Thoughts on Community Art in Baltimore

This past weekend I went to an open house for MICA's (Maryland Institute College of Art) grad program in Community Art.  I saw some great art, met some incredible people, and heard some inspiring stories.  One metaphor from a graduating student seemed especially relevant to me.  He said in undergrad he was dating art--they were pretty serious, met the parents, moved in with each other, but were still just dating.  Grad school, he said, was like a marriage.  That explains why I couldn't see myself at UPeace, and why I'm still left with the questions I started with:

-How can an artistic and academic institution of this size, caliber, and reputation, reconcile itself with the ground-up, grassroots approach it advocates?  Is this possible for any institution?

-Do I really want/need to go to grad school to do the work I want to do?

The great thing is, I have nothing but time to answer those questions.  And in the meantime, here are some things I took from my tours, sessions, conversations, and from the book of case studies I read afterwards.

Main aspects of their program/things I think are cool:
-30 hour/week "internship" with community organization of students' choice in first year
-Continuing work with the org but greater focus on individual studio practice in second year
-A great network of organizations, especially in Baltimore
-A large percentage of students are hired right out of school by the organization they'd been working with
-A large percentage of them stay in Baltimore
-Learning grant writing and non-profit management
-Focus on consensus building
-Focus on conversation building/dialogue/truly listening to all voices in the community
-Emphasis on cycle of production, documentation, evaluation--collaboratively
-Learning what it means to conduct ethical interviews
-International partnerships (Honduras, Azerbaijan)
-How amazingly welcoming everyone was--felt like a family already
-Thought-provoking conversations with the head of department already

Programs to check out:
-Invite (MICA's exhibition featuring small businesses from the surrounding arts district)
-Breadboard (nonprofit Phila)
-Design Philadelphia
-Hands On Gulf Coast
-Ohr-Okeefe Museum AmbassadOHRs program (Biloxi)
-Baltimore United Viewfinders
-Youth Dreamers
-Baltimore Clay Works
-Luminous Intervention
-House of Ruth
-New Lens Productions
-Community Arts Journal (inactive)
-Community Arts Network (inactive)
-OYE (Org for Youth Empowerment, Honduras)
-The Book Thing (a warehouse of free books in BMore--how did this happen?!)
-Baltimore Free School

Fellowships/Sholarships to check out:
-OSI (Open Society Institute)
-Robert W Deutsch Foundation
-PNC Transformative Art Grant
-PNC Open Walls Project
-Jack Kent Cooke Grants




Incidentally, I saw this pedicab on a studio tour.  She gives rides anywhere for free--but the catch is you have to tell her a story.  Hooray for oral histories!