While artists and the arts are often overlooked in community development strategies, they can be a vital economic catalyst, particularly in Native American communities, a report from the First Peoples Fund and ArtSpace finds. Conducted in collaboration with the Northwest Area Foundation, LINC, and Colorado State University's Department of Anthropology, the report, Establishing a Creative Economy: Art as an Economic Engine in Native Communities (40 pages, PDF), highlights successful efforts in Native communities to leverage the arts in support of sustainable economic growth. According to the report, providing Native artists with improved access to markets, supplies, credit, business knowledge, informal networks, and work and meeting space not only helps boost their visibility and success, it also enables them to build assets and wealth and assume leadership roles in their communities while enhancing their communities' cultural assets.