ABC Director receives national planning award for commitment to social justice, diversity and opportunity

Leonardo Vazquez,AICP/PP, a champion of social justice and diversity from Rutgers University, will receive the American Planning Association’s 2012 National Planning Achievement Award for Advancing Diversity & Social Change in Honor of Paul Davidoff.


For more than 15 years Vazquez has been influencing planners to be more culturally competent as well as encouraging Latinos to enter the planning profession. The Davidoff award honors a project, group, or individual for promoting diversity or demonstrating a sustained social commitment to advocacy within the planning field.


“As a leader, educator and author, Leo Vazquez has positively influenced hundreds of planners, helping them to analyze and plan diverse and dynamic communities,” said Marie L. York, FAICP, APA Board Director and 2012 Awards Jury Co-Chair. “He is a champion of diversity, and inspires and energizes everyone he meets.”


"Leo's strong leadership and vision for APA's Latinos and Planning Division was instrumental in bringing in experts, leaders and passionate planners together to create the Dialogo series and in turn the Division itself. He led the Division with his humbleness and patience, bringing out the best in others for leadership and engagement in Division activities. He continues to serve as a great mentor to me and to the Division,” said Vicky Carrasco, Chair of APA’s Latinos and Planning Division.


Vazquez directs Arts Build Communities, a center for creative placemaking, based at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy.  He also developed three other major initiatives there, including Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program, Professional Development Institute and The Leading.  All the initiatives he has developed incorporated elements of diversity and collaborative leadership practices. His book Leading from the Middle: Strategic Thinking for Planning and Community Development Professionals aims to build culturally competent leadership skills. He also is coeditor of the forthcoming Dialogos: Placemaking in Latino Communities and was the principal author of Lagging Behind, a comprehensive quantitative study of ethnic diversity in the planning profession.


Within APA, Vazquez was instrumental in the founding of the Latinos and Planning Division, which focuses exclusively on urban planning challenges facing Latino communities in the United States. He is co-founder of the Planners for Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee for APA’s New York Metro Chapter, which led to other state chapters developing diversity committees.


Vazquez is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a licensed New Jersey Professional Planner.  He is also on the board of the Center for Non-Profits, a statewide advocacy and technical assistance organization for nonprofit organizations in New Jersey.


Vazquez will receive the Advancing Diversity & Social Change Award in Honor of Paul Davidoff at a special awards luncheon held during APA’s National Planning Conference in Los Angeles on April 16, 2012. His work also will be featured in an upcoming issue of Planning magazine, APA’s flagship publication.


To view all of the APA 2012 National Planning Excellence, Achievement, and Leadership Award recipients, visit www.planning.org/awards/2012. APA’s national awards program, the profession’s highest honor, is a proud tradition established more than 50 years ago to recognize outstanding community plans, planning programs and initiatives, public education efforts, and individuals for their leadership on planning issues.


The American Planning Association is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization that provides leadership in the development of vital communities. APA and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, are dedicated to advancing the art, science and profession of good planning -- physical, economic and social -- so as to create communities that offer better choices for where and how people work and live. Members of APA help create communities of lasting value and encourage civic leaders, business interests and citizens to play a meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people's lives. APA has offices in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Ill. For more information, visit www.planning.org.

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Creative Placemaking Master Practitioner Certificate can help you learn urban planning and leadership skills

We're excited to report that there's significant interest in the Creative Placemaking Master Practitioner Certificate program from people outside of the urban planning field.  To make it easier for them to meet the standards of the program, we're going to develop video tutorials and provide primers on urban planning by the time the program starts.

So if you want to become a Creative Placemaker, but don't have training or experience in urban planning -- no worries.  We'll help you.

Want to get started now?  See some videos that provide an overview of planning.  Then you can learn more through the Certificate Program.

Learn more or register for the Master Practitioner Certificate Program.

Learn more about Arts Build Communities

Questions?  Contact ABC Director Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

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ArtPlace Director Carol Coletta to keynote ABC creative placemaking conference in April

A leading voice for urban transformation, now the director of one of the nation's major funders of art-based community and economic development, will highlight the next Arts Build Communities creative placemaking conference on April 4 at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ.

Carol Coletta, Director of ArtPlace, will be the keynote speaker at Create A Place: Arts Build Communities, the second annual creative placemaking conference produced by Rutgers University's Arts Build Communities center.  The conference will be April 4, 8 am to 4 pm, at the Paul Robeson Center at Rutgers University's Newark campus.

The conference focuses on building, growing and sustaining creative communities and creative economies.  It is the only event in New Jersey that brings together elected and appointed officials, artists and cultural leaders, community and economic development professionals, and urban planners and public affairs professionals to learn and exchange ideas about creative placemaking.

This year, the conference is designed to help municipalities build points toward a Sustainable Jersey certification.  Registration is open.  It is $75, which includes breakfast, lunch and an after-conference reception. Register now or send me updates by email or Twitter.

Carol Coletta specializes in developing cities and creative communities. She leads ArtPlace, a new national initiative to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S. ArtPlace is a collaboration of the nation’s top foundations, leading banks, federal agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Prior to joining ArtPlace, Carol was president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a national
network of urban leaders building and sustaining the next generation of great
American cities.

For ten years, she hosted and produced a nationally syndicated public radio show,
Smart City.

She also served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a
partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and
American Architectural Foundation.

Carol is a passionate advocate for cities, and she has devoted her life to answering
the question: What makes cities succeed?

