ArtPlace America has announced the 70 projects that will be considered for the 2017 National Creative Placemaking Fund.

Each of the finalists have proposed an opportunity for arts and culture to help address a community development challenge or opportunity related to agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, immigration, public safety, transportation or workforce development.

The 70 finalists come from 32 different states and two U.S. territories with more than one-third coming from rural areas, reflecting ArtPlace’s ongoing commitment to reflecting the full diversity of communities.

The winners are expected to be selected by the end of this year.

To date, ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund has invested $77 million in 256 projects across 187 communities of all sizes.

Kresge is one of the founding funders of ArtPlace, a 10-year collaboration of foundations, federal agencies and financial institutions that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development, in order to help strengthen the social, physical and economic fabric of communities.

ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, which describes projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development.