Author: Schupbach, Jason

Publication Year:

Media Type: Report

Summary:

This book is to help you understand what are the tools for arts-based community development. It’s a primer, and a scan of where some of the best thinking is in 2016. It’s meant to help get you started.

Abstract:

SO YOU’RE A MAYOR WHO WANTS TO make your city better, or you’re a resident of a neighborhood where development is out of control, or you work at a community development organization and are trying to improve the plaza where kids play and folks meet up, or you work in a small town and want to improve Main Street, or you work in a planning or economic development office and are trying to find new ways to engage the public in a project. Since you care about making your place better, you follow the current thinking in planning and community development, and you’ve been hearing a new term—creative placemaking. What is that, you say? Something about the arts? You love the arts, but what do the arts have to do with making your place better? You want to know how to do creative placemaking.

This book is for you.

In 2009, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) decided to focus on the role of arts organizations, artists, and designers in making better places and decided to call it “creative placemaking.” It’s a term that basically means giving the arts a seat at the community development table. In other words, when you are focusing on a new real estate development, transit opportunities, safety issues, public health crises, or other issues that impact how a place affects a resident’s life, the arts should be one of the tools you consider using. You might know how to work with housing finance tools, or road engineering tools, or zoning—this book is to help you understand what are the tools for arts-based community development. It’s a primer, and a scan of where some of the best thinking is in 2016. It’s meant to help get you started. [p.1]

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Cultural Planning, Community Development