Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

My vision for my community is that within the next five to ten years this rural community that has suffered the effects of rural decline will have been revitalized, moving forward to a new-age version of its previous state of economic, cultural, and ecological sustainability. More specifically, I want to see Millheim become a lively, empowered and engaged community with an active appreciation of and participation in the arts as an integral part of life.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

The root problem of my community is rural decline, structurally and historically a result of a rise of large corporations and large agricultural production putting small farmers and small businesses out of business and turning my community into a no-longer-sustainable environment of a few struggling farmers and businessmen and a majority of a commuter population (commuting to state college and other towns that are more expensive to live in but are the location of both a source of income and employment and a place to spend money). So the trunk-level effects of this root problem are lack of employment opportunities, an aging population as youth leave the area, lack of active downtown environment with recreational activities, lack of sense of pride and community, lack of understanding and intergenerational communication.

What communities will you work with?

• Local community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Create a forum for intergenerational and cross-demographic communication and to facilitate the creation of a collaborative community vision.
• A series of idea-building community meetings that will involve between 30 and 50 community members, depending on meeting turnout.
• A mural design that reflects the community visioning process that will be voted on by community members and approved by involved organizations, including supporting nonprofit organizations and the local Borough Council, the Planning Commission, and the Historical Architecture Review Board.
• A series of actual painting workshops that will involve more than 100 people from a variety of local groups and organizations.
• Goal 2: Increase interest in the arts and enhance the arts culture in Millheim; increase civic engagement.
• A downtown mural that the whole community can take pride in which also adds physical beautification and visual interest to the downtown landscape that the 700 residents of the borough can enjoy as well as those in the more than 6,000 vehicles that will drive by it every day.
• Positive publicity for Milheim's art culture, contributing in a small way to stimulating the downtown economy and increasing tourism by creating a cultural attraction.
• A community event celebrating the mural's creation that will also serve as an opportunity for a nonpartisan voter registration drive.
• Goal 3: Provide avenues for more progressive community arts projects to take place.
• Leave a plan for three more murals to be created on the other corners of the main intersection.
• Teach my most involved volunteers this technique for collaborative community murals. (I will be working most closely with high school students and local artists.)
• Make myself available for an indefinite period of time as an information resource and community art consultant to the Millheim community and YP4 community.
• Create a simple and easy to use how-to booklet on community mural organizing and techniques that can be distributed to Millheim, YP4, and other community art initiatives.

What is your primary approach? Idea Creation

Why did you choose this approach?

I chose this approach both because I am a artist and muralist, so this is where my personal skills and interests lie, and because I think that the arts are a powerful tool for empowerment, mobilization, and expression of visions and values.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

Organizing, in the sense that the project involves organizing a lot of people and I have the advantage of already having a 14-year relationship with this community, and capacity building and leadership development in the sense that I hope to leave the project having discovered and empowered potential leaders for future community arts projects.

What will your tactics and activities be?

My activity is the creation of a community mural. This involves getting input from as many people as possible about what it is about their community that they want to celebrate, what they want to change, and what their vision is for the community. Then this information will be narrowed down and transformed into a visual design that will be chosen using a democratic process that involves as much of the community as possible. Once the design is solidified, the painting technique will be done by myself and a team of core volunteers who have the artistic skills and interest to be involved in this part of the process, turning the design into a gigantic paint-by-number. Then I will involve community groups and members of all ages in the painting of the mural in a series of painting workshops.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

My community mural project will get community members involved in a collaborative art project that will stimulate interest in the arts, pride in the community, and empowerment to participate in other community improvement efforts. By providing an opportunity for community members to speak their visions for the town, to share and hear each other's ideas, I hope that some connections and networking may happen between people with similar visions. The final mural will be a small physical transformation of the downtown to a more artistic, engaged and vital atmosphere that will serve as a reminder of the visions discussed in the mural creation process. The community engagement and painting process will also provide an activity for people of all ages to be involved in their community in a constructive and fun way, creating a casual context for relationships and community pride to be built. Lastly, the physical mural and the publicity that it will receive will bring a small amount of sorely needed economic stimulation to the downtown as it encourages outside populations to visit or at least stop by when passing through to check out the town and perhaps frequent one of the local businesses.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

Organizing people, grant writing and fundraising, facilitating productive and open dialogues about issues surrounding my community and visions for its future, and logistical organizing skills (such as keeping detailed budgets, creating sponsorship packages, designing posters and letters and brochures, and collaborating with a nonprofit in order to be able to collect large donations).