ArtPlace

ARTPLACE AMERICA (Artplace) was a ten-year, $150 million collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that operated from 2010 to 2020. Our mission was to position arts and culture as a core sector of equitable community planning and development. You can learn about the story of ArtPlace in our book.

Over ten years, to help establish and strengthen the field of creative placemaking, ArtPlace invested in demonstration projects through the National Creative Placemaking Fund; organizational change through the Community Development Investments program; cross-sector research, knowledge, and network building; strategies to vest power in local assemblies through Local Control, Local Fields; the creation of resources for arts and culture, local government, and higher education stakeholders; and storytelling and bringing people together. The network of colleagues we’ve engaged through these initiatives, along with many of our foundation partners and others across the country are carrying the work and the field forward. We acknowledge that we didn’t always get it right and our reflection on that is here.

This website will remain as an archive. A secondary website archive can be found here. Additional resources and materials can be found at the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (A2RU).

A FINAL FAREWELL: As we culminate a decade of helping establish and strengthen the field of creative placemaking, we thank the many colleagues and partners who guided our work. In reflecting on all we have done collectively, we celebrate with joy all who will continue this work in the years ahead.

AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: In the ten years of ArtPlace, we have thoughtfully attempted to move with equity towards justice. We affirm that equity and justice are central to the field of creative placemaking, and as an influential actor in the field, we acknowledge hat we didn’t always get it right. We are hopeful that you will continue to transform the field by putting anti-oppression at the core.

THE ROLE OF ARTS AND CULTURE IN EQUITABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: A VISUAL ANALYSIS is a comprehensive analysis that cuts across all ten sectors, presented through an interactive infographic.

ARTPLACE: 10 YEARS tells the story of ArtPlace America. ArtPlace brought together a range of private philanthropy into coordinated partnership, then funded nearly 300 creative placemaking, placekeeping, and placetending initiatives across the country.