Reviews
Sometimes a book is more than a book. It’s a map, it’s a vision, it’s an engine. Beyond Our Imagination achieves this. As the authors tell the stories of community arts in Lima, Ohio that span decades, they show the way community arts invigorate, inspire, and transform our lives and the places we live. The book powers the reader, the next generation, in the direction of what else can and should be done.
MAYOR DAVID BERGER
David Berger has resided in Lima since 1977—initially as director of Rehab Project, a
community development agency and in 1989, as mayor of City of Lima.
If you have been asked or asked yourself “What difference are you making?” you owe it to yourself to spend a few hours with Beyond Our Imagination. The beautifully told stories of significant community art projects in Lima, Ohio reveal the subtle architecture of this creative, collective work—how it is made and how it makes a difference. Beyond Our Imagination offers a rich multi-voiced retrospective look at projects that responded to conditions in Lima and their cumulative value over time. It is an important social history for community arts and creative placemaking in America and should be widely shared.
BARBARA SCHAFFER BACON
Barbara Schaffer Bacon co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts.
During my days as a young arts administrator, my collogues and I looked to Lima, Ohio as one of our “go to” examples. Martie MacDonell envisioned a new role for the arts in a community. We young’uns watched closely. When you read Beyond Our Imagination, you will see why. As a community arts historian myself, what’s especially exciting is seeing Martie’s ideas, considered cutting edge at the time, now are broadly embraced in the field. I proudly stand on Martie’s shoulders.
MARYO GARD EWELL
Maryo Gard Ewell is retired from 35 years in arts administration at the state and community
level most recently at the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley, Colorado and
currently, is a board member of the Robert E. Gard Foundation.
In this handsomely illustrated and engaging narrative, Martie MacDonell and Molly Weis put a vivid exclamation point on a forty-year history of community arts projects in Lima, Ohio. They reveal what locals have long known: arts with community purpose invigorates the perpetual necessity of renewal. This is a moving, beautifully illustrated and profoundly exciting book.
PERRY BUSH
Perry Bush is professor of history, Bluffton University and author of Rustbelt Resistance,
How a Small Community Took on Big Oil and Won (2012).
Stories of the person to person work required to organize cultural development and build community are more crucial than ever, especially in this era of social media as social justice, cross- sector collaboration, creative placemaking and seismic demographic transformation. Beyond Our Imagination...is full of these stories. The often invisible labor of building trust and sheer will has never been more vital nor compelling than in this tale of a place (Lima and Allen County) and its characters (Martie MacDonell chief among a powerful assemblage). Come for the narrative, stay for the hope—it’s a page turner.
MICHAEL ROHD
Michael Rohd is founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre, lead artist for
civic imagination with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, and institute
professor at the Herberger Institute of Design and Art Arizona State University.
I could not put down Beyond Our Imagination. Reading the dramatic moments during the civic center’s development, felt like paging through a thriller. Seeing arts impact race relations was like watching West Side Story. Then the moments of many residents joining two different elements of the community—a huge abandoned locomotive erecting shed for a symphony pops concert—was like reading a mystery. How was this possible? Finally, the whole book features characters taking on impossible tasks,
reminded me of a love story and a superhero movie.
I’ve lived in Lima since 1989 and I never understood the arts could have such impact on a community’s self-perception, emotional well-being, and economic vitality. I have a deeper appreciation of the creativity, fearlessness, stamina, and bodacious-ness of these efforts. The mutual love of Lima/Allen County united so many to pursue their unremitting belief that the arts can help us rise above the narrow limits and stereotypes of our beliefs. This is so much more than a history. It is a love story, a mystery, a thriller, and the story of superheroes who live among us. Thank you Martie and Molly for this gift.
MICHAEL SCHOENHOFER
Michael Schoenhofer is the retired executive director of the Mental Health and
Recovery Services Board of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin Counties and
author of Stumbling Into Happiness (2017)