Faculty Member Michael Sommers Featured in MN Original

Producing Director Tom Proehl Participates in Creative Community Leadership Institute

New Producing Director Tom Proehl has received a fellowship to participate in The Creative Community Leadership Institute. Sponsored by Intermedia Arts, The Creative Community Leadership Institute provides comprehensive training and support for community-engaged artists, organizers, educators, administrators and developers. Each year 25 leaders from the community development field and the arts/culture field participate in this institute to learn more about the history and ecology of arts-based community development, partnership skills, strategies for sustainability, negotiation and conflict resolution, learning styles, program design and project planning, fund-raising, assessment, public relations and advocacy. The program consist of hands-on learning activities, lectures/discussions, critical readings, site visits, case studies, community interactions, writing assignments, creative engagement with guest artists and other presenters from the field, and a laboratory project in which fellows collaboratively design an arts-based community development program.

This opportunity will help Proehl as he continues to shape and develop the department's Re-imagining Community Arts Partnerships (RiCAP) initiative. RiCAP explores the relationships between the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance and the performing arts community in which it is embedded. It focuses on the importance of creation and production to the department's educational and research mission and training of theatre and dance students--the next generation of artists and arts leaders--and how strong community partnerships could transform that mission.