Biographical Information
Tom Borruptom@communityandculture.com
Tom Borrup has been a leader and innovator in non-profit community and cultural work for over twenty-five years. His work explores the intersections between culture, community building, and economic development. He consults with foundations, nonprofits and public agencies across the U.S. in strategic planning and program evaluation. Borrup has written many articles for publications in the arts, city planning, and philanthropy. His book, The Creative Community Builders’ Handbook, was released in July 2006, by Fieldstone Alliance (formerly Wilder Publishing). It tracks communities that have transformed their economic, social, and physical infrastructures through the arts, and includes a step-by-step planning guide.
As Executive Director of Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis from 1980 until 2002, Borrup developed a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural organization recognized nationally for its work in nurturing artists and other cultural assets in its diverse urban community. In 2002 he expanded on his knowledge of architecture, design and planning as a Fellow in the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture. He was also awarded a St.Paul/Travelers Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods grant to travel and study the role of art and culture in community development.
From 1994-2003, Mr. Borrup served on the board of the Jerome Foundation, a progressive funder of emerging artists in New York City and Minnesota. He served two terms as Chair of the Foundation board and for three years was a member of the Leadership Development Committee of the Minnesota Council on Foundations. He also served on the board of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture for eight years, serving two terms as Co-President.
He is currently serving on the boards of Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY, Phillips Community TV in Minneapolis and Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc., also in Minneapolis. Throughout his career, Mr. Borrup has participated on numerous funding and policy review panels, and consulted with such institutions as the Rockefeller, Ford, Wallace, and Andy Warhol Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has been an invited speaker for the American Association of Museums, Planners Network, Grantmakers in the Arts, Americans for the Arts, and many others.
Mr. Borrup received his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Goddard College, and continued there to receive his M.A. in Communications and Public Policy. He currently teaches for the Graduate Program in Arts Administration at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, and for the Institute for Arts Management at the University of Massachusetts.
Click here to download a PDF of Mr. Borrup's Biography.
Resumé
Help clients evaluate policy and programs and manage change by identifying and leveraging assets and by integrating cultural, social, economic, and design strategies.
Recent clients:
• New England Foundation for the Arts, Boston, MA - (program assessment, strategic planning)
• The Ford Foundation, New York, NY – Role of arts in social and economic revitalization initiative
Evaluate and provide technical assistance to:
Center for Creative Community Development, North Adams, MA -
(economic research)
Movimiento de Arte y Cultural Latino Americana, San Jose, CA -
(neighborhood strategies)
Nuestras Raices, Holyoke, MA - (cross-sector strategies and
organizational development)
Queens Museum of Art, New York, NY -
(neighborhood development strategies)
• City of San José, CA, Office of Cultural Affairs (neighborhood arts program assessment)
• Minneapolis Telecommunications Network, Minneapolis, MN - (strategic planning)
• A. H. Wilder Foundation Community Services for the Elderly, St. Paul, MN - (creative engagement)
• Alliance for Independent Motion Media, Boston, MA - (strategic planning & economic impact study)
• 651 ARTS, Brooklyn, NY, with Caron Atlas - (policy analysis and recommendations)
• University of Massachusetts, Arts Extension Service, Amherst, MA - (curriculum development)
• Juxtaposition Arts, Minneapolis, MN - (strategic planning & real estate development)
• LEF Foundation, Boston, MA - (program evaluation and strategic positioning)
• Advancing Chicago’s Civic Agenda Through the Arts, Chicago, IL - (cross-sector collaborations)
• Ritz Theater Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, with Sutton+Associates - (strategic positioning)
• Out North Development, Anchorage, AK - (strategic positioning & asset development)
• Fifth Ward Re-development Corporation, Houston, TX, with Sutton+Associates - (strategic positioning)
Executive Director, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN (1980-2002)
Led nationally-recognized community-based center, a national model in advancing arts based community development, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations.
