A field guide is designed to help you identify the unfamiliar. This is different. It begins with what you already know something about, your own community, and encourages you to take a closer look.

This guide provides exercises in observation and community organizing designed to help you assess and develop the artistic potential within your own community. We hope this publication will help in many ways:

• As a tool individuals can take home to learn more about their own communities.
• As a new way of working in communities to develop a wider audience for the arts.
• As a way of learning how local resources can assist community cultural development.

CONTENTS
How can Maine communities discover and enrich their cultural life?
As a tool individuals can take home to learn more about their own communities.
As a new way of working in communities to develop a wider audience for the arts.
As a way of learning how local resources can assist community cultural developments.

We are all shaped by place.
     Geographic boundaries.
     Conceptual boundaries.
          A place may be defined by political entities.
          A place may be defined by administrative districts.
          A place may be defined by statistical districts.
          A place may be defined by the businesses or organizations.
          A place may be culturally defined by groups of people who originally settled or
          currently live in or use an area.
          A place may be defined by its major economic activity (past or present).
     Published maps are also useful in defining the place of your community.
          Map types may include....
               Theme maps may illustrate special aspects of an area.
               Mental maps.
     Local cultural expressions are also wayfinders. 
          Creating a cultural inventory. 
          Local culture connects people with place.

Learn about the key social and economic conditions of your community. 
     Read local history. 
     Attend local festivals.
     Read local newspapers and listen to local radio stations.
     Ask questions.
     Local culture.
     Cultural organizations.
     Ethnic heritage.
     Occupations.
     Artists.
     Arts-in-education.

Community profile. 
     Educational programs. 
     Community celebrations.
     Family programs.
     Intergenerational programs.
     Workplace programs.
     Public art.
     Performances and plays.
     Lewiston-Auburn planning project.
     House island project.
     York County Franco survey.