For a few years now, we’ve been working on ways to best understand the relationship between arts, community engagement and economic development --- and how that research can best inform public policy and community development decisions.

Resulting from TRF’s collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania's Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) and the Rockefeller Foundation, Creativity and Neighborhood Development: Strategies for Community Investment demonstrates that the intrinsic value of arts and culture can be a key ingredient in neighborhood revitalization by nurturing a wide range of local assets, building social capital and promoting entrepreneurial and civic growth. The publication calls for investing in community-based creative activity to enhance its place-making role and potential, and offers investment ideas for three specific areas: creativity, development and knowledge.

You can download this publication as well as learn more about all of the arts-related research conducted by our team here: http://www.trfund.com/resource/creativity.html

It’s from this body of work that our idea for a data-rich, publicly accessible, Creative Asset Mapping tool was born.