Jill - I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but maybe in a few months when you're all settled in, you can check in with the local town hall or chamber of commerce and see how things are run. They might have open positions for you to help in very artistic ways, doing things that you can see immediate results with and get happy feedback from the whole town. That could be *very* cool

I know here in my town that there are groups that for example do things with the town green, and with the park along the river and so on. So they get a budget and everything and are able to beautify our town.