Sarah B. McCann

Last year when I completed my second year in the Community Art Corps, an Americorps program that places artists in partnerships with community organizations and non-profits that is organized and run through Maryland Institute College of Art, I was interviewed as part of an evaluation of the program. Part of that interview has stuck with me, I cannot exactly remember what the question was that led up to the discussion, but Paolo, the interviewer and I got to talking about whether money is better spent given directly to people in a community or funneled through a larger organization or institution. I said then and I still believe now that it doesn't really matter which way money is allotted, what matters is who ends up in charge of that money. The question is, is the community member who gets the money honest, hard-working, with everyone's benefit in mind or only their own. The same can be applied to any number of people that work in an organization, are they sincere, transparent, and willing to put people before the organization. As a community artist I have worked in both kinds of circumstances, ones in which the people in charge of money are selfish, focused on politics or just disorganized and in each of these cases, whether it was an individual or an institution, the money ends up being spent poorly and the project having little if any lasting effect. I have also worked with individuals and organizations who put the good of all involved before themselves or their own gain, and before institutional politics. In these cases I have seen the most successful and lasting projects completed. It really does depend on who is in charge of the money and what their priorities are.