Building and Supporting Equitable Development (BASED) cohort now includes 17 community partners to promote Creative Placemaking

The Kresge Foundation announced today six new organizations are joining the Building and Supporting Equitable Development (BASED) initiative, a program that to seeks to advance community development through arts and culture.

This national initiative was launched in 2019 by Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program as part of its ongoing effort to position culture and creativity as drivers of more just communities.

Together with other members of the learning community, the six additional BASED grantee partners will continue to invest in equitable community responses to COVID-19, expand the evidence base of Creative Placemaking’s impact, strengthen the pipeline of Creative Placemaking practitioners in American cities and surface recommendations regarding supportive local and state community development policy.

The foundation has named the following organizations as the 2020 BASED grantee cohort:

• Building Bridges Across the River, Washington, DC: Building Bridges will work with cultural leaders and local artists to integrate arts and cultural programming as tools to engage residents in shaping equitable infrastructure investments in Anacostia. Outcomes will be centered on priorities uplifted by residents.
• Chinatown Community Development Center, Inc., San Francisco, CA: Chinatown will engage residents and local businesses in using cultural programming and community-engaged design strategies reflective of the neighborhood’s identity and history. CCDC advocates for equitable processes connected to affordable housing, transit-oriented development, public spaces and community-based economies.
• Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Los Angeles, CA: Esperanza will provide financial resources for arts-centered organizing led by residents and business owners, including economic, environmental health and cultural recovery support due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• East LA Community Corporation, Los Angeles, CA: ELACC will work with arts and culture organizers using traditional art forms to develop projects that build on constituent cultural knowledge and experience to advance housing and land justice.
• Living Cully Coalition, Portland, OR: Partner organizations will use popular education, artistic expression, and culturally-specific community engagement to center BIPOC residents, renters, and low-income people in the planning and creation of a community-controlled Tax Increment Finance district. Living Cully seeks to use TIF in a new way – to counteract gentrification and displacement with investments that will secure equitable access to affordable homes and economic prosperity for current residents and future generations. Verde serves as the backbone organization for Living Cully.
• Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia, PA: The Village will engage visual artists and designers in increasing awareness of COVID-19 emergency relief resources and building longer-term, resident-led social enterprises.

“By expanding the BASED initiative, the Arts & Culture team is working to strengthen the pipeline of Creative Placemaking practitioners in American cities and invest in creative approaches that empower residents to drive change and restore wellness in their neighborhoods,” said Regina Smith, managing director. “Each grantee partner showcases strong models of integrating arts and cultural programming as tools to engage residents’ voices and priorities to shape equitable community development.”

The primary goal of BASED is to develop a platform for continued learning of both leading practitioners and Kresge staff around emerging field priorities, such as strengthening racial equity and inclusion best practices within the community development sector.

The three-year pilot program has been implemented in two phases. In 2019, 11 grantee partners were selected:

• Asian Economic Development Association, St. Paul, MN

• Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, New York, NY
• Broadway Housing Communities, New York, NY
• Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston, MA
• East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Oakland, CA
• Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Chicago, IL
• North Limestone CDC, Lexington, KY
• People’s Emergency Center, Philadelphia, PA
• People United for Sustainable Housing, Buffalo, NY
• Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
• The Enterprise Center, Philadelphia, PA

The second cohort of grantees will enable these local innovators to connect around a shared agenda for equitable Creative Placemaking.