At Free Street we think of a community in the same way a biologist would think about an ecosystem. A community that is a single group of people cut off from others or a single crop (like a farmer’s corn field) is the hardest to grow and most energy deficient. A deciduous forest with overlapping communities of trees, bugs, animals, birds, brush, flowers and many other life forms is going to be the most stable. This overlapping community will also be able to withstand considerable stress within itself.

Free Street does not draw lines around people and say "this is our community". Rather than separating into narrow notions of 'community' we seek mutual acceptance through creative endeavor.
We learn to love each other by working together. We learn creativity is the organic language of individual genius, civic engagement, and collective joy.

Free Street enters long-term partnerships because substantive change takes time. Over time you can stumble, make mistakes, even insult each other, and be able to work through it to grow respect and love. In partnerships with our youth participants, our emerging artists, our teaching artists, and colleague organizations, we all change, we all move forward, we all evolve.