Reaching for the Unreachable:
The vision of America's, and Maryland's influential developer, Jim Rouse

     "The valid purpose of a civilization is not to grow corn, or to build buildings, or build ships, or build industry, or to do any of these things. There can be only one clear central objective of a civilization. And that is to grow better human beings, to stimulate and evoke their gifts, strengthen personality, strengthen the fulfillment of the individual in his sense of self, and his relationship to mankind.

     As a civilization we must navigate by a north star we don't expect to reach. As we look at community it is right that we have goals and purposes and targets that are beyond our reach. But surely that most civilized city would be that one in which the dignity of the individual human being would be so elevated that the bringing forth of his gifts and talents for his own fulfillment in the service of man would be the ultimate objective.

     In our role as a developer we find that we have two main opportunities with regard to the arts. First, its to present art so that it can be seen and heard and felt in places that are beyond the walls of the museum and the private collections. To bring art to the market place, to the community, to public squares, to plazas in ways that causes it to bring to light a sense of beauty, challenge, discovery. And second, to provide a platform in public places where budding artists can perform, stretch, grow, and become great. If they never become great in world terms or community terms, then they become great in their own terms. And that would have brought forth their gifts to their own extent."

-Jim Rouse, 1998 recipient Governor's Arts Awards for Arts Patron (Posthumous)

     Through the founding of The Rouse Company and The Enterprise Foundation, the late Jim Rouse's ideas about communities transformed American cities. His wide-ranging ideas touched many details of community living, including the arts. In 1967 Rouse was a founder of the Business Committee for the Arts, a national group of executives based in New York City committed to corporate leadership for the arts. An early initiative was the establishment of Art in the Marketplace, a program to place visual and performing arts in Rouse Company projects. A notable example was the long-running Brass Festival at Cross Keys in Baltimore and the commissioning of the sculpture, The People Tree, in Columbia. He was one of the founders of The Columbia Foundation, which for twenty years has supported wide-ranging arts and cultural activities in Howard County. In addition, the company that bears his name carries on a philanthropic tradition to support the arts and culture. His final art project was the Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts in Columbia, a national model for integrating performance with teaching spaces at Wilde Lake High School.