In terms of increased awareness of the connections between art and community building, surveyed residents and focus group participants spoke to the importance of artists as facilitating community building, particularly by creating opportunities for different people to meet and foster relationships. One survey respondent said, for instance: I drive by PH+T every morning and see community members of all different backgrounds, all different races, and cultures attending programs, and there are children outside, and there are art establishments in our community that bring people together that maybe wouldn’t otherwise be connected. Focus group participant Mike Stebnitz articulated how he, personally, understood the connections between art and community building. Though not formally an AOC or Art Blocks project, the community mural painting event he offered as an example, Greta McLain’s Green Central Mural, took place at the PH+T Wish Well: Youth from PH+T’s summer arts camp practice stilting on the sidewalk in front of PH+T.
It forced you, gently as only the arts can do, gently to a table where you were doing something not so mentally intense, and it encouraged conversation with the other folks at the table…I saw people scratching the surface, bridging culture, language, getting to know our neighbors, and how beautifully that happened, and it created this beautiful mural that we now see every day. However, we observed no discernable pattern of difference between respondents living on Art Blocks or blocks with AOC activities and the quasi-control group. Therefore we are unable to attribute this understanding specifically to PH+T’s creative community development projects. Artists, who are themselves neighborhood residents, did modestly demonstrate increased awareness of the connections between art and community building. For instance, Art Blocks artist Xavier Tavera wrote, “the project has helped me to think about…how this audience is part of a vibrant community that understands the value of art.” In a related vein, AOC artist HOTTEA wrote, “Hopefully our project inspires people to use artwork to change their community in a positive way.” And AOC artist Stephanie Morris wrote that she now gets arts-based community development “in a much more tangible way than before. Bring it on! I am all for it.”
Available data indicated that AOC and Art Blocks helped advance PH+T’s access-related goals.
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In conclusion, available data indicated that AOC and Art Blocks helped advance PH+T’s access-related goals, though evidence for some facets of this goal was more modest. In terms of providing ample opportunities for creative expression, the residents’ survey, qualitative findings from the event participant survey, and focus group data suggest that residents took notice of the volume of activity that these projects produced. Respondents living on Art Blocks or blocks with AOC activities, for instance, were 1.5 times more likely to rate their neighborhood as good or excellent in terms of opportunities for creative expression. We found more modest evidence that the projects removed barriers to residents’ arts participation and made them feel welcome. Artist reflections did illuminate a variety of ways that they strove to increase access. Respondents from both quasi-control and Art Blocks and blocks with AOC activities indicated that they felt welcome at PH+T art offerings with high percentages. Lack of substantial difference means that we cannot infer that AOC or Art Blocks led residents to feel more welcome, but thankfully, PH+T does seem to have a pre-existing reputation as an accessible neighborhood arts organization. Similarly, focus group and qualitative survey data indicated