The mission
of the Douglas Redd Fellowship is to build an ever-increasing cadre of leaders,
dedicated to equitable community development, steeped in a community
development model that seeks partners, tools and lessons from the fields of
organizing and the arts.
Douglas Redd,
co-founder and artistic director of Ashé
Cultural Arts
Center, was a "mentor and
teacher to emerging artists and a coach and counselor to community folk... often
inspired by his talent to refine and improve their lives." As a community-based artist, Douglas used
these gifts to bring light to his New
Orleans neighborhood and to the people who lived
there.
This spirit is the
essence of "Shifting Sands -Art, Culture and Neighborhood Change," which
recognizes and encourages community-based arts and cultural organizations as
unique stakeholders in neighborhoods experiencing economic and demographic
shifts ("shifting sands"). These groups
are asked to become ‘good neighbors' paying close attention to changes,
building partnerships and helping to ensure all neighbors have voice in the
community's vision for a common future. They are the community's curators of identity -
using culture to build a network of people and places that promote social
integration, increase civic participation, and provide opportunities for
economic mobility.
Douglas
Redd told Miguel Garcia -the Ford Foundation program officer directly
responsible for Shifting Sands-that this work was special to him because it
captured his work and translated it through people. This fellowship is an aspiration to the ideal of that expression. We
believe he would want there to be some commentary about the ability of Douglas
Redd Fellows to change people one at a time.
The Douglas
Redd Fellowships are built on the lessons learned during five years of
experience with the Shifting Sands initiative and are structured to enlarge the
circle of practitioners as well as the understanding of Shifting Sands work.
The fellowship should function as an experiential store of knowledge to add to,
challenge and pass along.
The creativity, risk-taking and problem solving
skills of emerging and established professionals working in economically
challenged communities who seek to learn new ways to change their lives and institutions,
and show a willingness to cultivate leaders within their staff, organization
and community.
Effective leadership unbound to traditional,
linear, top-down models and the empowering of non-traditional models of
leadership
Broad cultural fluency, a high tolerance for
complexity and ambiguity and support for professionals to experience multiple
career paths and pinnacles
Challenges to the traditional paradigm by
looking for the hidden leadership potential in the people and communities we
seek to support
Unlikely partnerships and the force for positive
change that can be brought to bear on community futures when all voices are
heard
The power of the arts and cultural disciplines
to catalyze change across ethnic traditions and to make both obvious and
unlikely connections in communities
Self-reflection and thoughtfulness when working
in communities
Diversity of every stripe and an asset-based
model of self and environmental assessment
About the Fellowship
The fellowship opportunity is a year-long exploration
into the intersection of arts, culture and community development. Like the
Shifting Sands initiative itself, the fellowship is innovative in its structure
and content.
Seasoned community development and arts practitioners
will mentor the fellows by passing along their knowledge and contacts. The
mentors will also guide the fellows to plan a learning program and goals that
can be applied to their current work environment. This "learning while doing" methodology
will be enriched by a series of group meetings, networking opportunities and
fellowship projects designed to contribute significantly to the body of arts,
culture and community development knowledge.
Fellowship Goals
Provide fellows and mentors with an expanded
network of colleagues and advisors able to help effect equitable social change
in each fellow's community
Document the work of community development
professionals, community- based arts practitioners and social justice
organizers over the past forty years, for field-wide enrichment
Provide individual fellows with a national
spotlight for their local work and invigorate the dialogue on arts and social
justice, organizing and community development with fresh innovations
Help provide resources for catalytic change in
the lives and work of individual fellows, their communities, mentors and
through networks to the field of arts, culture and community development
To better understand the rapidly changing
communities that make up the world around us
Activities of the Fellowship
Learning Conference Calls: Every 6 weeks,
the fellows and available mentors participate in a 2 hour long conference call
on a particular topic dealing with arts and community development.
Mentor-Fellow Meetings: The mentors and
fellows meet on a monthly basis, and have both agreed to communicate regularly
to achieve goals related to the project and professional development.
Completion of a Project: Each fellow has
identified a year-long project that seeks to explore how the arts can
contribute to community development goals in their community.
Professional Development: In addition to
the project, fellows have outlined a set of meetings, phone calls, and other
connection opportunities to meet key people in the fields of arts and community
development and to explore career opportunities.
Documentation: At the end of the
fellowship, each fellow will be asked to put together a presentation and
product from their project and professional development opportunities that
discuss the learning they have done and the progress they have made. This product will be disseminated by Partners
as a major contribution to the growing field of arts and community development.
