Creative Placemaking Sweeps the Nation

2,200 cities, counties and arts orgs applied to ArtPlace to fund their creative placemaking projects in 2012. 47 projects, ranging from an arts campus in rural Sitka, Alaska to a series of "aerial nets" along a Philadelphia waterfront, made the cut.

June 12, 2012, 1pm PDT | Tim Halbur

ArtPlace is a national collaboration between 11 foundations, 8 federal agencies including HUD and the NEA, and 6 banks. The goal of ArtPlace is to transform communities through strategic investments in the arts.

The 47 new grants, announced today, take a wide variety of strategies and approaches. And as ArtPlace director Carol Coletta explains, creative placemaking isn't just for cities:

"For these small towns and counties, there is a deep need to attract and retain talent, and art often "punches above its weight" when it comes to making places more vibrant so that people want to stay, says Carol Coletta of ArtPlace.

"These rural arts projects demonstrate that smart investments in art, design and culture as part of a larger portfolio of revitalization strategies can change the trajectory of communities and increase economic opportunities for people, whether the setting is rural or urban," explained Coletta."

The full list of projects is available at artplaceamerica.org.

Full Story:

ArtPlace Announces 47 New Grants

Published on Monday, June 11, 2012 in ArtPlace