voices for Rural Resilience are your hosts on a journey into the hearts, minds, and imaginations of rural artists, cultural workers, and changemakers across the country.
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Co-Creative Placekeeping in Los Angeles: Artists and Communities Working Together
By Brettany Shannon, David C. Sloane, and Anne Bray
A novel examination of Los Angeles-based socially engaged art (SEA) practitioners’ equitable placekeeping efforts. A new concept, equitable placekeeping describes the inclination of historically marginalized community members to steward their neighborhood’s development, improve local amenities, engage in social and cultural production, and assert a mutual sense of self-definition—and the efforts of SEA artists to aid them.
Cover image: Temple Street Slow Jams, from Public Matters.
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FORWARD: Issue #8
Civic Health
© COPYRIGHT 2025 - FORECAST PUBLIC ART ISSN 2768-4113