A community-based project often grows organically, with various elements added as implementation proceeds. However, if you want to ensure a successful and fun process, there are things you should think about before beginning project implementation. The Guide sheets referenced in this section can also be found under at http://www.artsresourcenetwork.org/community_arts/developing_a_project/tools.asp.)

Defining the possibilities*
The first thing you must do is to discover and collect possibilities, to come together to share ideas and intuitions which will enable you to decide what to attempt. It is crucial, in stage one, to be non-judgmental. Judging too early inhibits the discovery of a wide range of possibilities and techniques. The time for judgment comes later.

This is the time to explore and gather and give examples of what others have done. Use any and all ways you can think of to elicit possibilities from people. When you are deciding who to involve, be broad-based - the more kinds the merrier - and don't call it a committee!

You can begin by identifying possible project themes or concepts which will "glue" the project together. A theme unifies a project, but more than that, a theme chosen early helps you think about what activities you might include. Themes might center on a particular art form or suggest several forms. Themes can be rooted in local history, local landscape, community issues, or broad social issues with a local interest.

Making Connections*
The next stage of the creative process is to discover the connections between:
1. The collaborators intuition and desires and the collection of possibilities, and
2. The human resources available

It is time for the collaborators to persuade themselves into a plan and a process, put that into words, and start connecting to the resource called people. Whose cooperation and excitement can you enlist to make this collaboration successful?

This stage also suggests looking at what others are doing and have done - who else has played creatively with these ideas? What can you learn from them?

It is time for the collaborators to focus on what each of them can bring to this work of art and time to focus on the kind of role each can best play in the group of collaborators - how can you all work best together?

Creating the Collaboration*
This stage of the creative process goes past conceptualization, past networking. Now the focus becomes the dynamics of the collaboration. What needs to be done? How can the collaborators best complement each other? How are responsibilities to be divided? How are decisions to be made and management accomplished?

Perhaps most important of all, how can the collaborators continue to learn from each other and discover new functional connections among their special talents?

Identifying Outcomes and Evaluating the Project*
In any collaborations, the purely creative impulse must intersect the practical limitations any project has.
At this stage, participants must ask, "How is it working? Does the plan still hold together? Is this project feasible?" At this stage, all collaborators must agree on goals.

Budgeting and Fundraising*
This stage of collaboration requires estimating and going after financial and contributed resources. Collaborators know they have to raise funds to support their mutual goals. Testing the plan against a budget, describing the plan as a narrative, and figuring out how to raise money are the problems to be addressed in this stage.

Ensuring Positive Experience*
A big part of any collaboration is the nitty-gritty - making sure things work, in the right way and in the best order. Here is where collaborators look to technical and practical resources. Do the collaborators have all the knowledge and experience needed? Does anyone need additional tools and materials? What are the details - of relationships, scheduling, contracts, and materials - that will ensure not only the expressed goals, but ensure that each collaborator will learn from and enjoy the experience?

Fine Tuning as You Go Along*
A collaboration is a process in flux; things are planned, but if it's going well, things keep changing. Being alert to opportunities for improving the project is central to collaboration. There is no point at which the collaborators stop nourishing each other.

Like any other process, you must look to discover ways to harmonize the inevitable discords that occur. You also must find ways to review and check the plans to ensure that valuable concepts have not been lost along the way.

Sharing Your Success*
Although the process is as important as the product, artistic collaborations end in some kind of sharing: publication, display, performance. Making sure this happens well is one of the collaborators' responsibilities. Getting the word out, with media coverage, mailings, posters and other kinds of publicity is central to a satisfactory ending and sense of closure. Success is in product as well as process, of course, and a successful conclusion allows similar collaborations to take place in the future.

*A handbook for Rural Arts Collaborations Copyright © COMPAS 1994