Asset Based Exercise: “Being a Creative City” – Goldin Fellowship
Goldin Fellowship
I had the great honor of being selected as a Global Goldin Fellow this year. My friend, John Zeigler, works with them and encouraged me to apply. He has been coaching me for several years on ideas I have had for Paducah, Kentucky, the town where I live. Goldin fellows meet weekly on Zoom and work through a curriculum on a platform called “Gather”. We are all working on community projects and this curriculum trains us to see things in a new way, one focused on our assets and not on our deficiencies. I am the oldest one in the group and the only American. We are from Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe, twenty in total.
Most of the Fellows have projects that are already in existence and they are trying to strengthen them. Several live in conflict zones and are focused on peace building, while others are working on sustainability education, aging, access to menstrual pads, and various disability accessibility issues. It has been fascinating to get to know them and to learn about their countries, the environments they live in and what they hope to accomplish.
You can learn more about each Fellow on this page. Click on their photo and you will see a short bio and links. I almost felt like I was cheating, that my spot should have been given to a younger person, but they have all been so supportive and kind! Getting to know them has given me great hope for the future, for peace, for climate change solutions, and for equity around the world.
2024-Goldin Global Fellows
Goldin also has a Chicago Fellowship that focuses on Peace Initiatives there. That is so special to me since I lived there for 20 years. We had a joint Zoom meeting and were assigned partners to interview. I got Jason Maldonado who works with “returned citizens”, the term used for people who have been released from prison. I wrote a post about it here.
Goldin uses Asset Based Community Development as the spring board for their curriculum. I have been following the Creative Cities movement in the US for several years and bought a study guide that has exercises to help you work through things and get them into a coherent vision. As I was looking at the guide, I realized that they also used the ABCD model for their training. I was thrilled!
While most of the others have had clear visions of what they want to do, I have felt unmoored by what swirls around in my head. My problem is that I am interested in too many things! I started out with a vague idea of wanting to integrate my online life with my local community. I already live in a Unesco Creative City and we have many, many assets! But, how could my unique experiences add to that? I’ve worked with the handmade community for over 30 years, grew up in Brazil, lived in inner city Chicago, speak Portuguese and Spanish and have many other skills. I have assets! Gresë Sermaxhaj, a 2023 Goldin Fellow, now works as Communications Expert for Goldin and wrote this article about me:
Goldin Article about Rachel Biel – Using Waste through Activism and Art
I run a wonderful international collective, Artizan Made. The main focus is on creating a destination that will direct potential customers over to the member sites. We have 50 members right now and they are fair traders, studio artists and ethical vintage dealers. They all sell meaningful products that require trained skills found in functional high craft: quilting, eco-fashion, weaving, metal working, ceramics, glass blowing and more! I realized a couple of years ago that I see the potential of Artizan Made serving a local capacity, too, and am looking at ways that our members can connect with people here in a meaningful way.
Local product development could happen with Artizan Made serving as a test ground for emerging makers. I am distressed about the amount of garbage we humans have inflicted on this planet. I launched the Artizan ReMade Group earlier this year to try to address some of the issues around this. We have a group on Facebook and invite others to join in! Artists have the capacity to gather waste and use it as a valuable material instead of letting it head to the dumpster. For example, Paducah does not recycle glass. There are many products we could create from it, both gift items and construction materials, that would employ people and generate economic development. A talented member on Artizan Made is a Tennessee glass blower, Thomas Spake, who lives four hours away and could guide us in that direction if we found people who are interested.
Thomas Spake Studio – Blown Glass Art – green cascade
Another idea is to start a Maker Space here in Paducah. I’ve started saving examples on our Pinterest board. Many Maker Spaces have come up with great ways to involve the community with events that use the waste collected: fashion shows, classes, exhibits and more.
The Gather exercises are helping me shape this vision, both by collecting data and by imagining how my experience can serve as an asset in helping create new opportunities, both online and locally.
