Community
photo: Stephanie Zollshan — The Berkshire Eagle
Through collaborative partnerships with communities and cultural arts organizations, The Center For Peace Through Culture (CPC) seeks to remove barriers and improve access to the arts and advance a more inclusive cultural reflection within the arts.
Cultivating Ambassadors to the Arts
Since 2019, CPC’s Arts 4 Us program has been connecting Berkshire County communities and cultural arts organizations—fostering a collaborative effort to identify and break down barriers to access and influence a more inclusive cultural mirror within the arts. Through this program, CPC trains individuals to become ambassadors for their own communities, build trust, and generate greater interest in and access to the arts.
Pictured above: CPC Director of Community Engagement, Trudy Manion, accompanying families at Jacobs Pillow through CPC’s Arts 4 Us Ambassador Program.
Supporting Ongoing Engagement
Through our ongoing relationship-building between community members and arts organization leaders, we (collectively) are learning about the needs, wants, expectations, and aspirations throughout the cultural arts ecosystem. Through all of this learning, CPC is actively developing a cultural arts social media hub to optimize access, representation, and public dialogue around cultural events in the Berkshires and environs.
Pictured above: Latinas413 performed a concert of traditional Mexican songs as part of their “Yo Soy Arte” installation at MASS MoCA’s annual Free Day celebration. photo: Stephanie Zollshan — The Berkshire Eagle
CPC’s Arts 4 Us: Activating Cultural Networks Project
We believe engagement in the arts is a vehicle for a peaceful life. We are committed to providing access to the arts and creative expression through our collaboration with arts organizations.
CPC’s 2022 Arts 4 Us initiative, “Activating Cultural Networks” project, creates deep and relevant relationships between arts and cultural organizations in the Berkshires and year-round Berkshire County residents. We do this by training community members, artists, and leaders to become ambassadors on behalf of their communities—to promote, inspire, and connect residents with cultural organizations. The bridge of this ambassador model not only helps remove barriers and provide greater access to community members, over time it also helps cultural organizations learn from communities and improve access and offer better representation within their programs and services.
Please visit this page soon for more detailed updates on this program.
Project Leads
Julie Haagenson | Project Assistant/Ambassador
Laura Cabera | Ambassador, Latinas 413
Mia Shepard | Ambassador, Black Legacy Project
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