The Community Arts Center Handbook is a collection of illustrated methods to aid arts organizations at various stages of the planning and design process. Setting up a new arts council or improving an existing requires a visioning process that offers community participants opportunities to make their arts concerns known, as well as planned actions to achieve desired outcomes. The effectiveness of an organization depends upon a relationship to its constituents, who may be actual members or the broader public. The transparency of the arts groups' goals can influence the way that media is used to keep the community informed. Consequently, a well-planned communications program delivers information translated into the language of the audience.

Assessing community assets through workshops and surveys of arts activities provides the basis for identifying facility space requirements and such requirements determine the suitability of existing facilities for use as an arts center. Arts groups sometimes embark on a building program without knowing where to begin and who should be involved. It is also evident that each arts group differs in its organization, scope and community support, yet most are similar in their lack of funds and dispersal of activities and locations. Arts groups using this guide will find that they will become better informed about planning, design and management and are better positioned to identify appropriate professionals to implement their ideas.

The Community Arts Center Handbook is a collection of illustrated methods to aid arts organizations at various stages of the planning and design process. Setting up a new arts council or improving an existing requires a visioning process that offers community participants opportunities to make their arts concerns known, as well as planned actions to achieve desired outcomes. The effectiveness of an organization depends upon a relationship to its constituents, who may be actual members or the broader public. The transparency of the arts groups' goals can influence the way that media is used to keep the community informed. Consequently, a well-planned communications program delivers information translated into the language of the audience.