The Long View on Artist-Centered Creative Placemaking in Minnesota

Simply stated, creative placemaking builds strong, cross-sector partnerships grounded in arts and culture, by people and for people, to celebrate the lifeblood of a place. And while the cross-sector aspect is undeniably important, a crucial factor for success, in my opinion, is that arts organizations and artists are treated as leading or equal partners in the broad mix. It was important for the arts field to have researchers as experienced, thoughtful, and knowledgeable as Markusen and Gadwa — each with their own long histories working with artists — to tackle the phenomena of creative placemaking.

After their report, in a headlong rush to parse the exciting and complex concept it presented, many tertiary discussions centered on the idea of “using the arts” to make a place more vibrant — though that concept makes no appearance in the report itself. (I admit I’m sensitive to the prospect of “using” artists, partly because our culture does not consider the arts as crucial as other professional endeavors; my sensitivity notwithstanding, “using” in this context ignores an essential point that this work is more successful when artists are engaged from the beginning, not plugged in after the fact.) That artists and arts and culture organizations are core to community planning and development is the idea that fuels creative placemaking. Otherwise, it’s just “placemaking.”