Downside UP: How art can change the spirit of a place

How does a dying working class town end up betting its future on art? With 80% of its downtown buildings closed, North Adams, Massachusetts united blue-collar locals with art world luminaries to transform economic failure into America's largest center for contemporary art, MASS MoCA. A film by North Adams native Nancy Kelly, DOWNSIDE UP is about the tentative, dangerous notion of hope in a city widely viewed as hopeless.





	Click above to explore some communities whose artistic impulses are squarely in the social realm. Here are some examples of communities who are working with youth, housing, community-building, public space, and developing capital for the common creative good. This presentation requires Flash 5. Click here to download this free plug-in.

"Downside UP" is now streaming on New Day Digital. FREE on February 24th, for one day only.

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Take a look at this great New York Times article about a small Pennsylvania town that is using art to make social change.

Click here to download the new "Downside UP" Final Report (also a .pdf)!