What’s the Point? CRAVE and Arts Based Community Engagement Projects

Whenever I gush about our latest CRAVE event people smile and are excited with me but there are always questions to go along with it; good questions that speak to what this is all about. Questions like: “How exactly does funding art help build community?” “What’s in it for you?” “What’s the big deal with funding artists anyway? Aren’t there tons of grants for them?” “And besides, what if the person I voted for doesn’t ‘win?'”

I mean, it’s cool and all to get a bunch of people together for a meal and hear about some neat art projects. It’s actually impressive that we raise so much money in one night. And it’s a pretty unique experience to hand all of that money over to an artist at the end of the event. But, why act like its such a big deal? Like we actually accomplished something and contributed something positive to the greater community?

I think these are fair questions but they highlight the misconception that the point of CRAVE is to “win” money.

For those of us who adapted the Sunday Soup model of micro-granting dinners for the DMV it has been about much more than that. CRAVE was born out of a conversation and a mutual desire between the Torpedo Factory Arts Center and the Convergence Arts Initiative to find ways to engage new people in the funding and support of the arts. It’s not really about who gets the money. It’s about who is giving the money. We wanted to turn the idea of who a patron is on its head.

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Suddenly, arts patrons in Alexandria aren’t just people with thousands of dollars to contribute and those who control grant money aren’t necessarily in positions of power. At CRAVE our patrons are a ten year old girl who loves crafts and playing dress up, a 70+ year old former engineer who has little to no experience in the arts but is deeply connected to his community, a 20 something man who was looking for something interesting to do on a Sunday night and a 52 year old woman who came wanting to be inspired to complete her own artistic project and thinks she just might submit a proposal next time around. And these new patrons are making educated decisions. The event itself challenges the community to ask good questions about arts funding and results in thoughtfully considered grant awards.

The magic of CRAVE happens after the proposals have been presented, once the food is on the table and before the votes are cast…

People start to talk. About art. About what is valuable about art.

Maybe most people aren’t aware that’s what they are doing. They are simply talking about which projects they prefer and why. But, it’s that conversation that can transform a community. Weighing the pros and cons between two projects we love helps us clarify our values. “Is it more important for the project to reach a wider group within the community or have a deep impact on a smaller concentrated group?” “What is the artistic merit of the project and will it really accomplish what the artist hopes?” “I think this project is a cool idea but I came to support my friend’s project. What do I do?” We spend time thinking about what is important to us and then talk with strangers and neighbors about our shared and differing values often shifting our own perspectives in the process.

And hopefully, each artist leaves at the end of the night with the sense that what they proposed is a good idea; is truly worth pursuing even if they don’t leave with check in hand. There has never been a CRAVE where each proposal didn’t receive a hefty chunk of votes. And we are all (arts organizations and individuals alike) left with the question at the end of the night; “What could I do to help get that project off the ground? The one that didn’t get the grant but has gotten under my skin. The one I had no idea about before tonight but now I can’t stop thinking could make a real impact in the community. What can I do?” And hopefully, we all leave with the understanding that we can do a lot (through the arts and for our community) – even with only $15 and a great conversation.