Tom Borrup is a national leader and innovator in creative community building – leveraging cultural and other community assets to advance economic, social, civic, and physical development. Based in Minneapolis, he consults with cities, foundations, and nonprofits across the U.S. His work integrates the arts, economic development, urban planning and design, civic engagement, and animation of public space.
Borrup has written many articles for publications in the arts, city planning and philanthropy. His book, The Creative Community Builders’ Handbook, was released in July 2006, by Fieldstone Alliance. It tracks communities that have transformed their economic, social, and physical infrastructures through the arts, and includes a step-by-step planning guide.
As Executive Director of Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis from 1980 until 2002, Borrup developed a nationally-recognized multidisciplinary, cross-cultural organization in a diverse urban community. In 2002 he expanded on his knowledge of architecture, design and planning as a Fellow in the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture. That year he was also awarded a St.Paul/Travelers Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods grant to travel and study the role of art and culture in community development.
He teaches for the Graduate Program in Arts Administration at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, and for the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in Liberal Arts, and M.A. in Communications and Public Policy, from Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. He’s currently enrolled in the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.
