Community
Rural areas are being robbed of their common wealth – the economic, social, and natural resources needed to sustain future generations of rural people. The younger generations, sensing intuitively that something is deeply wrong, are abandoning rural communities, and thus robbing rural communities of their most precious resource. It is intuitively obvious that the continued extraction and exploitation of rural resources quite simply is not sustainable.
Nearly all rural development strategies from outside the community allow a few local people to benefit, but only at the expense of others who live nearby, downwind, or downstream. Actually, those who benefit most are the outside corporate investors who need some place to dump the wastes from their profit-making enterprises. It seems to be okay in rural communities for some people to benefit even if others do not, but when some benefit at the expense of others, it seems to violate an important rural ethic. This ethical offense inevitably leads to social conflicts among community members, which eventually rip the social fabric of the community apart. Many rural communities are rapidly losing their ability to work together for the common good.
- Ikerd, John - Sustaining the Common Wealth of Rural People and Places
We seek to create unique art event/s that will happen within Winterset and the Westbrook Artists’ Site (WAS). We hope to introduce a new group of artists to Madison County and help build a diverse network of creative professionals in the area. Our projects are intended to foster development of a robust, vibrant and forward looking art community.
Rural areas are being robbed of their common wealth – the economic, social, and natural resources needed to sustain future generations of rural people. The younger generations, sensing intuitively that something is deeply wrong, are abandoning rural communities, and thus robbing rural communities of their most precious resource. It is intuitively obvious that the continued extraction and exploitation of rural resources quite simply is not sustainable.
Nearly all rural development strategies from outside the community allow a few local people to benefit, but only at the expense of others who live nearby, downwind, or downstream. Actually, those who benefit most are the outside corporate investors who need some place to dump the wastes from their profit-making enterprises. It seems to be okay in rural communities for some people to benefit even if others do not, but when some benefit at the expense of others, it seems to violate an important rural ethic. This ethical offense inevitably leads to social conflicts among community members, which eventually rip the social fabric of the community apart. Many rural communities are rapidly losing their ability to work together for the common good.
- Ikerd, John - Sustaining the Common Wealth of Rural People and Places
We seek to create unique art event/s that will happen within Winterset and the Westbrook Artists’ Site (WAS). We hope to introduce a new group of artists to Madison County and help build a diverse network of creative professionals in the area. Our projects are intended to foster development of a robust, vibrant and forward looking art community.
community commons
