About the Author

Arlene Goldbard is a New Mexico–based writer, visual artist, speaker, consultant, and cultural activist. She is the author of multiple papers, reports, and books, including New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, and her essays have appeared in Art in America, The Independent, High Performance, and Tikkun. She is Chief Policy Wonk Emerita of the US Department of Arts and Culture and was one of 2015’s “fifty most powerful and influential people in the nonprofit arts.” She is a 2019 recipient of the Randy Martin Spirit Award from Imagining America. Goldbard cohosts the podcast, A Culture of Possibility, with Francois Matarasso.

Reviews

""It is an impressive feat that Goldbard achieves in this book, giving the reader such an appreciation and understanding of this concept that one is left wondering why community cultural development isn't something that is an essential part of all our lives. Goldbard equates it with with universal education and the provision of emergency health care. After reading the passionate and convincing arguments laid out by Goldbard, it is hard to disagree.""
*re: place magazine*

""Arlene Goldbard is one of those writers who not only writes about culture--she lives culture. She manages both to persuade us about her research but also convince us about the importance of community cultural development, which is why her latest book should be read not only by those interested in community cultural development but moreover by those who still need to learn and understand why is it so important.""
*Culturelink Network*

""Goldbard gathers [remarkable stories] to show how arts projects can restore the spirit and animate the hopes of struggling communities. But more than just inspiring us, she offers a wealth of details about how this work is conceived and carried out, which is invaluable to anyone wanting to see something similar happen in their own town or neighborhood.""
*PUBLIC ART REVIEW, VOL. 19 NO. 2, ISSUE 38*

""At first glance, Alene Goldbard's book, New Creative Community--The Art of Cultural Development, seems tangential to mainstream community development, but that's far from the case as this work is based on strong values and principles... values and principles that are harmonious with community development.""
*Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society*