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HIGHER EDUCATION

ArtPlace believes that the higher education sector is an important participant in building the creative placemaking field. Developing the next generation of leaders and establishing a knowledge base is work that higher education institutions and those that work for these institutions are uniquely qualified to do. To that end, ArtPlace has supported a variety of partners who will achieve the following outcomes: 

  • Creative placemaking degrees, minors, and majors and aligned curricula embedded across a variety of types of institutions
  • Shareable curricula, resources, and syllabi that are easily accessible
  • Published papers on creative placemaking in academic journals
  • Scholars who count creative placemaking as their research area
  • A growing community of practice among practitioners and academics who convene, share best practices, discuss, and problem solve around creative placemaking issues
  • A generation of practitioners inspired to work at the intersection of arts and culture and community planning and development in equitable and sustainable ways

To support the creation of degrees and aligned curricula across institutions, we are partnering with four institutions of higher education – Arizona State University, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of New Mexico, and The New School.  The work that these institutions will embark on over the next few years will embed creative placemaking strategies within their curricula as well as contribute to a growing community of practice and the next generation of practitioners who are employing arts and cultural strategies and tools to create more healthy, equitable and sustainable communities.

Scholars from both the University of Florida and the University of Oregon have been asked to edit a special edition of two peer-reviewed journals. Jill Sonke, the Director of the Center for the Arts in Medicine at University of Florida’s College of the Arts, will be guest editing at the journal Health Promotions Practice. Eleonora Redaelli, Associate Professor in Planning, Public Policy, and Management at the College of Design at the University of Oregon will be guest editing at the Journal for Urban Affairs. Both will concentrate on and contribute to the existing literature creative placemaking and provide outlets for those academics who want to count creative placemaking as their research focus.

To support all of this work and create a comprehensive repository of shareable curricula, resources, syllabi, case studies, and papers, the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) at the University of Michigan will be creating an online hub for creative placemaking.

For questions about higher education leadership and knowledge building initiatives, please email sarah [at] artplaceamerica.org.