What is the Air Collaborative?
The Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) partners with the Air Collaborative. Together, we help you host inclusive community conversations and find solutions that grow your creative economy and strengthen communities.
Air Certified Facilitators
Air facilitators are skilled at leading workshops that unite artists, community members, business people, and municipal leaders to focus on a goal. COA helps communities pay facilitator fees.
Workshop 1: Engage
Engage workshops help you assess local interest. They bring together local artists, municipal employees, business owners, community groups, non-profit staff, healthcare professionals, teachers, and more. In-person workshops usually have 20-50 participants, but more can join. Online workshops have a limit of 36 people.
Please list 1-3 top outcomes of an Engage workshop:
- Brainstorm your community assets
- Practice Design Thinking
- Spark understanding and collaboration between creative and business-minded individuals
In FY25, COA will invest in up to $1,000 for Engage workshops to help pay the fees of CT Air Certified Facilitators. Your community can request funds at any time: we evaluate requests on a rolling basis.
Workshop 2: Shift
A 3-day Shift workshop focuses on developing a small yet impactful community project.
- Shift workshops include 12-36 people. They may have participated in the Engage workshop or are new to the process.
- The workshop takes place over three consecutive days to deepen group collaboration and design thinking.
- Day one is a 4-hour commitment, day two is 9 hours, and day three is 4 hours.
- A 2-hour Action Session is held about 2 weeks after the Shift workshop.
- In FY25, COA will invest $2,000-$6,500 for Shift workshops to help pay the fees of CT Air Certified Facilitators. Your community can request funds at any time: we evaluate requests on a rolling basis.
- Communities that take part in the Shift workshop will start a small, locally funded project costing less than $10,000. They have one year following the workshop to finish their project.
Contact
Email Beth Flowers at beth@aircollaborative.org
This program is made possible in part by a grant from The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.