Asset Map
One of our big assignments involved creating an “asset map”, something that would illustrate how we see our assets in our local community. I made this graphic:
Paducah Asset Map – Unesco Creative City
We are a river city, the great Ohio River. At the top, I have a few words that describe a few key assets we have besides that: Nature, Crossroads, and Health Care. We are in the middle of a triangle of big cities: Nashville, St. Louis and Memphis. People who don’t want to deal with the traffic and craziness of those places come to us for almost everything, including art, shopping, and entertainment. I grabbed just a few of the artsy businesses we have in our Downtown area. There are many more! At the bottom, I have my assets, Artizan Made and the Green Roof International House, where I live.
One of the challenges that I have found is that the people involved in these creative assets are overburdened with their projects and most of us don’t really know what the other is doing. Sure, we have social media and events pop up that way, but there isn’t any coordinated way of supporting each other. I would love to see monthly meetings happen where representatives of the orgs and projects could give updates on what is happening and what they need.
Another issue is how to include the city at large in what is happening. The downtown businesses can be perceived by low income people and people of color as unwelcoming, although there have been concerted efforts to change that. We should be able to figure out better ways of communicating and gathering!
Asset Based Community Exercise
The Goldin Gather curriculum assumes that we already have a team in place. I don’t. I have been here for 20 years and have tried asking other artists if they would be interested in any of my ideas and so far I haven’t gotten much support. So, I decided to do a community survey and see if anything would emerge from that. I focused on being positive, on the assets, something that can be hard for me as I am really stressed out about the environment and politics right now. Still, this was REALLY fun and interesting for me.
I interviewed 10 people and would like to do another 50. Half of the people I knew, even if only superficially and the other half I had never met. I have a physical challenge that limits me, osteoarthritis, a painful condition that makes it hard to bop around. I do have good days and bad days, so was thrilled to get these first ones. It was so interesting because the answers were thoughtful and unexpected.
First, I asked the person if they considered themselves a “creative”. If they said “yes”, I asked if they would mind doing a quick survey. I had a series of words at the top of the page and asked participants to circle three that jumped out at them. This is actually rather deceptive as I find that creative people will probably engage and enjoy most of these as a part of their lifestyle. “Cultural” got the most votes which surprised me, as that can be a vague concept. We do have all of these “cultural wars” going on here in the US, but these responses had a positive view of the word. The written answers follow below, but this exercise generated a lot of open discussion that people engaged with eagerly.
I was surprised that nobody circled Film or Theater as we have excellent assets in these areas. My biggies, Global and Upcycle also got zero votes. But, ten people is not a big sampling, so there is still hope. 🙂
I made the responses anonymous but do have a few photos that I can post here. I thank them for their participation!
Circle the three words that jump out at you and make you the happiest. Why do they make you happy?
Art 6 | Global | Dance 1 | Diverse 2 | Upcycle | Garden 2 | Theater | Music 3 | Film | Mural 1 | Food 2 | Sustainable 1 | Creative 4 | Cultural 7 | Poetry | History | Literature 1 | Craft
- All music has been therapeutic my entire life. Art has changed for me over the years in subject matter. Studying culture has made me think about the world in a very different way.
- I am a creative individual, as a working illustrator, and care about art and culture in my community. I also think being creative is a wonderful way of being expressive. I also, as an LGBT individual, care about a strong sense of culture within my community and where I live.
- I work around art daily. Food brings everyone together and I love learning about other cultures.
- Love 80’s music, dance when nobody’s watching, and sing when mowing.
- I love to grow things, to read and to write. I love culture and a “sense of place”.
- Art has been my passion since an early age. I studied it and made it my career. I love to be creative in many mediums. I often seek out others who come from different cultures.
- I’m an artist – It’s the most important thing to me whether I am actively participating or not. Just thinking about or seeing art makes me happy.
- These are things I have a passion for. (art, garden, music)
- diverse, sustainable, cultural
- Dance is a form of expression. Food is a way of showing love. Culture is a sense of home.
Will Brandon – Yeiser Art Center
Do you have a really good memory about a time when one or more of these made a big impact on you?
- In difficult times, like divorce, music has given me some comfort.
