We are happy to announce the reissue of Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions.

The book recounts the histories of 22 institutional and community arts programs across the country that have pioneered the community arts field. It describes how the creative processes have been used to address some of society’s most pressing issues.

This new edition has been published by the University of Massachusetts’ Arts Extension Service. It can be purchased by contacting AES at 413.545.2360. The cost is $20 plus postage and handling. You can also go to the AES book catalogue Web Page at http://www.umass.edu/aes/catbooks.htm#aiop for an order form.

The following is an except from the book’s Foreword by historian and educator Page Smith

"In our modern world," wrote Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, "we easily think of the genius of an artist as existing on one side of the fence" while we stand on the other, "gaping or staring at his work, admiring him.…In this conception the artist embodies all the energy and vitality reaching to the stars; the public passively looks on as we do when we sigh dreamily at the movies." In consequence the artist is tempted simply to do stunts in order to attract attention. But the true task of the artist is to discover her or his relationship to a community, a community often in desperate need of the artist's power to see the world anew. In this book, the accounts of "art in other places" are, in fact, stories of the relationship of artists to communities. These communities are, in their various forms, communities of troubled and sometimes despairing individuals. The artists bring light and hope and the joy of creation to these communities and they are themselves remade in the process. The artists discover through these communities how serious and essential their arts are, what powers they command as artists; that art is not a matter of critics and shows and salons but of endurance and survival. In drawing the attention of the artists away from their own needs and statements to the needs of the members of their communities, "art in other places" deepens the artists’ comprehension of the meaning of the arts they practice. It turns out they need these arduous communities as much as the communities need them.

Here are some comments about the book by some others.

Art in Other Places is an important addition to the expanding body of work on community arts… Cleveland has collected some heartwarming stories from the deeply committed people who should be our role models. This book is about people who have found the strength to change their lives through the arts that have escaped the white walls into those others places where we all live.

–Lucy R. Lippard, Writer, Critic

Bill Cleveland made it possible for me to produce Prisoners, a documentary about the lives of men and women behind bars in California. This book and his work in other places show, not only concern for the human condition, but how we can improve it. He is one of our unsung heroes.

–Jonathan Borofsky, Artist

Bill Cleveland has crafted a work of art in this book--not an object that you hang on a wall or place on a shelf, but a piece of process art that you can take into the streets and use to change the way people live their lives. He makes me feel again my own sense of purpose, a sense I felt myself, working in these same settings. Art in Other Places reminds me of why I am in the arts.

–Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts

Bill Cleveland’s passion for this pursuit, his understanding of this brave territory, and his respect for its heroes frame and direct these inspirational narratives.

–Jessica Davis, Harvard Project Zero

The stories in this book concern what is possible when we and our creative capacities are challenged and nurtured: crises become opportunities, the outcast and neglected are empowered, our communities are transformed and, most importantly, we lead lives of integrity, vision, passion, and action.

–California State Senator John Vasconcellos

When I was Chairman of the California Arts Council, we entreated artists to contribute their creativity and imaginations to the broadest spectrum of public life. Art in Other Places tells the story of these artists. Bill Cleveland tells it well and truthfully. If you were deprived of the opportunity of living it, you’ve been given a reprieve with this book. Don’t miss it the second time around.

–Peter Coyote, Actor, Director