Arts Build Communities is a new initiative led by Rutgers University’s Professional Development Institute to help public agencies, nonprofit organizations, funders and policy makers make better choices regarding arts and community and economic development.  Key activities include training and technical assistance for those involved in arts and community-based economic development and an annual Cultural Vitality Index of New Jersey’s communities.  This index will be a “one-stop shop” that funders, elected and appointed officials, organizational directors and their representatives can use to help make cost-effective about community and economic development initiatives involving arts and culture.

Keystone partners in this initiative are Rutgers University's Center for Government Services, the ArtPride New Jersey Foundation, Center for the Arts, Fund for an Open Society, Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the New Jersey League of Municipalities.

In July 2008, the Professional Development Institute, which is part of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, received an award of $20,000 from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to begin the project. 

Through our work, mayors, business administrators, planners, nonprofit organization directors and community leaders will have knowledge about the connection between arts and community well-being to make better and more cost-effective decisions. Among the biggest beneficiaries of this initiative will be New Jersey's artists. As more civic leaders and officials recognize the benefits of the arts in their communities and economies, the work of artists will become more valued - by officials and by a wider variety of funders.

The mission of Arts Build Communities is to:

Enhance community development through the arts

• Raise the awareness of public officials and art organizations of arts and community well-being
• Build stronger communities through the arts
• Promote the use of arts-based prevention strategies to building stronger communities
• Help communities know how to use the arts to build multiracial and multiethnic participation in leadership

Enhance economic development through the arts

• Identify and increase the multiplier effect of arts
• Reduce unnecessary competition and increase collaboration among communities that support arts

Enhance the value of arts in local planning and development efforts

• Increase the use of cultural planning by officials
• Connect arts to municipal goals
• Build community participation in the arts
• Demonstrate the value of arts to community and economic well-being

Support arts in New Jersey

• Increase the public’s perceived value of the arts
• Increase local investments in the arts

Develop leaders for all of the above goals

Our priorities for 2009 are:

• Raise awareness of ABC with elected and appointed officials
• Promote more cultural planning
• Connect arts with municipal and county goals

Projected ABC activities include:

• Annual Cultural Vitality Index of New Jersey's communities. Similar to the Legislative District Data Book produced by Rutgers University's Center for Government Services, the Cultural Vitality Index will measure indicators of cultural development and planning in the state's 566 municipalities and 21 counties. We will also produce an annual report assessing cultural development trends and conditions, as well as identifying model practices in New Jersey. Policymakers and planners will be able to use the Index and report to assess the cultural health of their communities and to explore improvements in their policy making and planning.
• Training and development in cultural planning and policymaking.

ABC is managed by the Professional Development Institute (PDI) of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. PDI works to develop leaders for planning and public affairs in the 21st century and specializes in providing high quality training and development.