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The Institute for Community Cultural Development (ICCD)

ICCD Faculty

ICCD is facilitated by a core faculty of three highly respected and experienced professionals in the field of community cultural development: William Cleveland, Wendy Morris and Erik Takeshita with Jun-Li Wang, a former ICCD fellow serving as adjunct faculty. In addition to our core faculty, ICCD alumni and national practitioners in the field also serve as resources for ICCD fellows.

  

ICCD Faculty Bios

Bill Cleveland is musician, writer, and the founder and director of the internationally recognized Center for the Study of Art and Community. Established in 1991, CSA&C works to build new working relationships between the arts and the broader community. He has been the Director of Education and Community Programs at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center, and directed California's Arts-In-Corrections Program and California State Summer School for the Arts. His book, Art in Other Places, chronicles 22 model programs developed by artists and human service providers in 17 American communities. He is writing a new book about artists working around the world in communities in violent or otherwise devastating conditions with the working title Art and Upheaval.

Wendy Morris is a movement-based performance artist, cultural organizer and consultant with twenty years experience creating community art projects and programs. Her work has received over 25 national and regional awards for excellence including a major Leadership Initiatives for Diversity and the Arts award; and artistic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. Her website, www.wendymorris.org, is a 150-page resource site of stories, images and articles about her work, with a focus on the intersection of community-engaged artmaking and individual creative inquiry. Her projects include: Spirit of Tibet, a temporary public art program for the Twin Cities' visit of the Dalai Lama (with the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota and Forecast Public Artworks); and Urban Web, a three-year series of community performances and arts-based dialogue workshops around urban planning issues in south Minneapolis (part of the Animating Democracy Initiative of Americans for the Arts/Ford Foundation through Intermedia Arts' People Place Connections program). She lives with her seven-year-old daughter and husband in Minneapolis, one block from her favorite mindfulness meditation center where she leads a family practice program.

Erik Takeshita has spent his professional career in community development. From 2002 - 2005 Erik served as a Senior Policy Aide to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak advising the Mayor on issues related to housing, economic development, and the arts. From 1999 - 2002 he was a Program Officer at the Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation's largest private non-profit community development support organization where he was responsible for LISC's project financing and commercial corridors program. Prior to LISC, Erik worked at the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) assisting neighborhood organizations in the development and implementation of action plans to revitalize their communities. Erik served on the Minneapolis Arts Commission, including serving as Co-Chair and was on the Board of the Asian Pacific Endowment at the St. Paul Foundation. Erik is currently an Archibald Bush Leadership Fellow completing a Masters of Public Administration degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After graduation, Erik will be relocating to Honolulu, Hawaii with his wife Denise and two daughters, Malia and Kiana.

Jun-Li Wang is a community organizer and neighborhood leadership trainer for the Hamline Midway Coalition, a District Council in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jun-Li was an ICCD Fellow in 2004. She has a Masters Degree in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, with an emphasis on community-building processes. Her field research was conducted with youth farmers in central Ghana. Prior to moving to Minnesota four years ago, Jun-Li lived and worked in Greater China for 5 years for various international non-profit organizations including the Asia Foundation, Project HOPE, Voluntary Services Overseas (UK) and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan. Jun-Li currently serves on the Board of Directors of Farm in the City, and was a member of the founding Board of the China AIDS Orphan Fund. Jun-Li also serves on several advisory committees, including for the Wilder Neighborhood Leadership Programs and the Hancock Elementary-Hamline University Collaborative. Jun-Li lives with her anthropologist husband David in a lovely house surrounded by gardens, three blocks from her office.