THE SCENIC ROUTE

Getting Started with Creative Placemaking

Our Eight Approaches

Great places rely on good infrastructure combined with a meaningful mix of programming, public spaces and diverse economic opportunity for the people who then inhabit and bring them to life. The eight approaches outlined below represent proven avenues to improve partnerships while better knitting together all of the above.

By using these approaches for tapping into the social networks built around arts and culture, you can earn the trust of your community. By identifying sites of cultural significance, you can be mindful and inclusive of them in planning infrastructure and redevelopment projects.

In The Scenic Route, we outline eight basic approaches to creative placemaking to help you get started. Each approach consists of three things: an intro page with some basic information about the approach, a section called “Get Inspired: Local Examples” that typically provides at least one local, concrete example to provide some inspiration, and a section called “Go Deeper” which provides more detailed resources. The eight approaches we unpack in this resource below are not a linear list, nor do they represent the limit of what’s possible for you and your region or community.

Click on any approach below to jump right in.

 

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  • What is Creative Placemaking?
    • A View From the Field
  • Start Here
    • New tools for a new era
    • What are the benefits?
    • What makes creative placemaking different?
    • Where did creative placemaking come from?
    • Development without displacement
    • How do I do it?
  • Our Eight Approaches
    • Identify the Community’s Assets
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Integrate the Arts Into Design, Construction and Engineering
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Marketing to Cultivate Ownership and Pride
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Leveraging Cultural Districts and Corridors
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Mobilize the Community to Achieve Your Shared Goals
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Develop Local Leadership
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Organize Events and Activities
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Incorporate Arts in Public and Advisory Meetings
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
  • Placemaking in Practice
    • The Green Line (Twin Cities)
      • Grassroots efforts transformed the project
      • How arts improved the construction process
      • Building identity with light rail stations
      • The Green Line altered the rules of engagement
      • Conclusion: Better projects and places
    • Los Angeles
    • Detroit
    • San Diego
    • Portland
    • Nashville
  • Featured Places
  • Appendix
    • Appendix – Measurement in practice
You are here: Home / Our Eight Approaches / Develop Local Leadership & Capacity / Go Deeper

Go Deeper

Stories make it personal

Storytelling is another way to allow people to share their perspectives in their own words and often on their own turf. This could involve hosting a story slam for community members to share an experience in the corridor where a project will go, or publicizing a request or contest for individuals to share their experience, ideas, or needs around transportation.

The Orton Family Foundation supported storytelling efforts that fed into community plans in Damariscotta, Maine, Golden, CO, and Biddeford, ME. Visit their website to read bios and learn more. The Foundation offers a free, comprehensive Community Heart and Soul Field Guide for its methodology for soliciting a community’s stories and translating those stories and values into actionable recommendations. The Foundation also has a resources page with suggestions, checklists, and tools to achieve goals like enhancing local character, encouraging inclusive government, and supporting housing choice and affordability.

Try funding small-scale projects and installations

Incentivizing local programming and activities is an easy and powerful way to put local community organizations, business improvement districts and individuals to work to improve the brand, image and appeal of corridors. While it’s not easy to turn over funds or public space to allow people to experiment, the success stories below, excerpted from the longer Twin Cities and Los Angeles case studies also available with this resource, show it can pay off.

Creative placemaking projects change the narrative during construction

The Irrigate program in Minneapolis-St. Paul leveraged the creativity of community members to transform the narrative of the lengthy construction period for the Green Line (light rail transit) from one of struggling businesses to a thriving, vibrant corridor. Irrigate is a nationally recognized local artist-led creative placemaking initiative.

The program provided funding to hundreds of artists (which they defined as anyone living or working in the corridor with a creative idea), to partner with local organizations in bringing positive attention to the corridor through activities from murals to dances to a giant dog puppet. Irrigate projects generated over 100 positive media stories, and the program’s success has spread to other communities. Visit the Springboard for the Arts Irrigate page to learn more, watch a video (below) about Irrigate’s impact featuring an introduction by former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, and access a toolkit for replicating success in your community.

And learn more about additional creative placemaking efforts in the Twin Cities in our longer case study.

This video by Irrigate tells the story of their placemaking work during and after the construction of the Green Line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oePXcW6axk

Los Angeles turns streets into public spaces

The City of Los Angeles’ Great Streets challenge grants award up to $20,000 to community groups to develop projects that “re-imagine our streets as vibrant public spaces.” The community-driven initiatives eligible for the grants include cultural programming for public space, or events that draw people to a Great Street. Read more about the results in our longer Los Angeles case study.

Likewise in the Twin Cities, the small size of the Irrigate grants ($1,000 or less) made for a lighter lift. “The stakes were lower” says Erik Takeshita, Deputy Director of the Local Initiatives Support Coalition, “so if a few tanked, so what.”

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Eight approaches to creative placemaking

Develop Local Leadership & Capacity

Menu: Eight Approaches

  • Our Eight Approaches
    • Identify the Community’s Assets
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Integrate the Arts Into Design, Construction and Engineering
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Marketing to Cultivate Ownership and Pride
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Leveraging Cultural Districts and Corridors
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Mobilize the Community to Achieve Your Shared Goals
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Develop Local Leadership
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Organize Events and Activities
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples
      • Go Deeper
    • Incorporate Arts in Public and Advisory Meetings
      • Get Inspired: Local Examples

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Master Cultural Planning

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad … Read More...

Identify the Community’s Assets and Strengths

Identifying the existing arts and cultural assets — whether places, people, artists, groups or institutions — provides local leaders with invaluable opportunities to build powerful relationships in … Read More...

Leveraging Cultural Districts and Corridors

A cultural district is a labeled area of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities and programs serve as the main anchor of attraction and are marketed together. This is one of the … Read More...

Mobilize the Community to Achieve Your Shared Goals

Local units of government can tap local nonprofits or area organizations to identify and showcase support for projects or related community improvements. Who can do it: Metropolitan planning … Read More...

Develop Local Leadership & Capacity

Support community-led visions and let the community work for you Local nonprofits can use arts-based tools to bring attention to and build momentum for desired plans, projects and development … Read More...

Organize Events and Activities

Events and activities provide a draw and bring positive attention to an area. And they can also be a forum for gathering new ideas and public involvement. Who can do it: Local units of government … Read More...

Incorporate Arts in Public and Advisory Meetings

Almost nothing gets built today without some level of public engagement and most large-scale planning efforts engage the public to some degree. But whether this input is truly inclusive, timely or … Read More...

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Transportation for America is an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country, united to ensure that states and the federal government step up to invest in smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions — because these are the investments that hold the key to our future economic prosperity.

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Thank You

This report was made possible through the generous support of the Kresge Foundation.

The Kresge Foundation “focuses on the role arts and culture play in re-energizing the communities that have long been central to America’s social and economic life,” believing that “arts and culture are an integral part of life and, when embedded in cross-sector revitalization activity, can contribute to positive and enduring economic, physical, social and cultural change in communities.” Kresge also supported projects detailed in this report in Nashville, Portland, San Diego and Detroit.

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Visit the new version of the Scenic Route!

Visit our new updated, refreshed, and re-conceived version of The Scenic Route at http://transportation.art, released in April 2021. We revisited and updated many of the stories in this old version, in addition to adding brand new profiles and stories about more recent developments. (Nothing worth reading here has been excluded from the new version!) Check it out!

This older Scenic Route guide (v. 1.0) will be eventually retired, though still available for archival purposes.