Ann Markusen – How do we know Creative Placemaking is working? [VIDEO]

Ann Markusen is Director of the Arts Economy Initiative and the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and Principal of Markusen Economic Research. She is a researcher, frequent public speaker, and advisor to public agencies, policymakers, businesses, economic developers, and nonprofit organizations across the US, in Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia and Brazil. Her expertise is in economic development at the state and local level, where she brings analytical skills to bear on the ways that industries and occupations shape possibilities for creating good work. Markusen is currently serving as research and writing consultant for the Minnesota House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs.

Her 2010 report Creative Placemaking, authored along with Anne Gadwa, is still considered the defining document of the creative placemaking movement. The report remains a key resource for mayors, arts organizations, the philanthropic sector, and others interested in understanding strategies for leveraging the arts to help shape and revitalize the physical, social, and economic character of place.

Ann Markesun discusses her new report, “Creative Placemaking,” commissioned by the NEA Mayors’ Institute on City Design:

In this plenary session Ann Markusen led a discussion in an attempt to answer the following important questions: What are the missions of creative placemaking? How can we monitor progress over short periods of time? What research methods are best suited to the challenge? Who are the audiences for evaluation? What’s your best story about how research and evaluation led to better outcomes, and for whom?

Session Video: