Next up for the ART for Life program is a series of mural projects, starting with one at the detention center. "It will be done in phases of six-week increments," Taylor said. "The kids in detention now are doing the background layer and the next group will do the next layer."

The ART for Life project is supported by Brazos County, the cities of College Station and Bryan, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Brazos Community Foundation and the Barbara Bush Literacy Corps. But, Taylor says, additional community financial support is vital for this and other council projects, especially in the face of the aforementioned funding reductions.

The city has hired a consultant to train local community groups, non-profits and the City Council to help improve leadership and implement some of the ideas generated at the Galesburg Advantage Visioning forums.

Six visioning forums earlier this year were attended by hundreds of local people who came together to discuss ideas to improve Galesburg. The city is now working to take those discussions to the next level by building a structure to develop ideas aired at the meetings.

The visioning process, which began at the Galesburg Advantage forums, has been refined to focus on three areas: Bringing ideas to fruition through partnering local agencies with themes; targeting participation with traditionally under-represented populations; and building capacity in local agencies to support the vision concepts and cultivate leadership.

Later in the fall, Galesburg Advantage will match those themes with local organizations which can begin to tackle them. The two workshops in September will be sponsored by the city in partnership with Galesburg Community Foundation, Carl Sandburg College and University of Illinois Extension.

The visioning sessions finished in April and the city has been working with a number of local groups to see how ideas generated at the forum can be developed.

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