What do you do when the trees in your city park are diseased and need to be cut down?
You could cut them down and dig out the stumps…
Or…
You could have chainsaw artists come out and convert the stumps into art. That’s what the folks of Craig, Colorado did in 1999.
The event was so successful it became an annual festive event. (However, due to limited diseased trees (thankfully), stumps are now brought in and sunk into the ground for the artists to work on. )
I bring attention to this festival because it highlights 5 tips for building and sustaining innovative communities:
- There are no stupid ideas when brainstorming. If City Employee, Mike Shelton, didn’t suggest this in the first place, something special for the community might never have happened.
- The process of creating seems to naturally brings people together. Don’t miss opportunities to bolster community around creative output.
- Just because people aren’t directly involved in the creative process doesn’t mean that they can’t, or won’t have fun. Creativity breeds interest, and eventually, creative output. Make creativity visible!! Then let people follow their curiosities.
- People take pride in who they are as a community. Give people opportunities to revel in their commonality and it’ll create esprit de corps.
- Share who you are as a community and others will want to be a part of what you’re doing.
What else would you add?