Interview
with Community Arts Network Team
Image: Presentation slide showing connectivity across community arts by Christina Desinioti.
JP For visitors to the Museum of Unrest who may not be familiar with CAN, could you briefly introduce the organisation?
JP How did it begin?
CT CAN was launched in April 2021. It emerged from a 2019 survey that considered more than 300 organisations in more than 90 countries that found that community arts is a global community of ideas…but not yet a global community network. This inspired Community Arts Lab-Porticus & Hilti Foundation to join forces and respond to this need.
JP What are its core aims?
CT CAN’s core aims are to:
* Enable connections within the network, and foster synergies and collaborations
* Share opportunities and resources to support and empower those in the field
* Make members’ work visible in the network
* Contribute to the global conversation on the role of arts in structural social change
* Amplify and unify voices calling for the role of arts as a force for social change
* Advocate for the role of arts in social impact and the accessibility to the arts for all
* Enable, engage and empower stakeholders to apply arts to social impact
* Increase the flow of finances (from multiple sources) towards arts for social impact
Little Amal meets a Big Storm at COP26.
Amal meets ‘Storm’ – a 10 metre puppet made of recycled and natural materials. Together they read the words ‘No New Worlds’ floating on the river while walking through the city. Photo Credit: Credit Douglas Robertson.
JP What does CAN offer today?
CT CAN offers free membership to individuals and organisations who have a link/connection to community arts/arts for social impact. It offers members a range of benefits that include but are not limited to offering visibility to members’ work, enabling connections within the network, and providing access to resources such as funding opportunities, among others.
Beyond its membership network, CAN offers benefits to the wider Arts for Social Impact ecosystem by curating global and other valuable resources, shared on our social media weekly; The daily promotion of our members and their activities on our platforms also serve as both practical insights and inspiration to our followers engaged in this field.
JP Your Global Portal provides valuable information about artists and arts organisations worldwide. Could you explain how the portal works and how individuals or organisations can participate?
CT CAN in a free membership organisation. Individuals and organisations who apply or support the arts as a vehicle for social change may register to join the organisation. They may register via our website homepage by completing a registration form. Registered members and other interested parties can participate in and benefit from our global platform in several ways. All CAN members are featured on our Network Map and Matchmaker based on the information they provide in the registration form. This tool allows website visitors to explore the work of different members and search for specific types of collaborators based on their needs. By registering and becoming a CAN member, you join a global map of individuals and organisations who use arts/community arts for social impact—making it easier for others to find you, connect, and collaborate.
El Sistema Greece
Young musicians of El Sistema Greece perform together with passion and joy, reflecting the life-changing power of music and the unbreakable bond of community. Photo credit: El Sistema Greece
JP Your website mentions CAN’s ambition to contribute to developing an “arts for social impact architecture.”
- What might this look like in practice?
- How would it operate?
- What are the key outcomes you hope it could achieve?
CT There are changemakers who actively engage the arts as a vehicle for social impact across the globe. Some are connected to each other, others are connected within smaller networks but globally, there has been a lack of a cohesive network that not only connects practitioners but aligns them. Many, if not most, work in isolation or in silos. CAN seeks to meaningfully contribute creating a global structure – architecture, if you like – that would more strategically and materially support and align changemakers in the arts. Simply put, it would facilitate the organising of changemakers in this field. Such a structure would enable empowering spaces for practitioners to meet and engage and coordinate perspectives and actions; to align around common values and causes; to gain access to knowledge and resources; and to amplify actions and goals through engagement and collaboration, among other outcomes. Just as other sectors become more impactful and achieve successful outcomes, so too would the Arts for Social Impact ecosystem with an effective global structure.
JP CAN also highlights its commitment to fostering partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organisations.
What types of partnerships or collaborations have you developed so far?
CT We seek out and maintain strategic partnerships and collaborations with a diverse array of organisations that share our key objectives and mission. These range from grant makers that support changemakers in the arts worldwide to grassroots initiatives engaged in community arts, such as the Moleskine Foundation, to established global institutions and multilateral operating campaigns and programmes that engage our members, such as the United Nations Institute for Scientific Research (UNRISD). One example of a partnership is the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance – a pioneering programme we co-created with PLACE Network that positions refugees and migrants who are combining arts and activism to utilise their resilient life experiences as potential for leadership. We engage in collaborations with our members on an ongoing basis – some, we initiate, others are proposed by members – on a range of projects, including social media content co-creation. Another example of a partnership is the Ritual Alchemist programme – an initative we developed with the Wellbeing Project that engages artists to co-create artistic experiences with local communities that promote ecological belonging, demonstrating the power of art to show our interconnectedness to each other and the natural world. These artistic interventions have been staged at regional Hearth Summits, facilitated by the Wellbeing Project, across the globe.
ChezaCheza
Increases access to Social and Emotional Learning and life skills through the power of dance, for children and youth with vulnerabilities. Photo Credit: Katie G. NelsonIf.
JP What kinds are you hoping to establish in the future?
CT We intend to continue to seek out such strategic partnerships with a range of stakeholders who share our strategic vision and goals for ensuring the arts the fully applied in the creation and advancement of social change, and that the contribution that art can make to solving our world’s complex problems is understood and valued.
JP Finally, what are CAN’s plans for the near future?
Are there any new initiatives, activities, or areas of focus you’re looking to develop or promote?
CT 1. Study and Report on the marginalisation of arts education in public schools
CAN commissioned together with Community Arts Lab-Porticus a groundbreaking study and report titled “From Margins to Masterpieces: Charting Pathways to Strengthen Arts in Global Public Education” that explores the causes and impact of the marginalisation of arts education in public school systems worldwide and provides a roadmap for addressing this. The report will be officially released in June 2025.
2. Network strengthening and growth
A key focus area for this four-year-old organisation is growing and strengthening the global network, which counted close to 1,000 registered members across 61 countries in 2025. Through our core objectives, strengthening the network includes facilitating connections and collaboration among members and other stakeholders; facilitating and supporting the deepening of relationships among members and with other stakeholders; Leading initiatives that can create space and opportunities for members and the broader ecosystem, in addition to access to funding opportunities in the sector to pursue their objectives and advance their goals.
3. Contributing to arts-powered coalition- and movement-building CAN arose out of the clear need for a global network to engage and empower changemakers who engage the arts for social change. A key objective that CAN has begun to action is to play a leadership role in the building of coalitions and movements that engage different networks to achieve specific outcomes. CAN has been a founding member of a new coalition-led initiative to create a global Artivism movement. This movement, which grew out of the inaugural Global Artivism Conference in 2024, seeks to organise and mobilise artivists worldwide into a global structure to promote the essential role of the arts in addressing global crises. It is also important for CAN to engage with collective initiatives beyond arts-focused ones, we see so our role to integrate the transformational power of the arts into such broad-based civic action efforts. So, CAN is also participating in the Systemic Climate Action Collaborative, a groundbreaking initiative bringing together leading foundations, philanthropists, corporations, public institutions and others across six continents to overcome climate inaction and fragmentation. We are participating in these two initiatives because we realise that solutions to system problems are only created through collective action, with many aligned partners contributing coordinated efforts to shared campaigns. Similar to the aforementioned
Are you an individual or organisation that uses arts for social impact or that is interested in engaging the arts in your projects? Or simply curious about arts for social impact and engaging with CAN? You can explore how you can connect with CAN HERE!