Two Kresge partners will lead a rigorous national examination of the role of Creative Placemaking in transportation. ArtPlace America announced last week that it selected Transportation for America (T4A) to conduct a field scan to better understand how and where artists, designers and cultural workers and institutions are collaborating with local governments and partners to solve transportation challenges.

The scan is scheduled to be complete late in the summer of 2017, when a working group of experts and practitioners will convene to make recommendations based on the research. The goal is to identify specific resources and tools to help ensure that arts, culture and design have positive and measurable impacts on transportation; and to provide pathways for practitioners to adopt this type of work.

The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture Program supports both ArtPlace and T4A as part of its Creative Placemaking focus, which Kresge defines as the deliberate integration of arts, culture and community-engaged design into community development and urban planning – particularly in low-income and underserved urban neighborhoods.

ArtPlace said T4A was selected based on its strong institutional commitment to Creative Placemaking, its comprehensive knowledge of the transportation sector and its recent commitment to the creation of an arts and culture program.

T4A recently launched an interactive Creative Placemaking guide for transportation planners, public works agencies and local elected officials who are on the front lines of advancing transportation projects.  Check out The Scenic Route: Getting Started with Creative Placemaking and Transportation. 

ArtPlace noted that multiple efforts are underway across the nation to use arts, culture and design as part of transportation planning.  in St. Louis, Intermedia Arts’ Creative Community Leadership Institute in Minneapolis, Nashville Metro Arts Commission’s Learning Lab, Creative Capital’s Community Engagement Workshop and the Center for Performance and Civic Practice are all designed to help better integrate arts into civic and transportation projects.