All posts tagged as placemaking

16Jan

What can cities and state governments do to foster creative development? [video]

In The Art of Placemaking Conference Videos by Tim Blankenship / 2015/01/16 / No Comments

Creative communities: what are the ingredients of building a creative community? What can cities and state governments do to encourage creative development? How do we break down the silos and encourage collaborations? Come listen and discuss with a panel of creative placemakers working inside government to connect and navigate the landscape of planning, economic development, education, transportation and the arts.

In this panel discussion moderator Jack Becker, the publisher of Public Art Review, asks creative placemaking civic leaders to talk about how city, state, and even federal government agencies can work with artists and community organizers to foster creative initiatives that will help develop creative and resilient communities. Panelists for this discussion include: Gülgün Kayim, Director of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis; Kip Bergstrom, Deputy Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; Marty Pottenger, director, Art at Work, Portland, ME; Lynne McCormack, Director, Department of Art Culture + Tourism, City of Providence, RI and Erin Williams, Cultural Development Officer for the City of Worcester, MA and Executive Director of the Worcester Cultural Coalition.

25Mar

Sponsorship Research for the Placemaking World (video)

Measuring What Matters in Sponsorship Research

While it’s great to attend a conference and hear from all the experts from within your field, it can be even more useful to hear from experts who work in other fields. At The Art of Placemaking conference we invited Jed Pearsall, founder and president of Performance Research, a global leader in marketing and sponsorship research for Fortune 50 brands, to share his experiences in working with companies that sponsor the Arts. Performance Research’s mission is to help clients capture and measure the value of sponsorship and experiential marketing and reveal the essential truth about the impact.

There was lots of great information in this session. Here’s the continuum of sponsorship research that increases in importance as you move along it from left to right.

Sponsorship research

Jed cited David D’Alessandro, CEO, John Hancock Insurance, and author of Brand Warfare, as being particularly applicable for placemakers:

“Arts & cultural sponsorships have two enormous advantages. First, they represent one of the last kinds of sponsorships where consumers give you credit for just showing up…Secondly, they allow you to be distinctive and win attention by doing something unexpected.”

Many audience members expressed surprise when Jed advised that in all their years of conducting sponsorship research on arts properties, visitors have never expressed concerns to Performance Research about over-commercialization despite this being the biggest fear of art organizations and a hurdle in keeping many from entering into valuable partnerships with corporations. Consumers understand and appreciate that many events and exhibitions would not take place without corporate sponsorship.Read more →

07Mar

2014 ArtPlace America Grantee Summit: Day Two Recap

In placemaking by Peter A. Mello / 2014/03/07 / No Comments

The second day of the Summit started strong with a plenary session lead by Don Howard, Interim CEO, James Irvine Foundation, one of the team of ArtPlace America funders and the local foundation that provided a lot of support for this event. Prior to joining Irvine Mr. Howard worked at the Bridgespan Group, the nonprofit management consultancy that specialized in capacity building. The focus of this session was field building.

Creative placemaking at the ArtPlace Summit Mr. Howard then introduced Abigail Marquez, associate director, Education and Workforce Development, City of Los Angeles and Dixon Singleton, executive director, Youth Policy Institute who presented on the exciting federal Promise Zone designation recently awarded by President Obama to Los Angeles.After doing a short presentation about field Mr. Howard was joined by Tracy Taft, executive director, International Sonoran Desert Alliance and Chris Beck, Senior Project Adviser, Rural Development, US Department of Agriculture. If you have a placemaking capital project you’d be well served to watch Ms. Taft’s presentation of how she identified, applied for and secured a wide range of funding sources for her project. To me her presentation just reinforced how entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders need to be to advance their organization’s mission. If you don’t know Mr. Beck, you should. He’s one of those rare government leaders who is a problem solver who consistently thinks outside the box. Food can be such a big part of place, so think about reaching out to Mr. Beck to explore how you might be able tap into some of the many resources available at the USDA.

The Art of Placemaking Podium. Photo by Jonathan Waugh.

29Jan

Welcome to Placemakers.us

In The Art of Placemaking Conference Videos by Tim Blankenship / 2014/01/29 / No Comments

In 2012 WaterFire Providence received a major grant from ArtPlace America to launch a public art incubator to create new art works and public programs with a wide variety of arts and culture organizations to experiment with original ways to add vibrancy and economic impact to the city of Providence.

We began to plan and build a learning lab, this project will exist in two dimensions. In the real world our learning labwill take shape in a former U.S. Rubber warehouse that we purchased in December of 2012. In this physical place we are planning on creating an enviroment where art, science, learning and making all coexist. This building will not only house WaterFire Providence’s operational and day-to-day apparatus, but will also become a home to art installations, workshops, lectures, performances, and maybe even a little roller derby. As part of creating our learning lab we hosted a unique conference in Providence on November 7th – 9th of 2013. The Art of Placemaking conference included placemakers, artists, urban planners, community developers and researchers meeting to discuss impacts of using art to build and transform community.