• The future of all of Dayton's citizens is inextricably linked.
• The vision for a better Dayton is inside each and every resident.
• Citizens make the community. We ignore them at our peril.

Blue Sky Project is an internationally-competitive summer artist residency and youth collaborative. Founded and operated from 2005 – 2008 in McHenry County, Illinois, the program is now housed at the University of Dayton, in partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences and ArtStreet.

Committed to producing significant works of contemporary art across all mediums, Blue Sky Project links five professional artists from around the world with five college apprentices and 30 - 40 young people aged 14 - 18 from throughout Montgomery County, to pursue projects proposed by the artists. .

Blue Sky Project's objectives are threefold:

• Provide the Resident Artists with an intensive period of investigation, collaboration and production in a creative and supportive setting with young people;
• Use the contemporary art-making process to develop the leadership, self-awareness, critical and conceptual thinking, creative problem-solving and collaborative skills of the youth participants and student artists;
• Enhance the cultural life of the community by bringing new art and new artists to Dayton.

Blue Sky Project has been described as "transformational" by artists, youth participants, teachers and parents. This transformational effect is possible, in large part, because an aspect of Blue Sky is its eight-week duration and the intensity of the experience. This has allowed Blue Sky to focus on bringing about a paradigm shift in the following areas:

• Evolving youth development-moving from an art education model of youth growth to a "whole child" integration of the creative, aesthetic, social, intellectual and interpersonal development of youth, working not subordinately to, but collaboratively with, each other and professional adults.
• Evolving artistic practice, including the full range of artists--from those accustomed to working in a strictly solitary mode to those whose projects are inherently collective and to the extension of those practices to include the active involvement of teenagers as well as the concerns of the local community. The result is artworks and intellectual thought not otherwise achievable, causing a ripple effect that goes to, and beyond, the creative life and development of each participating group: artist, youth and community.

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." -Daniel Burnham, Chicago lakefront master planner

Premise
In 2008, Forbes Magazine named Dayton one of America's 10 Fastest Dying Cities. Eventually, one will be the first to make the list of America’s 10 Most Livable Cities. Only we can ensure it is Dayton.

The intellectual, organizational, financial, emotional and spiritual resources to transform Dayton already exist here. We can choose not to confront our challenges because they seem too expensive and complex, or we can resolve to determine a new future for our community. However, it is going to take a different kind of approach to produce the as yet unseen levels of engagement, imagination, possibilities, partnership and progressive pragmatism that will define the 21st Century community we want to have in Dayton.

Description
Seeds of Change is a new, broad-based, citizen-action initiative utilizing school-based gardens as the starting framework for intra-and inter-neighborhood community-building in Dayton, Montgomery County and the region. In this case “Seeds” refers to Dayton’s most important asset, the people who reside here.

As we are fast coming to the realization that the production/consumption economy is not sustainable, we are discovering the importance of returning to basics—investing in infrastructure, people and community, and our natural resources. Seeds of Change represents all of these things, because gardens not only grow healthy food, but they grow people, ideas, promote creative expression, strengthen social ties, and foster an environment of well-being.

A Collaborative Effort
Seeds of Change is the brainchild of Peter Benkendorf, executive director of Involvement Advocacy; Treva Jenkins, Owner of Breaking Ground, a horticultural and human resource company; and Liz Landis of The Boonshoft Museum. Key collaborators are Luci Beachdell, Five River Metro Parks’s Grow With Your Neighbor program; and Brian Raison, Community Development Director, The Ohio State University Extension and facilitator for Miami Valley Grown.

Pilot Neighborhoods
Partnering with Dayton’s Neighborhood Schools Initiative, the pilot gardens will be in East End, affiliated with Ruskin School, and Wolf Creek, affiliated with Edison School. The Action Group, made up of members of the two communities and the development team, are creating a program focused on three outcome-oriented strands: The Garden; Curriculum; Community Engagement.

In the News
8/30/09 – Channel 7 – Garden Grows Community Values
7/31/09 – Dayton Daily News – School garden setting precedent for other projects

What Do You Think Is Possible?
We want your thoughts about the the kind of community you envision. To print out a Seeds of Change survey, click here.

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Forbes Magazine “10 Fastest Dying Cities”
Symposium and Art Exhibition
Celebrating the Human Spirit

August 7 – 9, 2009
Dayton, Ohio

An article in the August 5, 2008 issue of Forbes Magazine declared Buffalo, NY; Canton, OH; Charleston, WV; Cleveland, OH; Dayton, OH; Detroit, MI; Flint, MI; Scranton PA; Springfield, MA and Youngstown, OH as America’s 10 Fastest Dying Cities.

Looking to prove that nothing could be further from the truth, and timed to celebrate the article’s 1st anniversary, on August 8, 2009, representatives of eight of the ten cities and more than 200 concerned citizens gathered in Dayton to share ideas and inspirations, make new connections and imagine possibilities for the kinds of communities we want to live in an have thrive.

Ten Living Cities - Forbes 10 Fastest Dying Cities Symposium was the brainchild of Involvement Advocacy executive director Peter Benkendorf and Mike Elsass, owner of Color of Energy Gallery in Dayton. Put together in under four months, and highlighted by opening remarks from Forbes writer Josh Zumbrun, author of the original Dying Cities article, the event succeeded beyond the originators expectations. Plans are already underway for a 2010 Living Cities Forum, to be held in one of the other cities who are endangered, but not dying.

In the News
9/3/09 – Forbes.com– Rumors Of Our Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
8/13/09 – Wall Street Journal – 'Fastest Dying Cities' Meet for a Lively Talk
8/9/09 –Dayton Daily News – ‘Dying cities’ show their spirit at symposium
6/1/09 – Dayton Daily News Op-Ed –Dayton, ‘dying cities’ fighting back
5/24/09 – Canton Repository –Editorial: Dayton to 'dying' cities: Let's meet