Carol was a Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Miami School of
Architecture and was named one of the world’s 50 most important urban experts by a
leading European think tank. She is a Senior Fellow with the Design Futures Council
and completed graduate work in future studies and design.

ArtPlace is a collaboration of top national foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts and various federal agencies to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S.

Participating foundations include Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, The Robina Foundation and an anonymous donor. In addition to the NEA, federal partners are the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Education and Transportation, along with leadership from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Domestic Policy Council.

Arts Build Communities helps communities and arts-related organizations make better and more cost-effective decisions about community and economic development related to creative industries.  To this end, ABC provides continuing education, capacity building services, thought leadership and practical research.  ABC is a partnership of Rutgers University's Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Partnerships in the Arts and Humanities and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Register for the conference.

Arts Build Communities is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

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ABC launches Master Practitioner Certificate in Creative Placemaking

Arts Build Communities has just launched a new initiative to help urban planners, public affairs professionals, and elected and appointed officials build sustainable creative communities and economies.

The Master Practitioner Certificate in Creative Placemaking program combines learning in creative placemaking skills with client and business development.  Creative placemaking is an emerging field focused on community and economic development through the arts.

The year-long program is entirely online, but learners will be able to meet their classmates in person at least twice a year.  Program faculty include top experts in the field, including Tom Borrup, Juana Guzman and Rhonda Phillips.

Classes begin March 2012, and registration for the program will begin by December 1, 2011.

To earn a Master Practitioner Certificate, learners must pass all six Deep Learning courses, complete at least eight of the ten client/business development sessions, and prepare a reflective paper that demonstrates how they have applied what they learned to a creative placemaking project.

This is a continuing education program and currently is not eligible for graduate credit.  However, it offers more on the subject of creative placemaking than any other training or professional development program.

Arts Build Communities provides expertise on how arts connect economic and community development.  ABC supports creative sector professionals, economic development professionals, elected and appointed public officials, and urban planners -- as well as the communities they serve.  We conduct research, provide training and coaching, and engage in thought leadership.


Arts Build Communities is a center at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.  In addition to the Master Practitioner in Creative Placemaking program, ABC provides these programs and services:

• Community coaching in creative placemaking
• New Jersey Creative Vitality Index
• ABC NJ-ArtiFacts

For more information, please contact ABC Director Leonardo Vazquez by email or 732-932-3822, x711

Arts Build Communities is a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.  It is supported in part by the Council and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

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Please help create a toolkit for building, growing and sustaining creative communities

Please help us create a toolkit for public affairs and cultural professionals who want to build, grow or sustain creative communities.  The toolkit will help us define actions for Sustainable Jersey certification.  It will also be the most comprehensive toolkit of its kind.

On July 27, 2011 starting at 10 am, at the Bloustein School, we’ll gather to do online research to find examples and stories from communities around the country.  We'll look at how they plan and use existing resources, programming and outreach and awareness to support creative communities.  We'll also explore the different ways communities connect the arts with the creative economy and environmentalism.

Everybody who participates will be asked to do guided research on one of 26 topics.  Not a "researcher"? Don't worry.  We'll give you training and guidance, as well as lend you a computer (if you don't have one available to bring.)

You can stay for as long or as little as you wish.  Join us in the morning or in the afternoon -- anytime is a good time to build a creative placemaking tookit!  We'll start at 10 and do as much as we can through the end of the day.

If you can join us, please send a note to Swena Gulati at swena@rutgers.edu.  Please also let us know what times you will be available, and whether you can bring your own laptop.

The school is at 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, New Jersey.  It is a 5-8 minute walk from the train station, and there's street parking and a parking garage nearby.

If you can't make it on July 27, but would like to help out, please Swena know.  There will probably be follow up work to be done.

Hope you can make it.  Yea, it's geeky, but we'll make it fun.

Questions?  Feel free to email Arts Build Communities Director Leonardo Vazquez at vazquezl@rutgers.edu  or call 732-932-3822, x711.

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Work of Arts Build Communities mentioned in Trenton Times

The Trenton Times recently ran a story that mentioned the work of Arts Build Communities in developing a cultural tourism plan in the city.  ABC Director Leonardo Vazquez was also interviewed for the article.

Read the article: Trenton arts community seeks collaboration to drive economic growth in the city

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ABC offers communities coaching in creative placemaking

Neighborhoods, towns, or regions interested in building, growing or sustaining creative communities can get help from Rutgers University's Arts Build Communities.

ABC is offering communities in and around New Jersey four months of coaching in creative placemaking.  This coaching will help community leaders who want to do such things as attract more artists to their communities, make their areas more welcoming for the arts, promote cultural tourism, or take advantage of the growing creative economy.

ABC will provide experts in arts planning, community development, or economic development to community teams.  Each team can have up to 10 people and must have at least one elected official and one working artist.  Teams will meet with their coaches five times over a 16-week period.

Coaches will challenge, support and guide community teams as they explore their creative placemaking goals.  Teams will come away from the experience being able to make smarter, more cost-effective and sustainable choices.

The initiative begins in May 2011 and continues into 2012.  Communities can choose any of three coaching periods -- May through September 2011, October 2011 through February 2012, or March through July 2012.

To learn more about community coaching or to apply, please read about the ABC Cultural Planning Leadership Program community coaching initiative.

Arts Build Communities helps leaders of communities and cultural organizations make better and more sustainable choices in connecting the arts and community and economic development.  It is produced by the Professional Development Institute of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

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