Chris’ post on arts/culture spending and Creative Capacity got me to thinking a bit about art and community and how we translate the intangible “I laughed, I cried” into not just hearts and minds, but dollars and sense.

Many folks see the arts as an add-on or luxury, peripheral to daily life. But the truth is that arts and culture are essential building blocks in the health of cities, democracies and the fiber of communities. The playwright (and former Czech president) Vaclav Havel has made great note of how arts offer a unique means of connecting us to our common humanity.

That’s what creative capacity is about: amplifying the capital that art and culture produce–a vital core and a quality of life as essential to health and happiness as affordable housing and green, open spaces. When we grow our creative capacity, we grow civically valuable, cultural amenities like cooperation, tolerance, respect, and openess. As political scientist/civic engagement sage Robert Putnam reminds us “arts spaces are, at root, civic spaces.”

In an election year we can all probably appreciate the musings of the Barbican Center’s John Tusa: “[the arts] help citizens to express their needs and to clothe them in memorable forms. They offer a way of expressing ideas and wishes that ordinary politics do not allow. . . Anywhere that neglects the arts shortchanges its people… .”

Moreover creative capacity is about incubating social sustainability and (gulp) family values: what do you want our city to be when your children grow-up? The triple-bottom line tells us that, “Theatre, dance, gallery exhibitions, film, music, poetry, food, festivals, and parades enliven a city. When developed by and for its people, they are a resource and a life force for a community.”

Well, what’s a body to do? Where do we start improving and growing creative capacity in Portland? How can I help?
(Here’s an idea or ten below from our forward-thinking neighbors to the north, the Canadians, courtesy Anne DeGrace and the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council.)

10 things you can do to embrace local culture
1. Buy one piece of local art a year, every year, no matter what. It could be a painting to grace your mantle, one your children will argue over after you’re gone. Or it could be a hand-thrown coffee cup that just makes every cup taste better, somehow. Size doesn’t matter; it’s the principle.

2. Learn one new thing each year. Take a tap class. Spend a weekend at a journal-writing workshop. Attend a demonstration on stained glass, and step up and ask every question you can think of. Then, sign up for the introductory course.

3.Expose yourself. That is, expose yourself to some form of artistic expression that you think you won’t like. Catch the community opera presentation of Figaro. Or, if opera’s your thing, take in an earful of the local grunge group, Spiked and Nasty. Think poetry’s for the birds? Open your ears, and your mind.

4. Give the gift of your community’s artists. This year, make every gift you buy something original: a CD hot-pressed by a local choir; a new book by a local writer; a hand blown glass bauble for the tree; and from the forge next door, a hook to hang a hat on—which, serendipitously, was hand felted down the street.

5.Pass it around. Buy someone else a ticket to something you enjoy. Take a friend along, or just treat someone you appreciate—anonymously. Have you ever bought a ticket to something and then been unable to attend? Don’t ask for a refund: ask the venue to find a deserving recipient, preferably one who’s broke. Or send two tickets to a youth centre or seniors’ facility. At the event, try to guess who might be there thanks to you.

6.Challenge yourself: pick a good day and try to find as many art-related things to do as you can. Do them all: read the book, write the poem, play the tune, hear the band, watch the dance, applaud the play, go to the gallery. Challenge six other people to do the same.

7. Sing. Learn a song composed by a local musician and sing it: in the shower, in the car, walking down the street. Drive your co-workers crazy. It doesn’t matter that you sound like a wombat in heat. When you go to sleep, dream about it. Now, teach it to someone else.

8.Volunteer: for your local cultural event, for the theatre production, for your arts organization. Sit at the information table, paint the backdrop, take the tickets, do the sound check, carry the chairs, place the podium. Afterwards, help with the cleanup. Then go for a beer with the gang.

9. Join up: there’s an arts organization out there for you. These are the groups that make things happen, so you can buy things, learn about things, expose yourself, give gifts, pass the wealth, challenge yourself, sing like a wombat in heat, and volunteer your time for the fun and friends that it brings. Find it. Make it yours.

10. Pass this list along to as many people as you can.