Stories
Sep 29, 2015
I am just back from Common Field’s Hand-in-Glove 2015 convening in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, where I joined a panel discussing advocacy with Artists Space’s Richard Birkett, University of Texas’s Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts’ Sheila Smith. As often happens, “advocacy” almost instantly became elided with “public funding for the arts,” and the conversation quickly centered on the National Endowment for the Arts (where... Read More
Sep 23, 2015
After completing our first full round of the National Grants Program together, Leila and I realized how critical it is to get off the proverbial treadmill and take some time to reflect on our work. We want to get to know our previous grantees better, and wrap our heads around everything we’ve learned since starting at ArtPlace.... Read More
Sep 15, 2015
For those who don't know ArtPlace's origin story, it might be surprising to hear that the idea behind fifteen foundations, eight federal agencies, and six financial institutions coming together to support creative placemaking was incubated at one of Washington's smallest federal agencies (both in terms of budget and staff). The seed was planted very early on in... Read More
Sep 04, 2015
As we've continued unpacking the ArtPlace matrix, a pattern has emerged: each sector intersects with and is impacted by several others. Transportation (the mechanisms by which citizens navigate their community including sidewalks, public transit, traffic intersections, bike lanes, etc) is no exception. Rochelle Carpenter, who leads outreach for Transportation for America in Nashville, TN, began by pointing... Read More
Aug 30, 2015
Today we announced an $18 million investment in six place-based organizations around the country to incorporate arts & culture into their community development work. In this post, our Deputy Director and Community Development Investments Program Manager Lyz Crane reflects on the moment.
Today’s announcement of the Community Development Investments program participants feels like a commencement to me: a culmination of... Read More
Aug 28, 2015
"A healthy community is a safe community," says Ronald Davis, the Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) of the US Department of Justice. "The greatest deterrent to crime and violence is not a community saturated with cops, it is a neighborhood alive with residents." This quote was recounted to us by Devinder Culver, the... Read More
Aug 25, 2015
Last month, ArtPlace Program Assistant Leila Tamari visited The Cooper’s Ferry Partnership team to learn more about their Camden Night Gardens project. In this post, she takes a look at how government approaches to public safety have changed over time and are working in conjunction with creative placemaking projects of Cooper’s Ferry.
Google “Camden, NJ,” and the first... Read More
Aug 20, 2015
Housing is widely regarded as an essential human need, and—as residential building stock—it’s often one of the first visual signals within a community. As HUD Secretary Julian Castro recently tweeted, “A home is more than four walls and a roof, it’s a springboard from where folks can reach their dreams.” While housing literally refers to the spaces... Read More
Aug 18, 2015
We’re excited to kick-off a new series of posts focusing on creative placemaking resources. You’ll notice that our website now sports a Library which will contain a combination of best practices, toolkits, and other interesting material that we come across over time. It will be a mix of foundational resources that long pre-date our work, and new material at... Read More
Aug 13, 2015
Right off the bat, Rupal Sanghvi pointed out that “Public Health” might be a better title for this matrix sector over “Health and Human Services” to reflect this broader conceptualization when considering the contributions of arts and culture. Public health and wellness are not limited to the confines of clinical care or services, whereas often health and human... Read More