In my work in
Creative Placemaking, I tend to focus on the arts as a framework and catalyst
for community improvement. Some client
team members from cultural or heritage organizations have wondered whether this
excludes them. No, no, no -- just the
opposite.
Creative Placemaking
uplifts culture and heritage as much as it celebrates the arts. What makes a place distinct is how the
cultures there interact with the environment and the people. Cultural norms tend to be drawn from the
combination of heritages in that place.
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| This mural at the Neighborhood House in Morristown, New Jersey reflects the history and culture of its neighborhood. Image courtesy of Kadie Dempsey. |
One of the biggest
reasons we focus on the arts in Creative Placemaking is that it can help
promote more just and equitable communities.
Communities tend to be drawn to order, and people tend to want to be
around other people like them. This is
why people in cities and suburbs who don’t like regulations don’t often mind
land use controls. It’s also why even
decades after segregation has been outlawed, so many communities, organizations
and social settings seem racially or ethnically polarized.
Creativity is a
threat to order and sameness. So a
community that values the arts and is welcoming to artists is more likely to
value other types of diversity. (The one exception is when “the arts” are seen
as a way to gentrify a place. In other
words, leaders bring artists and arts businesses in to increase property values
so that undesirable people and businesses will leave. In those cases, leaders might have to learn
hard lessons about valuing diversity.)
