The design of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice is elegant, but it evokes unease. Its vast open rectangular roof is supported by row upon row of somber, weathered steel slabs from which slender poles rise. When you know that this new monument in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated on April 26, 2018, is offered to the memory of some 4,400 African Americans murdered by mobs between 1877 and 1950, the somberness makes sense. But nothing prepares a visitor for the experience of traversing the four sides of the rectangle.

As the effects of widening inequality play out at the neighborhood level across our country, unexpected cross-sector collaborations are uniting arts and culture with the work of community development.

The American Indian College Fund’s Indigenous Visionaries initiative helps develop Native women leaders through education, mentoring, and networking. We asked two of the project’s organizers to elaborate on their session at the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit West and describe the ins and outs of their successful collaboration.

Walnut Cove, NC is adjacent to Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Power Station, which houses 20 million tons of coal ash. Local mixed-media artist Caroline Armijo has partnered with scientists from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to create a series of sculptures that repurpose this hazardous waste material safely and that will become the centerpiece of a public park.