CENTER FOR PERFORMANCE AND CIVIC PRACTICE is a national resource for artists and communities working together for

arts-based, community-led transformation


We are a national team of artists who believe that with the right approach, the same tools and capacities that artists use to make art can be utilized to transform systems and improve the impacts of government and community-driven efforts and programs.  

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Announcing New Leadership Circle

After a year-long collective re-design with artist-facilitators from across the United States, CPCP has expanded its leadership model from three core decision makers to a leadership circle of primarily practitioners of color.

Find out more about the leadership circle transition.

Find out who is a part of our leadership circle.

OUR VALUES

What we believe, what moves us.

What we practice and prioritize.

Read more about our values.

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SELECTED PARTNERS

ARTPLACE AMERICA • LISC (LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION) • NASHVILLE'S METROARTS • GOODMAN THEATER • southwest minnesota housing partnership • Arizona state university • art of the rural • the james irvine foundation • alaska state council for the arts • fairmount park conservancy • city of kansas city, mo •   americans for the arts • virginia tech • chicago parks department • doris duke charitable foundation • old globe • cook inlet housing authority • cuyahoga arts & culture • little tokyo service center  •  nathan cummings foundation • policylink • national endowment for the arts

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About Civic Practice

CPCP bases its approach to collaboration on a framework we introduced in 2012. Civic Practice work refers to projects that bring artists, designers, culture makers, and heritage holders into collaboration and co-design with community partners and local residents around a community defined aspiration, challenge, or vision.

Learn More

 
 

Our Initiatives

 
 

Civic Body

Works with organizations, systems, and networks outside the arts to integrate arts-based strategies into their efforts and visions. 

The Catalyst Initiative

Supports artist and community partner teams to explore and develop place-based civic practice projects.

 

 

Learning Lab

Works with arts agencies to build local capacity for artist and community and municipal partnerships. 

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“How can an artist potentially add something different to the work within a community-based organization, to help us do something we're not currently able to do?"

Mary Kimball, Center for Land-Based Learning