Water, Arts, and Culture Accelerator
As part of the Water, Arts and Culture Accelerator, the District convened a group of creative collaboration advisors to guide development of projects that:
- Provoke community conversations around water and water stewardship through shared water stories.
- Build a deeper understanding of how all water adds value to and plays an essential role in our lives and communities.
- Identify new ways to express the District’s mission to “protect public health and the environment” and its vision to “enrich life through clean water and resource recovery.”
US Water Alliance’s Advancing One Water through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action was a guiding document for starting these conversations. The Blueprint outlines a thorough value case for utilizing arts & culture strategies for improved water outcomes.
The District’s involvement in the Water, Arts, and Culture Accelerator was largely about process, building relationships and building capacity. The result of the year-long process was a series of recommendations for catalytic projects – how to approach and structure ephemeral projects that help build capacity towards long term projects and programming.
About
In 2020, The District was selected to be one of four utility participants in the inaugural “Water, Arts, and Culture Accelerator” program of the US Water Alliance. The program fostered creative practice and cultural strategy collaborations between artists and utilities.
- 2020 - Engage Creative Collaboration Advisors
- 2021 - Final Report for Catalytic Projects Published - outlines processes for Catalytic Projects
- 2021 through 2023 - Kickoff Catalytic Projects
Reports
Case Study Report from the US Water Alliance, “Becoming a Hub for Community Connection”
Arts Accelerator/Creative Collaboration Advisors’ Final Report
LIFT SEE-IT Scholarship
About
The LIFT SEE IT (Scholarship Exchange Experience for Innovation & Technology) Program is an initiative spearheaded by WE&RF, WEF, and NACWA. It provides scholarships for utility personnel to visit other utilities with innovations of interest and to share experiences with their peers. Innovations may include new technologies and processes, but also novel approaches to services, operations, and finance. LIFT SEE IT is part of a broader clean water sector effort to help provide the tools and resources necessary to help utilities transform their facilities into leading actors in the world of wastewater, stormwater, and water reuse.
In April 2018 District staff were awarded a LIFT SEE IT Scholarship to visit wastewater treatment plants with established educational programming and dedicated staff.
Recognizing that being a Utility of the Future goes beyond just cleaning water, and also “calls for bold, transformational thinking and cooperation in our advocacy, in research and development, and in education and outreach efforts”, the District wanted to learn first-hand, from other plants how they established such programming and spaces.
The Scholarship funding allowed staff to thoroughly interview staff at 5 other wastewater utilities, and to visit four well-established dedicated water-education spaces.