- Yes. Paducah Pride Festival 2022. I did not live in Paducah at the time (I was living in Destin, Florida) and I came to visit for the festival. The sense of community and pride and the amount of fun I had literally made me search for real estate to move while on my trip.
- I spent two years at an international-focused college and spent more time with people of other cultures than I did my own.
- Increasing my outlook on others when I began working with HIV positive individuals.
- Gardening with my Grandfather in West Kentucky are some of my favorite memories.
- Yes – I made friends with a Taiwanese family and they invited me to Taiwan for three weeks.
- Most of my impactful memories have a lot to do with art and travel.
- Art – Loving and doing art since I was a child.
- Yes. Geography is artistically scientific and vice versa.
- Culture. When I moved and realized how different things could be.
Nikki May, Ruth Baggett, Jason Lindblad and Jeff Joyce at Etcetera
Are you involved in making any of these happen? Why or why not?
- Art. Photography has been more important to me in the last year and a half. Both black and white and color, exploring architectural lines, textures, etc.
- Yes. I currently work as an illustrator here in Paducah. I also serve on the Yeiser Center Executive Board and assist in curating the art gallery at Hotel 57.
- I have worked on many UNESCO related projects, so yes.
- Education at my work.
- On a personal level, perhaps not in an organized one.
- Yes- I am involved in all of these interests. Most currently, with the platform “COMMUNITY Paducah”.
- I’m an artist. I make art all the time and even if I am not making art physically, I’m creating in my head.
- Yes. I still dabble in art when I have time.
- Yes. Because the Earth is the place where our kids should live.
- Food. I try to keep a taste of home.
Lea Wentworth and Amanda Quint at McCracken County Library
We are a Unesco Creative City and have had some wonderful exchanges with other countries. Would you enjoy using zoom to meet new people from around the world?
- yes
- Sure. I have lived in Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham and Destin. I’ve traveled to Europe, so I have experience with other peoples and cultures and travels. I also have hosted exchange students previously.
- If time allowed, possibly.
- Maybe
- Possibly
- Yes
- Not really. I spend too much time on zoom for work. I’d be more interested in traveling to meet people around the world.
- Possibly, yes.
- Yes
- Yes
Giselle Lucero at McCracken County Library
What else would make the creative life of our city exciting for you?
- More art based events and festivals.
- It would be nice if the City was a bit more open and inviting for new creatives. Sometimes it feels like an “old club” that you need to break into to be a part of it. Also, sometimes it seems that more contemporary art forms are not as sought after.
- A dedicated month or year to collaborating with a sister UNESCO city.
- Classes and better marketing of learning experiences.
- Local businesses really embracing cultural identity.
- I am busy as it is.
- More public art opportunities, more visiting artists, more communication between local arts organizations.
- More cultural and music events in the area.
- Geography!!
- Diversity
The Summit
Eek! The next big task is holding some kind of a summit. It can actually be any number of people, an opportunity to brainstorm and even eat some pizza! I do have ideas of how I can present this, but need to fine tune it. (This is already overdue! Yikes!) I will report on this on the Artizan Made blog, so sign up there if you would like to get updates.
Five Resources People Use to Build Community
John McKnight was the visionary behind this concept of using assets to strengthen communities. Regretfully, he passed away recently, but we still have videos of his ideas to inspire us.
He lists five resources that most communities already have as assets:
- The principal resource are the Residents, the people who live there and use their gifts and strengths on a daily basis.
- Associations are groups of people who gather together around a goal or interest. They include local clubs, organizations, institutions, businesses, non-profits and government offices.
- The land we step on.
- Entrepreneurship: informal and formal sectors where there is sharing, bartering, trading, exchanging, buying and selling; all happening on a local level.
Do have a listen! He is sweet and gentle:
Feedback
How does all of this resonate with you? Does it spark some interest? I am looking for people who would like to collaborate in many different ways. I cannot take on these ideas that I have, but I would love to brainstorm with people who are looking to improve what we have, make international connections, or start new businesses. Let me know what you think in the comments!