• Completed capital campaign, designed and built state-of-the-art community cultural center.
• Created partnerships with over 200 activist, arts, educational and business organizations to develop and implement programs serving a multi-ethnic community.
• Raised over $1 million annually from local, regional and national sources.
• Developed Institute for Community Cultural Development, a unique 6-month program for art administrators, artists and community development professionals to explore, practice and evaluate arts-based community development projects.Director, Image Coop, Inc., Montpelier, VT (1979-1980)
Directed visual and media arts gallery, artist working space and media arts education through Community College of Vermont.
Director, National Conference on Public Access Cable Television, Community Video
Center, San Diego, CA (1978)
Designed and led ground-breaking cross-sector national conference.
TEACHING AND LECTURING
• Assistant Professor (Adjunct), Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Graduate Program in Arts Administration, Minneapolis, MN (2004-Present)
• Faculty, University of Massachusetts Arts Management Institute, Amherst, MA (2003-Present)
• Guest Lectures: University of Massachusetts, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Amherst, MA; University of Miami School of Architecture, Miami, FL; University of Minnesota, Department of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Macalester College, Urban Sociology, St. Paul, MN
ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDING REVIEW
• Ford Foundation, Community Development and the Arts Initiative, 2003-Present
• Creative Capital Foundation, State Partnership Program, 2005
• Rockefeller Foundation, Partnerships Affirming Community Transformation, 2002-2003
• Walter and Elise Haas Foundation, Creative Work Fund, San Francisco, 2000
• Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 10-year Foundation policy review, 1998
• Lila Wallace Readers' Digest Fund, Exemplary Community Arts Centers, 1998
• Ohio Arts Council, site evaluations, policy and grant reviews, Columbus, OH, 1986-1989
• Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN, 1987-1989
• McKnight Foundation/Minneapolis Arts Commission, 1982-1985
• Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, St. Paul, MN 1983-1987 and 1992-1993 and 2006 National Endowment for the Arts, Review Panelist and Site Evaluator:
• Multidisciplinary National Services, 2003
• Museums and Visual Arts Policy and Planning, 1995
• Visual Artists Organizations, 1993
• Advancement, 1993
• Presenting and Commissioning, 1990-1994
• Film and Video Screening, 1989
• Media Arts Centers, 1988
• Design Arts Program, 1983
• Regional Film/Video Fellowships, 1983
EDUCATION
• Knight Fellow in Community Building, University of Miami School of Architecture, Miami, FL, 2002
• Master of Arts, Communications & Public Policy, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT, 1983
• Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts, Goddard College, 1978
• Strategic Leadership in a Changing Environment, National Arts Stabilization, 1998
• New York University Graduate School of Public Administration, New York, NY, Cultural
• Leadership/Managing the Arts Enterprise, Summer 1987
• Professional development workshops in Personnel Supervision, Board Development, Fundraising, Financial Management, Conflict Resolution, Management Effectiveness, 1982-2001
PUBLICATIONS/ARTICLES
The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts and Culture, book assesses 20 arts-centered community development projects and provides step-by-step guide to building economic, social, civic and physical infrastructure of communities through the arts. Commissioned by the McKnight Foundation. Includes case studies from urban, rural and suburban communities and best practices related to ten successful strategies. Fieldstone Alliance (formerly A.H. Wilder Foundation Publishing Center), St. Paul, MN and Partners for Livable Communities, Washington, DC, 2006.
“Up from the Roots: Re-examining the Flow of Economic and Creative Capital,” thoughts on connections between informal arts practices and grassroots economic development, Grantmakers in the Arts READER, Summer, 2006.“Fuel for the Creative Engine: Arts and the Economy,” University of Massachusetts, Arts Extension Service, Fundamentals of Arts Management, text book chapter, 2006.
“Putting the Arts to Work in Neighborhoods: Creating Active Public Spaces,” a survey of cultural organizations working to revitalize communities, and current research confirming their multiple impacts, Ford Foundation Reports, Spring 2004.
