08/20/2026
Please read Start with Art 's encouraging post about our most recent Cultivating Community session! So much amazing work is being done in our county. Follow our page to stay up-to-date on when and where our next session will be!
Tonight we had another Randolph County Cultivating Community meeting alongside Forge Your Path - East Central Indiana, talking about their Arts & Culture Plan and what arts and culture can look like in our communities.
I always leave meetings like this feeling renewed, heard, and honestly, validated in so much of the work we are doing at Start with Art.
When you are so deep in the day-to-day work, sometimes you don’t stop long enough to see how all the pieces connect. Then you sit around a table with people talking about art, culture, connection, opportunities, and what our communities need and you realize how much can come from simply getting people together and having these conversations.
Start with Art didn’t come from one of these meetings, but some of our programs, events, and greatest outcomes have. Sometimes it starts with one conversation. Someone has an idea, someone else adds to it, connections are made, and eventually that idea becomes something real for our community.
And I think that’s something really important to say: if you want to see changes in our community, you have to be part of the plans.
You have to come to the meetings. You have to share your ideas. You have to listen. You have to be willing to do more than just talk about what Randolph County needs, you have to be willing to show up and be part of making it happen.
Being surrounded tonight by so many amazing people who genuinely want to make a difference in our communities was honestly heartwarming.
But it can’t always be the same people sitting around the table.
We need more voices. We need different perspectives. We need the people who have said, “I wish Randolph County had this…” or “Wouldn’t it be great if someone did this…”
Maybe that someone is you.
If you have a thought, an idea, or even just something you would love to see happen to make Randolph County a better place to live, work, raise a family, create, or simply call home, I highly, highly suggest attending these meetings.
You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to come with some huge plan. Just come. Be part of the conversation.
Because some of the best things happening in our community started with someone showing up and saying, “What if we tried this?”
Tonight was a really good reminder that change doesn’t just happen. People make it happen. ❤️🎨
