Free creative placemaking guide available from National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts has published How to Do Creative Placemaking: An Action-Oriented Guide to Arts in Community Development. The book features 28 essays from thought leaders active in arts-based community development, as well as 13 case studies of projects funded through the NEA’s creative placemaking program, Our Town.

How to Do Creative Placemaking is intended as a primer for those interested in bringing the arts to the community development table as a tool—along with housing, transportation, public health and other sectors—to advance revitalization efforts in an authentic way.

The book is available for free (as a hard copy or PDF download.)

“The book is meant to help people start working with the arts to make their place better,” says NEA Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Jason Schupbach, “We wanted to create something easy to use and full of options for communities to begin doing this work, or to improve what they have already started.”

The book is divided into six chapters, “Inclusive Planning + Equitable Development,” “Economic Opportunity,” “Community Identity + Belonging,” “Arts + Government,” “Arts + Physical Infrastructure,” and “Arts + Community Development Organizations.”

A sample of the essays:
• “Five Lessons Learned for a Successful Public Art Project,” by Americans for the Arts’ Patricia Walsh
• “Can Arts Drive Rural Economic Development?” by USDA Rural Development’s Chris Beck and the International Sonoran Desert Alliance’s Tracy Taft
• “Ethics of Development: A Shared Sense of Place,” by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture’s María Lopez de León
• “How Can a Planning Authority Work with an Artist to Improve Public Health Outcomes for Residents?” by the City of Fargo, North Dakota’s Nichole Crutchfield

Since 2011, the NEA has awarded more than $30 million to support 389 Our Town projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Via: National Endowment for the Arts