Finding Space for Community Arts

Written by Jovana Randjelovic

Written by Jovana Randjelovic

For arts organizations, the absence of a reliable setting can limit work that already has the people and interest required to succeed. In such instances, organizers are left developing the activity while simultaneously navigating where it can be housed, often moving between short-term arrangements or adapting to spaces that were never especially suited to it. Participants, in turn, are repeatedly required to find their way into unfamiliar environments, at the expense of developing a relationship with the place and with the people gathering there.

A recurring space, on the other hand, allows a community to form around a shared environment, creating opportunities for people to recognize one another and feel comfortable in engaging. Luckily, many communities have spaces embedded within them whose existing functions are already inherently linked to fostering community health and wellbeing. Though sometimes obscured at first glance, they nevertheless sit within businesses, institutions, places of worship, or other organizations. Looking more closely at how they are actually being used, and where there may be some additional capacity, can reveal opportunities for creative programming to take place alongside the functions they already support.

This can be especially fruitful as community-based creative work often has a more flexible and piecemeal set of requirements. Depending on the activity, a group may need enough room to gather comfortably, some basic surfaces or seating, and the ability to temporarily adjust how the space is used. Those conditions may already exist in a meeting room, hall, storefront, workplace, or shared facility whose main purpose lies elsewhere.

For the people and organizations that own or operate these spaces, the addition of this type of programming offers an opportunity to contribute through a resource that may already be underutilized. A room that is quiet in the evening, a storefront between uses, or an area within a community-facing organization may be able to support a workshop or recurring gathering. Even periodic access can provide meaningful stability when it is predictable and supported by a clear understanding of how the space will be used.

The Creative Community Impact Association encourages landlords, businesses, institutions, and others with access to potentially suitable spaces to consider how they might participate. Making room for community arts can be a highly rewarding endeavour, giving an existing group the stability to establish itself, sustain work that might otherwise remain precarious, and help carve out the places for gathering that our communities increasingly lack.