The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (SF Fed) publishes the Community Development Investment Review, a journal that brings together to bridge the gap between theory and practice in providing capital to low-and moderate-income communities. The journal leverages a broad spectrum of contributors ranging from government and nonprofits to financial institutions and beneficiaries to research and disseminate best practices.
In January 2015 the SF Fed published a special issue on creative placemaking that included articles from a range of thought leaders working within the creative placemaking field including: Jane Chu/Jason Schupbach (National Endowment for the Arts); Gary Hattem (Deutsche Bank); Rip Rapson (Kresge Foundation); Darren Walker (Ford Foundation); and our own Executive Director, Jamie Bennett. In addition it also included 16 cases studies from ArtPlace grantees that share the impetus behind their projects, strategies they deployed, and their progress up to the date of printing. Laura Callanan served as guest editor (former senior deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts).
This resource is a great starting point for those seeking to get a more nuanced understanding of the field. It proposes a framework for four things that Creative Placemaking does, four ways it does them, and the 16 projects sit at each of the framework’s intersections.
As a further resource, John Williams, President of the SF Fed, hosted a launch event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that included a series of presentations and discussions. Among them were panels on The Journey to Creative Placemaking, which discussed the journey of several foundations towards creative placemaking and what value it has brought into their work; and one diving into the Practitioner’s Perspective on how creative placemaking has affected things like infrastructure and community in specific cases.
You can watch the videos here and read the full Creative Placemaking issue here.
Our hats off to Ian Galloway and the SF Fed Community Development team for such a substantive contribution to the field!