WORKSHOPS
Tools and Techniques

Looking to develop new skills? Choose your own adventure from workshops designed to supply practical tools on specific issues: gain information on sustainable partnerships and creative ecologies; pick up tips on how to better measure the impact of your work; improve your ability to tell compelling narratives about your work. Dig in on field-wide discussions about the values and definitions of creative placemaking.

MONDAY PRE-SUMMIT, MAY 20

DEFINING OUR TERMS - THE WHAT AND WHY OF CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
Facilitated by Margy Waller and Maria Rosario Jackson (The Kresge Foundation)
What are the values and goals of creative placemaking? How do we talk about them to others? Join this interactive session where we’ll collaborate on creating stronger definitions and principles of our work. Together we’ll review a draft statement articulating these ideas and test new tools designed to improve the work of all creative placemaking practitioners.

TUESDAY, MAY 21

ARTS AND ANTI-DISPLACEMENT
Facilitated by Eric Kornacki (ReVision), Jen Krava (Forecast), Jennifer Mei (Wildflowers), Laura McDaniel (NeighborWorks), and Deanna Van Buren (Designing Justice)
What role can creative placemaking play in reducing gentrification and displacement? Community leaders from many backgrounds share strategies and techniques for engaging artists and organizations in the processes of community design and planning. Their stories and experiences will shed light on creative methods for promoting inclusion, reclaiming spaces, and correcting power imbalances.

ARTISTS AND EQUITABLE EVALUATION
Facilitated by Rachel Engh and Susannah Laramee Kidd of Metris Arts
Creative placemaking practitioners and funders are prioritizing equity in their processes and outcomes; are their evaluations doing the same? Get a breakdown on what equitable evaluation is, why it matters, what challenges it presents, and how artists can help. You will gain skills to strengthen your evaluation practice and infuse it with creativity.

COMMUNITY STORYTELLING
Facilitated by Widya Batin (Buchanan Mall Youth Leadership Team), Megan Bullock (MESH), Sophie Constaninou (Citizen Film), and Elizabeth Turner (MESH)
How can communities shape their own narratives effectively, consistently, and affordably? Hear from artists addressing these issues by recording and sharing their stories through video and social media. Learn how to advance your own storytelling initiatives and feature your work in the upcoming Creativity Lives Here campaign through a free storytelling app developed by ArtPlace.

COMMUNITY TRAUMA AND CULTURAL RESILIENCE
Facilitated by Frandelle Gerard (CHANT), Monica Marin, Jomahal Sanes (CHANT), and Meghan Venable-Thomas (Enterprise Community Partners)
How can arts and culture serve a community contending with disaster or chronic stress? Listen to firsthand accounts about the roles that cultural investment and social connection play in supporting community resilience. Learn that protecting against climate change isn’t just about investing in infrastructure but is also about investing in human networks.

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING FROM THE COMMUNITY UP
Facilitated by Judi Jennings and Karen Mack (LA Commons)
How do we ensure that the members of the communities we serve are always at the heart of our strategies? Hear from leaders working in different locales about their strategies to incorporate diverse interests and to overcome built-in structures of inequity. Gain tools to ensure that your projects engage the people most affected by the outcomes.

FACING RESISTANCE, BRIDGING DIFFERENCES
Facilitated by Emily Fuerste Swanson, George Marks, and Ann Markusen
What are cultural strategies for working with rural communities? We'll be talking about the challenges and opportunities to working with rural, working class, and Native American populations, and the bridges arts and culture provide to support regional economies and strengthen civil society. Learn how the individual priorities of artists, arts advocates, farmers, and environmentalists can be harnessed together to galvanize progress.

PEOPLE-POWERED CREATIVE ECOLOGIES
Facilitated by Tosa Two Heart (First Peoples Fund), Jun-Li Wang (Springboard for the Arts), Gus Yellowhair (Tatanka Rez Tourz), Tianna Yellowhair (Tatanka Rez Tourz), and Laura Zabel (Springboard for the Arts)
How do creative ecologies support creative placemaking efforts? Learn from practitioners about two approaches centering indigenous and local artists at the heart of community growth, vibrancy, and economic development. Explore how you can catalyze creative ecologies in your own community, from theory of change to practical strategies and first steps.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22

BEYOND GRANTS: BUILDING LOCAL CREATIVE PLACEMAKING CAPACITY
Facilitated by Rebecca Chan (LISC), Jennifer Hughes (NEA), and Lynne McCormick (LISC) 
How can partnerships help in tackling issues around equity, representation, and sustainability? Learn how to support local communities looking to build capacity for partnering with arts organizations on community development goals. Benefit from hands-on coaching, technical assistance, and peer exchange to develop tools that will improve your work and partnerships in your community.

BUILDING PARTICIPATORY EVALUATIONS
Facilitated by Carolyn Rubin (Tufts University) and Cynthia Woo (Pao Arts Center)
Are your systems for evaluating your projects created in collaboration with your community? Come discuss the methods and techniques behind developing culturally appropriate tools, teams, and data collection. Group scenario discussions in this interactive session will provide a framework for better approaches to inclusive and participatory evaluation.

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING IS AN ANCIENT ART
Facilitated by  Queen Melé Le'iato Tuiasosopo Muhammad Ali (Taupo (Manuia Samoa)  Hakeem Khaaliq (Manuia Samoa), and Ted Jojola, PHD (Indigenous Design + Planning Institute),
Arts-centered community development has been the norm across myriad indigenous cultures for centuries. Rely on that history and experience for lessons in applying creative placemaking across all communities. Learn how connecting place to indigenous culture through art and community development can begin transforming your work.

THE ENVIRONMENT, NARRATIVE, AND CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
Facilitated by Alexis Frasz (Helicon Collaborative) and Brady Walkinshaw (Grist)
At the intersection of arts, community, and the environment, what approaches to storytelling are making waves? Learn about what makes a good story, how to connect to the media, and how to best reach audiences. Discuss your own stories and gain pointers in facilitated breakout groups.

HEALING THROUGH SELF-DETERMINATIN AND CULTURAL REVITALIZATION
Facilitated by Angelo Baca, Dave Conine, Gavin Noyes, and Jonah Yellowman of Utah Dine´Bike´Yah
How can creative placemaking combat racism and injustice and help bring healing to indigenous populations? Hear stories about Native communities in the American West who are empowering themselves through cultural revitalization and gaining political powers, restoring protections, and strengthening their cultures. Learn how culture is empowered by reasserting our relationship to the natural world.

INFLUENCING LOCAL POLICY
Facilitated by Stephanie Fortunato (Providence's Department of Art, Culture + Tourism), Gina Rodríguez-Drix (Providence's Department of Art, Culture + Tourism), Joanna Taft (Harrison Center for the Arts), and Margy Waller
How can creative placemaking impact local policy? Hear from people in Providence, RI and Indianapolis, IN about actively incorporating arts and culture into community safety, well-being, cultural vitality, anti-displacement, and more. Learn from their examples how you might move conversations forward in your town and turn ideas into action.

PROTOTYPING EQUITY IN CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
Facilitated by Nansi Guevara, and Christina Patino Houle of Las Imaginistas
What are the best practices for using art to address equity and justice? Join in on group discussions and activities that will help us prototype strategies for equitable community engagement and collaboration. Gain fresh tools for practicing new methods and approaches toward equity and justice, and for thinking through the implications of your work in your own community.

Our hashtag throughout the summit is #ArtPlaceSummit. For more details and live updates go to the ArtPlace Summit Guidebook App.