MICA hosts National Community Arts Convening

March 13–15, 2011

www.mica.edu/convening

• The keynote address, with a panel presentation, focuses on envisioning a Community Arts University Without Walls (CAUWW). It will focus on the conceptual and pedagogical framework for this initiative with scholars, students and community activists that will provide the framework for establishing an accredited certificate in community arts.
• Art in the Service of Ritual and Healing, which will look at the ways different cultures and faith groups have used collaborative art and ritual to find healing, celebration and resolve.
• Defining Measuring Community Arts Outcomes. This session presents existing examples and research on how to define outcomes of community art, and it will invite participants to participate in a research activity and will explore methods for future evaluation.
• Baltimore United Viewfinders: Youth from East Baltimore leadership groups have come together with the shared mission of telling the collective story of their community. Using photography and video, they have captured the ideas, opinions and creative interests of individuals from the neighborhoods surrounding MICA PLACE, located in East Baltimore.

In addition, Five Writing Group Fellows, selected by the editorial board in fall 2010, present their in-progress work at this year’s convening and, ultimately, the resulting texts and other documentation is scheduled to be published in fall 2011.

The editorial board for the 2011 Writing Group Fellowships is comprised of: Ron Bechet, professor of art at Xavier University of Louisiana; Nicole Garneau, adjunct faculty for cultural studies at Columbia College Chicago and research assistant at the MacArthur Foundation; Debra Rubino, director of strategic communications at Open Society Institute-Baltimore; Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains, professor emerita at California State University Monterey Bay; and Ken Krafchek, director of M.A. and M.F.A. in Community Arts programs at MICA.

For more information on the convening and research, or to register, visit www.mica.edu/convening.

MICA is home to two groundbreaking graduate programs in community arts, including the M.A. in Community Arts and the M.F.A. in Community Arts.  The deadline for admission to these programs is April 1, 2011. For additional information on these and other graduate offerings, visit  www.mica.edu/grad.