“Aesthetics Are Crucial to a Walkable City,” Op-Ed Commentary, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 2003.
“What’s Radical About Valuing Assets as a Strategy in Cultural Work,” a description of how asset-based practices used by artists and cultural organizations relate to other community development practitioners, Community Arts Network, 2005.
Thinking Outside the Cubicle? Does the 501(c)(3) Box Stifle Creativity in the Dot-com Era?Examining Maribel Alvarez’ book,There’s Nothing Informal About It: Participatory Arts Within the Cultural Ecology of Silicon Valley, this article explores similarities between informal arts and high-tech cultural, and how conventional arts institutions are letting down audiences, Community Arts Network, 2006.
"Creative Organizations: Putting Culture to Work in Community Development,"a report commissioned by the Ford Foundation’s Active Public Space Initiative of the Asset Building and Community Development Program, Community Arts Network, January, 2004.
“The State of Film: Massachusetts Media Arts Organizations Grow a Community of Practice and the Practice of Community,” review of a foundation and nonprofit partnership to elevate the role of independent media arts as a force in the creative economy, commissioned by the LEF Foundation, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, San Francisco, CA, Spring 2005.
“Urban Alchemy: In Search a Formula for the City of Tomorrow,” a report on the Bruner/Loeb Symposium on Transforming Communities through the Arts, Chicago Cultural Center, November, 2003, Community Arts Network, January 2004.
“Taking it to the Bank: Unlocking Community Cultural Assets,” a review of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails EverywhereElse, by Hernando DeSoto, Grantmakers in the Arts READER, Winter 2004.
“Administration of Cultural Democracy: Three Experiments,” assessment of innovative community-based arts centers in Portland, ME, Minneapolis, MN and Seattle, WA. Community Arts Network, September 2003.
“The Dialectic of Community Arts Practice and Globalization, or Is This Parade Going the Wrong Way?” reflections on community-based arts practices in communities with changing demographics, Community Arts Network, June 2003.
“Toward Asset-Based Community Cultural Development: A Journey Through the Disparate Worlds of Community Building,” reflections on cross-over activities between professions and practices, Community Arts Network, April 2003.
“Intermedia Arts: A Multicultural Home Away from Home,” Lessons Learned: Case Studies from the Field, National Endowment for the Arts Web site, 1999.
RECENT PROFESSIONAL/COMMUNITY SERVICE
Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, (eastern edge of downtown), Board of Directors, Building Land Use and Housing Committee; task forces to review developer proposals for residential and mixed-use high-rise projects. (2004-present)
Board of Directors, Appalshop, Inc., Whitesburg, KY; strategic planning and operational policy for this major, regional, multi-disciplinary Appalachian cultural production center. (2004-present)
Board of Directors and Treasurer, Phillips Community TV, Minneapolis, MN; assist with program and management development with inner city youth leadership development organization. (2004-present)
Board of Directors and Chair, Jerome Foundation, St. Paul, MN; set policy and guided over $5 million in annual grantmaking; investment committee, provided oversight of more than $100 million in assets. Two terms as Board Chair. (1994-2003)
Community Advisory Board, Twin Cities Public Television. (2001-2005)
Board of Directors, VOICE in Phillips, a multi-ethnic organizing and funding group (Minneapolis, Ford and Mott Foundations) to employ asset-based community development practices and seed ABCD projects within the city’s poorest and most diverse neighborhood. (1999-2003)
AWARDS
• Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods, St. Paul Companies and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 2002; including a sabbatical grant to travel and study innovative community development programs.
• U.S. Bank/Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Artistic Initiative, St. Paul, MN, 1996.
• Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, St. Paul, MN, 1987, to spend six weeks researching contemporary arts centers in Western Europe.
• George Stoney Award, National Federation of Local Cable Programmers (now Alliance for Community Media), Washington, D.C., 1982, highest annual award to an individual for contribution to the field of community television
