How-To Library

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How-To is a series of webinars, guided by a Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute alum, that focuses on the practical skills and frameworks for maintaining a community-based creative practice or career. It provides insights into how collaborative, arts-based initiatives are successfully begun and sustained over time, rather than just reviewing the projects themselves.

Find Your Civic Purpose with Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, 8/18/2026

Intentional Collaboration with Jayvn Solomon, 6/23/2026

As an artist, do you know your civic purpose? As a community leader, are you looking for more creative ways to strengthen the health of civic life and civic systems?

In the second installment of our skills-sharing series “How To: Find Your Civic Purpose,” Mallory Rukhsana Nezam (CAT Alum 2012) founder of Justice + Joy Consulting and co-founder of the Cross-sector Artists in Residence Lab will facilitate an hour-long virtual workshop exploring civic purpose and its impact on communities and systems. Join us to explore how artists can work to amplify critical issues, collaborate across sectors, and advance equitable outcomes for the challenges with which we grapple. 
About our Presenter: Mallory Rukhsana Nezam is a creative catalyst who loves cities and believes that we have the tools to make them more just and joyful. Through her cross-sector practice, Justice + Joy, she engages government, institutions, community members and artists who don't usually work together to de-silo the way we run cities and build new models of creative, interdisciplinary collaboration. Her work spans urban planning, policy, systems design, monuments and infrastructure. Raised in St. Louis, MO, she founded St. Louis Improv Anywhere, and was an early co-founder of the St. Louis Artivists, which created #ChalkedUnarmed, the Mirror Casket and other artistic works in public space that combatted racism in the built environment. She holds a Master of Design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She seeks to be in every room she’s not supposed to be in.
Have you ever felt unsure about how to enter a new professional or collaborative space? Do you want to learn how to use creativity to navigate difficult conversations? 

Join us for the first in a new skill-sharing series from the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute! Jayvn Solomon (CAT Alum 2019) will guide us in the use of play to develop intentional collaborative action. This hour-long virtual session will equip participants with practical tools for navigating spaces and conversations, and entering and exiting partnership in the pursuit of shared goals.

About our Presenter: Javyn Solomon is a multidisciplinary creative strategist, muralist, storyteller, and community builder who operates at the intersection of art, culture, public space, and civic imagination, using creativity as a tool to strengthen connection, belonging, and collective possibility. Learn more about his work here: https://www.loutopialabs.com/