New publication: Creative placemaking: Integrating community, cultural and economic development

Arts Build Communities has just published a white paper designed to advance the field of creative placemaking:

Creative placemaking: Integrating community, cultural and economic development

Synopsis:

The purpose of this white paper is to further define the new field of creative placemaking by describing how it promotes sustainable outcomes in communities. This paper expands on such foundational works as Creative Placemaking, by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa, which coined the term for the field, and Tom Borrup’s The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook.


Those works and others explain the benefits of creative placemaking: for economic development, they include more jobs and more wealth (by attracting visitors and businesses and keeping more money in the community) and higher property values; for community development, they include more productive civic engagement, bridging cultural divides, and helping youth be better prepared for their futures. The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook also contains steps for creative placemaking and producing sustainable impacts. This white paper provides a theory about why and how communities are impacted by creative placemaking processes.


The problem that this paper is working to address is a number of beliefs and cultural practices within communities that we believe hinder effective creative placemaking. Since 2006, the staff of Arts Build Communities has been studying the elements of creative placemaking. In addition to research on arts-based community and economic development throughout the United States, we interviewed dozens of elected officials, artists, cultural professionals, urban planners and other public affairs professionals. We have also worked formally with several New Jersey communities through our community coaching program, and listened to the concerns, complaints and questions of those who want to do creative placemaking in their towns. Throughout, we came back to the same question: “Why are some communities so much more successful at creative placemaking than others?”


Read Creative placemaking: Integrating community, cultural and economic development