Plains Art Museum, Racing Magpie, and Springboard for the Arts Announce Relaunch of Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI)

CCLI is an intensive, in-person, cohort-based training program with real-world practice for artists, culture bearers, community organizers, community development practitioners, and other leaders seeking to deepen their impact in creative community building.

In 2020, CCLI will host three cohorts, one each in St. Cloud, MN; Fargo, ND; and Rapid City, SD. Cohorts will meet in person three times over five months from spring to fall. This year, the Rapid City, SD cohort will be limited to enrolled tribal members and people who live or work directly in Native communities.

For more information about CCLI, visit creativecommunityinstitute.org.

Applications are due by Monday, March 9, 2020. Find the application here.

Institute Schedule
Each cohort will meet for three intensive weekend sessions over five months. Participants must attend all 3 sessions (in one location), which occur Fridays 2pm-9pm, Saturdays 9am-6pm, and Sundays 9am-2pm:

St Cloud, MN: May 15-17; July 17-19; October 9-11
Fargo, ND: May 29-31; July 31-August 2; September 25-27
Rapid City, SD: June 12-14; August 21-23; October 16-18

Institute Content
CCLI is designed to support and challenge participants to be stronger leaders to make meaningful change that positively impacts community. Institute content during sessions and in-between session work, such as readings or assignments, includes:

• Identity/self-awareness as community member – what are your values, strengths, passions and capacities? Where do you want to grow and expand? What do you have to share and teach others?

• Understanding systems and context – what is the history of a place, who are the people and what are the systems at play? How do we understand them in order to create change that leads to healthy and equitable communities? We offer a critical lens framework to understand and become more adept at challenging systems of oppression.

• Practical tools and techniques in community building such as visioning, group decision-making, communication strategies and conflict management.

• Real-world practice – each participant will receive $500 to plan and implement a micro-project to “try a little something” back home to further their work in community.

• Cross-sector connections – to each other, to CCLI alumni and other leaders in the region, and to the larger field of creative community building.

• Resources – learning materials including guides, toolkits and articles.

Sessions will be led by a team of co-facilitators from the three partner organizations, guest presenters, alumni of CCLI, and site hosts. Alumni of CCLI will be invited to learn and network with the new cohort participants through shared events and activities.

This Institute is free for participants. Some travel and lodging funds are available based on the number of participants requesting support.

CCLI is co-led by Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND), Racing Magpie (Rapid City, SD), and Springboard for the Arts (St. Paul and Fergus Falls, MN). CCLI is made possible through generous support from the Bush Foundation.