By Kevin Bott, Associate Director, Imagining America

My experience each year at IA’s national conference leaves me pondering many of the questions with which we here in the national office are engaged throughout the year. Following the recent Twin Cities conference, my thoughts had primarily to do with what it means to assert an organizational identity that in addition to the longstanding emphasis on research and professional development now includes “organizing” around public scholarship and civic engagement. What does it mean to be a consortium of colleges and universities that takes seriously the need to include voices and perspectives from beyond higher education in our thoughts and actions? Among other things, I was particularly struck by my conversations with IA’s first cohort of undergraduate fellows, who so strongly resonated with IA’s work.

Planning and preparation for the 2012 national conference in New York City is already in full swing. Over the next several months, I’ll use this blog space to share some brief reflections about the Twin Cities event and prime the pump for NYC 2012. (more…)

By Timothy K. Eatman, Director of Research, Imagining America, and Assistant Professor, School of Education, Syracuse University

Imagining America is part of the American Commonwealth Partnership, which in January 2012 is initiating a year of advocacy and activity under the banner, “For Democracy’s Future – Reclaiming Our Civic Mission.” In collaboration with the White House Office of Public Engagement, U.S. Department of Education, and Association of American Colleges and Universities, the American Commonwealth Partnership is a broad alliance of numerous higher education, civic, and business groups. Syracuse University Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor is co-chair of the American Commonwealth Partnership’s Presidential Council. Other participants include American Democracy Project, The Democracy Commitment, NERCHE, National Conference on Citizenship, Campus Compact, Anchor Institutions Task Force, and more. The effort is coordinated by Harry Boyte, director of Augsburg’s Center for Democracy and Citizenship and senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute.

The upcoming 150^th anniversary of the Morrill Act signed by President Lincoln in 1862 provides the historic occasion to convene the American Commonwealth Partnership. (more…)

Today begins a dynamic online Forum on Equity in Arts Funding, hosted by Grantmakers in the Arts, which aims to expand the dialogue around funding equity in the arts and to encourage a response to the systemic issues of equity identified during sessions at the recent GIA national conference and in Fusing Arts, Culture, and Social Change, a 2011 report published by the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy.

Beginning December 6, new blogs will be posted and announced daily. The Forum will run through December 16 and the discussion is open to all who wish to participate. Bloggers represent a cross section of the country’s arts funding, service, and equity thought leaders. (more…)

By Micah Salkind, Doctoral Student in American Studies, and Co-Principal Investigator, Imagining America’s Art, Culture and Community Development Collaboratory

After several virtual brainstorming sessions, Imagining America’s Art, Culture and Community Development Collaboratory convened at IA’s 2011 national conference in Minneapolis. The Collaboratory’s goal is to create a shared vision for mapping, assessing, and supporting the various community cultural development work of IA member institutions. At this roundtable meeting open to all conference attendees, we heard from a variety of artists, scholars, and community partners, and discussed synergistic research themes with other IA initiatives, such as the Community Knowledge Collaboratory and Integrated Assessment Initiative.

In the next year, the Collaboratory will ground its efforts in the context of New Orleans (NOLA). (more…)

The New York Council for the Humanities has put together resources to assist interested organizations and individuals in having meaningful discussions about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, for the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. (more…)