Members of our Public Art Program attended the 2019 National Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. The annual summit brought together, grantmakers, artists, arts administrators, policymakers, urban designers, and planners for a dialog about the different questions and success stories around creative placemaking.
Conference presenters included both non-profit organizations and local government agencies looking for creative, engaging solutions to local challenges. Higher education researchers and economic developers also shared meaningful dialog about the design of a neighborhood and how the impact of where you live has on your health and safety.
Presentations from local, Indigenous female artists also set the tone regarding the intentional creation of space and using cultural identity as the foundation for developing these specialized places.
Not only did the conference highlight urban projects and programming, but it also recognized the rise in placemaking initiatives in suburban and rural areas of the country. In these areas, creative placemakers identified community assets, such as businesses, infrastructure, and anything that can support and drive a community forward.
In all, the conference demonstrated how collective partnerships between non-profits and local government agencies can work together to enrich cities and their artistic communities to help address challenges around affordable housing for artists, grants for entrepreneurs, exposure for small business owners, and residents who live and work in these spaces.