Imaginings are vibrant, arts-infused gatherings in which a community envisions its ideal future and identifies creative tactics to get there.

Part performance, part facilitated dialogue, part celebration, Imaginings bring together a diverse groups of artists, organizers, and community members to imagine what their neighborhoods (and the world) might look like in 20 years, when art’s transformative power has been fully integrated into all aspects of public life.

How might the face of education, environmental protection, health care, community development and other essential social goods change when the USDAC’s Statement of Values is fully embedded in society? And, what will it take to get there? The ideas, images, and visions generated during Imaginings are documented and fed back to inform the USDAC’s emerging national story and strategy.

A pilot round of Imaginings was held by the founding cohort of Cultural Agents in summer 2014. A second cohort hosted events across the country in the spring and summer of 2015. Third cohort Imaginings span spring and fall 2016.

Be sure to enlist as a Citizen Artist to find out when Imaginings are happening near you!

2015 IMAGININGS:

• Fort Lauderdale, FL — May 9
•  Harrisonburg, VA — May 23
• Philadelphia, PA — May 31
• New York City, NY — June 2
• Boston, MA — June 6
• Decatur, GA — June 6
• Miami, FL — June 6
• St. Louis, MO — June 8
• Stockton, CA — June 13
• New Orleans, LA — June 13
• Chicago, IL — June 14
• Baltimore, MD — June 20
• Cleveland, OH — June 20
• Passaic, NJ – TBD
• Seattle, WA — TBD
• Atlanta, GA — TBD

Click on the map above for event details as they roll in! 

read dispatches from 2014 Imaginings:

Additional 2014 Imaginings were held in: Carrboro, NC -  Cleveland, OH  - Lawrence, KS - St. Croix River Valley, MN - Tucson, AZ.

IMAGININGS IN CONTEXT

Imaginings are one piece of a long-term vision for the USDAC...

The USDAC is like a sandwich: on one side, grassroots organizing to engage and affect local communities in their own conscious cultural development; on the other side, a national vision of truly democratic cultural policy and intervention, fueling that local development and much more. In between, a vibrant national conversation about culture as the container for national and community renewal, about cultivating the imagination and empathy we need to create a future we want to inhabit. 

Nationally, we foresee a range of related initiatives rolling out over time:

• The National Cabinet, a citizen-led policy-oriented leadership group committed to USDAC values to monitor, comment on, and propose alternatives to existing cultural policy and initiatives. In the coming years, the Cabinet will begin to turn the crowd-sourced 2034 visions into concrete policy proposals.
• Videos, publications, social media and other communication initiatives to stimulate and nurture the necessary new national conversation.
• Training initiatives, online dialogues, and other resources for local cultural development  made accessible via the USDAC website.
• Eventually, think-tanks and conferences engaging cabinet members and others who care about culture and democracy in envisaging the best strategic approach to adoption of new cultural policy—to making the USDAC not just a performance, but a reality. 

Locally, we are supporting communities in articulating their own culture needs and envisaging their own futures, linking lived grassroots realities to a national vision and conversation. On the ground, these communities are laboratories for cultural democracy, demonstrating what is possible at the grassroots level. We’re beginning with these Imaginings.