Downside UP: How art can change the spirit of a place

How does a dying working class town end up betting its future on art? With 80% of its downtown buildings closed, North Adams, Massachusetts united blue-collar locals with art world luminaries to transform economic failure into America's largest center for contemporary art, MASS MoCA. A film by North Adams native, Nancy Kelly, DOWNSIDE UP is about the tentative, dangerous notion of hope in a city widely viewed as hopeless.





	Click above to explore some communities whose artistic impulses are squarely in the social realm. Here are some examples of communities who are working with youth, housing, community-building, public space, and developing capital for the common creative good. This presentation requires Flash 5. Click here to download this free plug-in.

A new Request for Proposals was issued on April 21 by the Ford Foundation for planning grants in this intersection of fields. THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED.

Click here to download the Planning Grant RFP. It is an Adobe Acrobat file.

Click here to download the new "Downside UP" Final Report (also a .pdf)!

“Downside UP” is continuing our effort to making available free tapes and support for local work around historic preservation and the arts (one set per state, first come, first served). Contact Nancy Kelly: nkmomlode@earthlink.net