A Toolbox for Strengthening the ARTS and Cultural Development is the third statewide convening sponsored by CCC&T and the ICR to provide professional development for artists and arts organizations. The conference is scheduled for Saturday, January 29, 2005, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm at Western Connecticut State University-Student Center (Midwest Campus). Admission is free and open to all Connecticut artists and arts administrators-visual, performing, literary--dance, musicians, painters, poets, actors, arts presenting and service organizations, educators, community leaders- anyone working or volunteering in the arts. Danbury's Mayor Mark Boughton will open the convening.

Themes to be covered throughout include: Expanding the Roles and Opportunities of Artists, Enhancing Community and Cultural Development and Promoting Economic Development. Presenters will share strategies and techniques for addressing common concerns related to developing and strengthening artists and communities. "Artists need to become savvy about seeking out innovative opportunities to market themselves to schools, social services, mainstream arts institutions, community-based organizations, and yes, corporations. They especially need to do so in today's economic and social climate. This conference will offer workshops and panels on how they can expand, increase and diversify their programs and creative talents in order to access certain audiences and funders," says program director, Maryland Grier. Attendees will participate in discussions, hands-on workshops, and take home ideas for immediate application.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS-- The Role of the Artists and Arts Organizations: Community, Culture, Economic Development will be presented by Diane Walker Kuhne, President, Walker International Communications Group. Walker-Kuhne is an international speaker, trainer, professor, lawyer, dancer, and author of Invitation to the Party: Building Bridges to Arts, Culture and Community. Her clients include: The
Dance Theatre of Harlem, Sony Music, WNYC Radio, and the Arts and Business Council. She is a recipient STATEWIDE ARTS CONVENING of the Ford Foundation's "2001 Leadership for a Changing World Fellowship," and included in Theater Magazine's "Top 50 Faces Who'll Be Forces in the Theater's Future."

KEYNOTE PANEL, Creating Roles for Artists in Connecticut's Arts, Historic Preservation, Film and Tourism will feature the four Divisions within The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and will be facilitated by Deborah Simmons, visual and performing artist, arts educator, UAI Hartford Coordinator and music director, Manchester Community College. These panelists will highlight opportunities within their agencies for artists and will discuss potential collaborations with arts organizations.

SAMPLING OF PRESENTERS--Lynne Williamson, Folklorist and Director, Connecticut Cultural Heritage Program based at the ICR regular in traditional folk arts programs. Williamson has worked with and promoted over 80 cultural and ethnic groups in CT; Harry Seifter, President, Seifter Associates, a full-service international consulting firm based in NY, with an affiliated office in Berlin, and Executive/Artistic Director of Flushing Town Hall, (a center for the visual and performing arts); Victor Pacheco, activist/visual artist (painter, muralist and sculptor) and Prevention Research Educator of the Youth Action Research Institute (ICR), works with young people engaging them in arts-based projects through participatory action research. Rasmo Moses is a performing artist, poet, musician, uses performing arts and education for social change and youth development. He currently runs the Pink & Blue Project and ran theatre-based projects in the Caribbean and the San Francisco Bay Area, and Amy Holman, literary consultant, poet and prose writer, has contributed to The Practical Writer and Making the Perfect Pitch.

ABOUT THE TOOLBOX SERIES -- These statewide "Toolbox" convenings are designed as participatory conferences for emerging to mid-career artists, arts organizations, and community based or other organizations that conduct arts programming. The conference was created as a service in response to the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and The Institute for Community Research's plan to address the needs of all Connecticut artists, particularly individual artists and arts organizations that have limited resources and little access to training and presentation opportunities

For a conference brochure, go to www.incommunityresearch.org/news/news.htm or call Maryland Grier at 860-278-2044, x228 or Colleen L. Coleman at 860-278-2044, x310. Snow Date: Saturday, February 14th.

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The Urban Artists Initiative is a program of the Connecticut Commission on the Culture and Tourism in partnership with The Institute for Community Research. The program was designed to address the unique needs of emerging artists and organizations that produce or present cultural events. lose to 300 artists and arts organizations from ten Connecticut cities have been completed the Urban Artists Initiative's three-year professional development training, which also includes grants, mentors, and presentation opportunities. The Urban Artists Initiative is funded by CCATCHF and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has received additional grant support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and the Waterbury Foundation.

The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism is a state agency, which supports artistic excellence and fosters cultural development through the arts and works to increase public understanding of, participation in, and support of the arts in Connecticut. The Institute for Community Research is an independent non-profit research organization with expertise in fieldwork, training and program administration in multicultural urban and nontraditional settings. The ICR promotes dialogue about the diversity of cultures, community issues and art forms found in Connecticut and New England.