Putting It All Together

BuildaBridge, a 501(c)3 non-profit art-education and interventionorganization, was founded in 1997 and incorporated in 2000 by Drs. J.Nathan Corbitt and Vivian Nix-Early. Corbitt, a Professor at EasternUniversity, and Nix-Early, an Academic Dean, met in 1994 while servingas faculty advisors to Eastern University's Gospel Choir, The Angels ofHarmony. Their common interest in the arts to bridge barriers of race,class and ethnicity was reflected in the Sing Africa tour (1996) wherethe multi-ethnic choir participated in racial reconciliation betweenwhites and blacks in post-apartheid South Africa. During this event andsubsequent trips to Europe, the response to a multicultural choirdemonstrated more than just the effect of music; the group displayed amodel of different ethnicities working in harmony. Through activeinvolvement in an artistic endeavor, participants were invited to begina process of healing and reconciliation.

Beginnings

The potential power of this concept (and the organization formed fromit) was to provide hope and healing to vulnerable people andcommunities in the tough places of the world. They also recognized theneed to encourage and develop young artists and to provide a vehiclefor professional artists to move outside of their comfort zones. Theseartists could then reach across personal barriers to build bridges ofhope and healing through mentoring relationships.

In 1997 Sarah Wiegner, an American Baptist missionary (ABC-IM) in CostaRica, asked Dr. Corbitt to organize a team of artists. This team wouldassist the Caribbean Theological Center in Limon, Costa Rica through acommunity arts institute. The immediate goal of the institute was totrain musicians from fifteen churches. Underlying the need for artstraining, however, was a goal to bring hope to a torn community;already difficult relationships were exacerbated by an earthquake thatleft Limon in upheaval. There was ample need for healing and a commonvision within this marginalized town of Costa Rica. Through thepreparation of the team and the workshop on location, a vision began toform: to train artists to transfer their skills and provide communitieswith hope through arts-based education and intervention.

Research and evaluation have been at the core of Corbitt andNix-Early's desire to develop viable programs and services. In 1999they returned to Limon with a team to continue Institute training andconducted an impact study of the Limon Institute. During this week,they documented the reconciliation of fifteen churches that had ceasedto cooperate. They also began to see the need to train artists inteaching methodology, working in multi-cultural teams, and expandingservice and arts programs between diverse people and their cultures.

Returning from Costa Rica, they devised a formal structure forlocally-based arts activities. In 1999 BuildaBridge International (BI)registered in the state of Pennsylvania as a Non-Profit Corporation; in2000 BI gained non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service.

Early Programs

Educational Safaris (now BuildaBridgeInternational) became the first program of BuildaBridge. EducationalSafaris provided arts-based service and educational travelopportunities to performers and students that wanted to discover theworld through art and community development. Safaris travelled to CostaRica, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany andthe Czech Republic. After 9/11, the Educational Safaris program washampered by financial constraints and concern for safe travel. Whilestill planning travel abroad, BI further developed and strengthenedlocal programs and service.

In 2000 Drs. Corbitt and Nix-Early established the Community ArtsProgram (CAP) (now BuildaBridge Community) to provide direct service tovulnerable children and families. CAP also assisted congregations andcommunities with an organizational structure for providing quality artseducation within their contexts. Five Eastern University volunteers andan Eastern University intern, Janelle Junkin (who later joined BI as aBoard Certified Music Therapist and coordinator of the program)provided assistance. CAP now primarily serves homeless children inPhiladelphia (in as many as ten homeless shelters each year) withprofessional resident and volunteer artists.

Taking it to the Streets

In 2001 the Louisville Instituteawarded Drs. Corbitt and Nix-Early a research grant to conduct anational research project. Their task was to document the existence andeffect of Christian artists and faith-based arts programs working forpersonal and social transformation within marginalized urbancommunities. The results of this research were published in a book, Taking it to the Streets: Using the Arts to Transform Your Community (Baker 2003), and would serve as a theoretical foundation for future programs, including BuildaBridge Institute.

In 2002 BuildaBridge established The Institute for the Church and theCommunity Arts (ICCA) (now simply BuildaBridge Institute). TheInstitute is a training academy for community leaders, youth workers,faith leaders, teachers, musicians, visual artists, dancers anddramatists who want to integrate the arts effectively incommunity-based service and mission. Supported by the Department ofHuman Services in the City of Philadelphia between 2002 and 2005, ithas intensively trained over 100 participants in arts-integratedservice. In 2006 BuildaBridge signed a partnership agreement withEastern University to offer, through the Institute, graduate coursesfor Eastern's new MA in Urban Studies: Arts in Transformation.

In September 2002 BI was invited to partner with the city ofPhiladelphia, Bright Horizons and McNeil Pharmaceuticals to create aBright Space within the two largest homeless shelters in Philadelphia(one in North Philadelphia and one in Mount Airy). Bright Horizons waslooking for a short-term project; however, due to our largerorganizational mission of bringing the arts to at-risk communities, BIsought long-term relationships within the shelter system. After twoyears of volunteer programming in the shelter system, BuildaBridge wasinvited to partner with the Homeless Initiative of the School Districtof Philadelphia. Awarded a contract, BuildaBridge was then able to hireprofessional artists-in-residence to focus on specific shelters in thecity.

BuildaBridge is an “incarnational” organization; as such, it isimportant that its facilities are part of the community it serves. InFebruary 2003 Corbitt and Nix-Early purchased a 15,000 sq. ft. (1400square metres) historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (in theGermantown neighborhood) that would become the BuildaBridge House. Tenfully-functioning apartments house BuildaBridge offices and a number ofthe staff, including the Corbitt and Nix-Early families. The mansionalso provides affordable housing for like-minded people interested inurban transformation. The BuildaBridge staff has grown to twentyfull-time, part-time and volunteer staff.

Currently, BuildaBridge is developing plans to convert the mansion’scarriage house into a functioning art education and therapy studio withspace for a resident teaching artist. The Community Studio will providea safe place for long-term mentoring of children in the community.

In 2006 through the generous contribution of a benefactor,BuildaBridge hired its first Overseas Program Coordinator. This hasallowed expanded overseas programs that focus on Arts Relief andRestoration, Goodwill Tours and Cultural Discovery Tours. In addition,BuildaBridge will soon open offices in Malaysia and Guatemala (officesin North Africa and the European Union are also under consideration).These continental centers will assist local artists and organizationsin engaging the arts in service to their most vulnerable communities.

The programs of BuildaBridge span the gap between a monoculturalcommunity and the “global village.” Through the arts, we provide youngpeople opportunities to explore the world, to broaden their world-viewand to mature holistically. BuildaBridge programs are open to people ofall ages (with an emphasis on children and youth) regardless of race,national origin, color, religion or disability.