This does not "just happen." The acquisition and husbanding of RESOUCES must be done, and done in new ways. Traditional "arts funding sources" are not all, not yet, interested in funding this work, and this is not necessarily a bad thing, for it will prompt greater creativity on our part, more collaborative work with other sectors, in mobilizing what we need:

• We must be more effective "advocates," learning to tell our story, to offer our insights, in ways that other sectors will respond to
• We must think of "non-traditional" funding sources
• We should diversity our resources as much as we possibly can
• We should consider accessing these "non-traditional" sources by partnering with non-arts people and groups who do have access to them; if we think explicitly of our work as community revitalization, our job will be easier
• We must pay attention to the responsible and creative earning of revenue
• We should recognize that we may need to "prove" our "results," and should embrace the creative possibilities of evaluation of our work
• We should embrace the possibilities of technology in mustering the resources - beyond money - that we need - the other people with other ideas and connections that we need and that will enhance our creative work
• We should recognize that "fundraising is friend-raising," cultivating our personal relationships with great care and attention

One of our most important resources is our partners - especially our "non-arts" partners we must constantly remember that there are partners in the business sector, the governmental sector, the social service sector, in medicine, among the alternative trade organizations, in the research arena, in education, at the national and local level - everywhere. We should keep a constant stance of cultivating friendships with every possible sector in order to truly "change the world," for we are all, and equally, needed, and together our power will make a difference. We know that technology is an important and growing tool for ensuring equal access to information in a partnership, but for our PARTNERSHIPS to be as effective as possible we must be conscious

• Of staying open and honest with our partners
• Of sharing vocabularies, and developing of equally shared new vocabulary
• Of recognizing cultural protocols of our partners
• Of ensuring that partners remain equal, that one does not dominate the other
• That mutual shared purposes must be made clear at the start - and also that areas in which purposes do NOT overlap must be made clear at the start
• That partnerships exemplify cultural equity - internationally, ethnically, intergenerationally etc - with "cultural" being used in the broadest sense of the world
• To pool resources - financial, personnel, skills, time, information
• That interactions among partners need to be informal as well as formal

WHAT WILL WE SEE in ten years if we are successful in forming partnerships, acquiring resources, empowering ourselves, being used by the community in these ways? A "shortcut" way of saying, "Art will become a verb!" and the components of this include:

• We will see communities aware of their history, and exploring new histories as the communities change

• We will see artists who think of themselves as powerful public leaders
• We will see communities conscious of the economic development role of the arts, and acting on that awareness in their planning
• We will see dance, theater, art, performance art, visual art - as well as emerging new art forms - as equally important in a community
• We will see "audiences" who are also "participants" - indeed, the line between audience/participant will have blurred, the line between artist/citizen will have blurred
• Citizen/artist/audience/participants will include people of all classes, ages, geographies, cultures
• Arts will appear throughout the curriculum, and throughout learning for children and adults
• Arts will be used in community conflict resolution
• Arts will be used by community policy-makers to test ideas, to shape and articulate public policy
• Arts will be used in neighborhoods and at the community public policy level to address problems and issues
• Arts will be a common practice in medicine
• Communities will seek out artists - where now the impetus is largely coming from artists - to help with transformative, change-oriented planning and development
• New and emerging technologies will be a common tool to make art, connect people, connect people to their communities
• Community pride will be tied to art-making
• People will express their spirituality through the arts.

In 1943, Paul Green wrote , "The real and creative life, it seems to me, is like a tree growing…It builds itself on up…to catch the tip of fire from the rising sun, and is the last to give up that fire as the night comes on."