Exploring community, Artists & Communities participants examined the common values and experiences that provide people a sense of affinity with their neighborhoods and with each other.

Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Steve Hoffman, Executive Director
Lisa Vande Vegte, Curator of Education
Christen Rennich, Director of Marketing
Danny Tisdale, Multidisciplinary Artist

The Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science sought the many stories, images, and voices of Sioux Falls, South Dakota during its Artists & Communities project with multidisciplinary artist Danny Tisdale. For his part, Tisdale designed residency activities to be "…as accessible as possible, so that it was hard for people to say 'No,' and there was no excuse for why they couldn't come."

Under the theme of Sioux Falls - Past, Present, Future, Tisdale developed an Open Studio program offering sessions in drawing, collage, and photography. Other activities included gathering oral histories, creative writing workshops, and performance art workshops. "I wasn't sure who would be involved…so I wanted to come in to the project with a large theme, using as diverse amounts of media as possible, so as many people as possible could get involved," Tisdale explains. "Where I wasn't proficient, I would bring in local artists to collaborate with me and focus the project…It was a matter of trying to present the experience in as user-friendly a way as possible."

The Open Studio became the centerpiece of the project, with numbers for individual sessions growing from a half-dozen to more than sixty people. Director of Marketing Christen Rennich adds: "The Open Studio was very effective because it became a social thing…We got a lot of media coverage, but it wasn't so much our saying, 'You should come do this,' as it was people going once, then bringing their friends and family next time, so it became, 'I can go to this and feel welcome.' And because the program was ongoing, the word-of-mouth spread, and so it became more of a grassroots community effort."

Opening night for community exhibition.
There was a similar groundswell of support for the media and performance art workshops offered by Tisdale, and work created by community members for the project exhibition proliferated. "Every time we had an activity…we made sure everyone knew about the exhibition. If someone wrote a poem, they could send it to us and it would become part of the exhibition," Hoffman says. "By doing an exhibition that included anybody's work from the community, by doing a performance that featured anyone who wanted to participate…we reinforced the idea that Washington Pavilion is hands-on community facility."



Two "Open Studio 2000" workshop participants.
Eventually, over four hundred pieces were submitted for display. "Danny's mantra, something he always told us was, 'Everyone is an artist.' People really responded to that," Vande Vegte declares. "The community show was designed like a quilt, with all of the pieces coming together…with the theme that, 'We're all individuals, but we come together as a community - we're one.'"

Additional samples of "Community" projects are included in the book, Artists & Communities: America Creates for the Millenium.