Community/Artist Partnership Program

2011 C/APP Awards
Alternate ROOTS is excited to announce support amounting to $50,000 to the following collaborations.  Click here to read more about our 2011 funded projects.

The 2011 C/APP round is closed. There is currently no new deadline for C/APP scheduled due to organizational strategic planning.  Check back in early 2012 for new updates.

The staff liaison to C/APP is Carlton Turner.  If you have any questions about C/APP or need assistance with your application, please write to carlton@alternateroots.org.

The Community/Artists Partnership Program (C/APP) was initiated in 1993 to provide artists community training, technical assistance, and project support in the field of community-based arts.  All program activities are meant to foster exemplary and equitable collaborations between artists and the communities they partner with.

The C/APP Program supports partnerships and collaborations for projects that extend or deepen the presence of artists within a community, at home or on the road.  Through these projects, artists work with communities using the arts to highlight community assets or address critical issues; or they partner with communities to convene events that allow for an exchange of information with other artists and community members to take place.  These events may serve as a vehicle for creation of new works, performances, exhibitions, workshops, case studies and other activities that explore the power of art and social change in the process.
 
Aesthetics of Diversity in the New South: People, Place, and Tradition
The Aesthetics of Diversity offers artists a unique opportunity to partner with community-based and non-traditional presenters in an arts exchange focused around an exploration of “people” and its varied meanings in diverse communities. How does living and working in Southern urban and rural communities impact and inform one’s sense of place, what tensions arise or are ameliorated when you add new perspectives, expectations, or differing values when the demographics shift? How do you even define community in the New South? With such an explosion of new people in our region, issues of race and class offer opportunities for artists and cultural workers to explore and hopefully create a bridge of shared experiences that furthers dialogue.

Aesthetics of Diversity in 2011 will explore the impact and dynamics of the changing demographics in the region as viewed through the lens of the myriad people, old and new, transplants and immigrants who are our neighbors. Applicants are urged to think of diversity in the broadest possible sense. This initiative seeks to provide opportunities for first voice experiences for those whose communities are all but invisible. The goal is to build bridges across and among diverse communities and inform discussions such that members of diverse communities have a lens through which to view how they may positively impact change in their community.
 

"I like to think of the partnering process as a dance, a series of movements through which partners learn of each other... They circle each other, watch each other’s movement and play off of each others responses."

- Nayo Watkins

"I am more confident than ever that, as complicated as the questions seem to get, finally the negotiations are simply between the partners, whether between collaborators at the beginning of a project or between artists and audience at the other end. The point of the negotiations is to discover whether we may be of a like mind, whether we can identify and assert our mutual interdependence and whether we can begin creating together."

- Bob Leonard

LET'S START A CONVERSATION!

Resources for Social Change
Facilitator/Mentor

The Community/Artists Partnership Program (C/APP) supports and promotes community-based projects between artist-activists and their community partner(s) by providing resources of information, funds and training. Initiated in 1993, C/APP was one of the first programs in the United States to promote equitable partnerships in arts-based community work. Through the C/APP program, annual C/APP grants are awarded that support and promote community-based residencies by providing resources of information, funds, and training to foster and support collaborations between artists and community-based organizations. C/APP Projects are supported by a Project Mentor to help anchor the project. This Mentor is someone who brings experience working in and with communities, and can bring a wealth of knowledge to the C/APP Project. The Facilitator/Mentor list is intended as a suggested place to begin identifying potential Mentors for your C/APP project. However, you may have someone with your respective community that you know can bring guidance and direction to your project.

The list of facilitators/mentors is available for download below.