Drawing Partners Together: A Report on the Practice of Responding to Partnership Requests for Community and University Arts Collaboration

Abstract

NSCAD University is a visual arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, that houses the NSCAD-TD Centre for Community Service Learning (the Centre). The Centre’s purpose  is to manage and promote community part- nership requests with the institution. While community service learning and community– university partnership approaches necessarily inform the Centre’s operation, these need to be modified to reflect NSCAD’s unique position in art and design education. Each partnership request is assigned to one of three partner- ship categories, based on distinct criteria that account for NSCAD’s mission, the duration of the partnership, the level of NSCAD involve- ment, and the support capacity of the Centre. Using these criteria, partnerships are addressed in a consistent, sustainable manner that main- tains collaboration and affords room to grow more sophisticated partnership arrangements. The Centre allows prospective partners to access NSCAD’s extraordinary creativity and skilled artists, leading to receptive partnerships that benefit a range of communities.