Creativity and Collaboration for Healthier Cities

As skilled facilitators of collaborative and creative partnerships, artists can uniquely help achieve the goals of local government. This resource is designed to equip and enable local government professionals to better engage and partner with artists, and in so doing, improve community trust, increase transparent communication, and flexibly respond to dynamic community needs. The guide focuses on new ways to collaborate across departments and agencies, bring more resident voices and perspectives to the table, and build new coalitions within government systems and public settings. Arts and culture workers support the outcomes city governments are already working towards to build communities that thrive.

This guide is the product of a 3-year collaboration between the national arts and health initiative, Arts for EveryBody led by One Nation/One Project and the NLC. Stemming from the recognition that our most challenging local problems cannot be solved by one sector alone and the belief that artists can operate as instigating agents for deeper, more effective cross-sector collaboration, Arts for EveryBody brought together a national cohort of cities to work collaboratively across local government, health, and the arts. This resource is for city leaders, those working in local government, advocates for the arts, and artists with a civic practice. It is intended to be a starting point for local governments to partner with artists to work towards equitable outcomes.