As 2019 comes to a close we take a moment to look back at all the amazing partnerships, reports, announcements, new endeavors, and more released this year!
A Year of Summits
Our 2019 Annual ArtPlace Summit in Jackson, MS, gathered our community of colleagues from the field of creative placemaking – projects and organizations we have been able to support, our foundation and government partners, and the researchers, advisors, and colleagues who help shape our work. You can view a record of the 2019 plenaries here and visit our blog for recaps and deep dives into the subjects discussed at the Summit.
We also attended six creative placemaking summits organized by our friends at the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. Each CPL Summit contributes to the growing field by offering all practitioners—from those with a lifetime of experience to those just starting out—the opportunity to learn from one another, share their experiences, and broaden their networks. Check out the 2019 recaps here and where they will be in 2020.
Artists Lead! and State Arts Agencies
To support artists’ leadership development and knowledge building, we are partnering with ioby to offer Artists Lead! – a flexible funding opportunity for creative placemaking projects led by artists. This partnership allows artists to learn by doing, putting smaller infusions of cash directly into their hands, providing one-on-one fundraising coaching, and project development support.
State Arts Agencies are being supported through our partnership with The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) – a research, professional development, and networking opportunity for Community Development Coordinators in all 56 U.S. states and territories. This initiative is designed to empower state arts agency community development staff in their varied roles as facilitators and bridge builders.
Creative Placemaking Shared Values
For two years, four organizations have worked to coordinate their investments into a strong and sustainable national field of creative placemaking. Together, they created a free discussion guide designed for creative placemaking initiative partners to surface and develop agreement on a shared understanding of the underlying values in their work.
Creativity Lives Here
We recently wrapped up the first eight weeks of our Creativity Lives Here social media campaign—a year-long digital storytelling project to showcase the people and places behind creative community development. #CreativityLivesHere is a collection of grassroots video stories from amazing artists, community planners, local leaders, and allies, who are sharing the ideas, challenges, and inspirations that drive their work every day.
The campaign launched on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in September, and after eight weeks it reached over 30,000 views! Add your voice today!
Community Food Systems, Health and Arts & Culture
ArtPlace released two field scans this year exploring the relationship between arts and culture, public health, and community food systems.
"Cultivating Creativity: Exploring Arts & Culture in Community Food Systems Transformation" is the fifth in ArtPlace’s series of Creative Placemaking Field Scans. Created in partnership with DAISA, this new report explores how arts and cultural practices can be better leveraged to create equitable and place-based food systems change across the country - spanning rural, tribal, and urban settings. The scan includes framing, cases studies, and recommendations to advance work happening at this intersection and to serve as a resource for practitioners.
The "Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-sector Collaboration" white paper frames the value of the arts and culture for advancing health and well-being in communities. It offers examples and recommendations for expanding cross-sector collaboration and innovation. It also offers value and guidance to community development, arts and culture, and other allied health sectors by providing examples of impactful cross-sector collaborations that engage arts and culture to address five critical public health issues: collective trauma, racism, social isolation and exclusion, mental health, and chronic disease.
Higher Education Grants
For the next generation of changemakers, ArtPlace is investing $2 million in seven colleges and universities across the U.S. Grants will help advance the field of creative placemaking in supporting healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities. Institutions are growing and sustaining the knowledge base and increasing access to teaching and learning about creative placemaking. Each of the seven institutions developed a different approach to building the creative placemaking field. Learn more here.
Local Control and Local Fields
In May we introduced the initiative: Local Control, Local Fields. This people-powered investment in locally controlled resources aims to strengthen fields of practice in distinct geographies around the U.S. Learn how our approach was developed, what makes it different, and what to watch for in our blog post.
Transforming Community Development Through Arts and Culture
The new edition of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Community Development Innovation Review - "Transforming Community Development Through Arts & Culture" - explores an evolving era in community development that infuses art and cultural practice with that of community development organizations to help residents reclaim community identity, strengthen cultural resilience, and build power to shape neighborhood planning. Read more about this edition.
Working with Artists to Deepen Impact
At the 2019 Annual ArtPlace Summit we announced the release of the "Working with Artists to Deepen Impact" brief which takes a deep dive into how six community development organizations learned to work with artists and develop collaborative practices together. It offers valuable takeaways for community development corporations, nonprofit housing developers, park associations, health services providers, economic development agencies, and any organization that would like to explore working with artists to deepen their impact. Learn more here.
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