Creative Placemaking: The Role of Arts in Community Development

The Wilson Center, together with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kresge Foundation, ArtPlace America, and Partners for Livable Communities, hosted a convening on December 6, 2016 to celebrate the NEA’s 50th anniversary with the launch of the publication, How to Do Creative Placemaking. 

The conference brought together artists, community development experts, and policymakers to examine the role of the arts in shaping neighborhoods, towns and cities. Panelists reflected on successful initiatives and remaining challenges, identifying key policy and field needs to sustain creative placemaking work in the long term.

New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu offered framing remarks drawing from his experience working with communities, arts organizations, and artists to make New Orleans a safer, more inclusive, and economically vibrant city.

Rip Rapson, President and CEO of the Kresge Foundation, provided a keynote address on the role that arts and cultural creativity can play as a driving force for community revitalization and neighborhood transformation. 

The convening included performances by Vanessa German, Artist and Founder of Love Front Porch and ARThouse, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and by Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira, Rapper, Actor, and Sheriff’s Deputy, Oakland, California. The conference featured an exchange of ideas about the integration of arts and community development with three panels on:

• Where Creative Placemaking is Now, a conversation between Maria Rosario Jackson, Senior Adviser for Arts and Culture at the Kresge Foundation, Jamie Bennett, Executive Director, ArtPlace America, and Jason Schupbach, NEA Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs
• What Creative Placemaking Looks Like, a panel discussion moderated by Laura Zabel, Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts
• Where Creative Placemaking Intersects, a panel discussion moderated by Lyz Crane, Deputy Director of ArtPlace America

A webcast of the full event can be viewed above (three parts can be accessed from the icon at the top left of the video window) and the full agenda can be viewed below.

The NEA publication, How to Do Creative Placemaking, is available at:
go.usa.gov/x8Qq9