Photo credit: Leslie the Pony Lion and Amy. Photo © Sara Muskulus

Community Art and Civic Engagement Program Overview

Bringing the Burner Ethos into Our Local Communities

The FirePony Creative Society Community Art and Civic Engagement program seeks to engage our broader community year round.  CACE builds on the vision of the FirePony Creative Society in extending FirePony activities beyond the burn events. We support projects in local Mid-atlantic communities including community service, community driven art, and the sharing of ideas and skills.

We encourage artists and organizations that share a passion for the burner ethos and wish to bring that to their local communities to get involved. If you demonstrate a commitment to forward-thinking collaborative projects or the desire to bring participatory, interactive art to your community, we hope you’ll work with us to make your vision a reality.

We are doing this though three programs under the CACE umbrella: GRANTS, TRAINING, and COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING.

 

  1. GRANTS  

CACE program funds projects and art that prioritize community involvement in the development and creation, and demonstrates a sustainable impact. Examples of community based projects are park cleanups, feeding the hungry, or public art education. CACE also funds community based art ideation, creation and installation. 

The current maximum grant is $4k. Learn more about the grants program here.

 

  1. TRAINING

CACE program provides resources, training and networking to enable artists and civic engagement focused organizations to learn, share knowledge, build relationships and audiences. We support the exploration of new approaches that enhance operational and creative practice. Examples may include 

  • developing a learning track of workshops to be presented at a conference such as MALC 
  • providing tools to network and share knowledge. 
  • Sponsoring training for artists around accessing grant opportunities

Learn more about the Training program here

 

  1. COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING

Through targeted Programming, CACE will offer a range of programs that promote knowledge sharing, leadership, inclusion, equity, civic participation and engaged learning. CACE promotes developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make a difference. Example programming may include 

  • sponsoring the MALC (the Mid-Atlantic Leadership Conference), 
  • Topical Town Halls and Webinars
    • Strengthening of Social connections
    • Diversity and Inclusion Efforts 
    • Education on current and future Firepony initiatives

We anticipate that these efforts will be done in partnership and collaboration with other organizations in the region. 

Learn more about the Community Programming here

 

JOIN US! 

We’re actively recruiting motivated creative folks to join our volunteer team. Whether you have two hours a month or two hours a day to give, we have ways for you to get involved!

We’re looking for program admins, communication volunteers, fundraising gurus, project review and grant allocation team members, programing and training team members, and partnership development leads.

Contact us at caceprogram (at) firepony dot org, and let’s talk about how best to connect you interests with things that need doing.

 

Current CACE team members:

Millie McMillan

Damian Masterson

Patty Simonton

Tiffany Wolf