Community development through the arts is a process of creating bridges between people. The education and training for student-teaching-artists confronts them with real-world challenges and the need for sensitivity as they move in and out of many different communities. In this article, the author, an interdisciplinary artist, describes an innovative course that seeks to engage aspiring teaching artists (TAs) with the communities that surround them. She shares her experience in teaching an "Arts and Community Development" course in her first year on faculty at Columbia College Chicago in spring 2009. The course was designed to introduce students to theory and practice of the arts as social action. The author shares that the semester was a rewarding experience for her as a young teacher in helping students to explore roles of artists in entering various communities and deciphering "otherness." (Contains 5 figures.)