When all seems hopeless and your community is collapsing all around you, a simple seed of creativity, when combined with collective effort and determination, can bring about brilliant and beautiful changes to a community.
In this TED Talk, Theaster Gates speaks about his crumpling neighbourhood in Chicago. Unwilling to sit back and watch the world around him decay even further, Gates decided to take a stand. Slowly, through his efforts, he began by bringing a single building back to life and from there, by promoting this art-space and culture into a dying suburb, the community reacted and bigger projects combined to rejuvenate the whole neighbourhood.
There is certainly a strong case to be made regarding the impact of creativity within communities and how promoting culture increases peoples sense of self-worth and respect for the areas in which they live.
Art is creativity and creativity is growth. Surely, for the sake of better neighbourhoods and increased self-worth, we should all be encouraged to engage and work towards a more vibrant and visible artistic presence in our communities?