Tom Borrup is Senior Lecturer and Director of Graduate Studies for the Arts and Cultural Leadership and Civic Engagement Programs at the University of Minnesota and a community and cultural planning consultant. Andrew Zitcer is an associate professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he directs the Urban Strategy graduate program.
"""Borrup and Zitcer strike a timely proposition for the critical role of creative practices to advance cultures of democracy. In the face of current forces that threaten the foundations of democracies around the world, Democracy as a Creative Practice assembles fresh, inspiring, and instructive stories by frontline creative practitioners responding to these threats in a range of rural, urban, educational, municipal, and community settings and contexts. Field thought leaders introduce thematically organized essays layering in illuminating theory and reflections that lend depth and new insights and reverberate throughout the book."" Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, former Co-directors, Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts ""In a time of deepening gloom about democracy, Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer’s edited collection, with examples of cultural organizing from around the world, is a source of hope and inspiration. The book is particularly valuable for its detailed look at cultural workers and citizen artists on the front lines of civic renewal and democracy building."" Harry C. Boyte, Emeritus Senior Scholar, Augsburg University, author, Awakening Democracy through Public Work"