Michigan philanthropy is leveraging placemaking in urban, suburban and rural areas to attract and retain talent, fuel economic development and create vibrant and equitable communities.

This week, we’re getting a look at placemaking strategies around arts and culture that have emerged from the work of The Kresge Foundation, as it’s releasing a series of white papers throughout 2018 to highlight lessons and opportunities for funders to integrate arts and culture placemaking into communities.

The first white paper, Kresge Arts & Culture Program: The First Decade walks us through the evolution of the work at the foundation and key takeaways for the field.

The white paper describes the foundation’s transition from awarding capital challenge grants to arts organizations to grant support focused on community development framework.

The paper states that in 2010, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) worked in partnership with foundation leaders including Rip Rapson, president and CEO, The Kresge Foundation to establish the concept of creative placemaking.

“At the federal level, the NEA implemented this concept by breaking through governmental silos to engage with and embed arts and culture in other departments such as Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation.”

This concept of creative placemaking put arts and culture “inside the community revitalization frame” intersecting with issues such as housing, transportation, environment, health and more to create opportunities for low-income individuals and communities.

Highlights from the white paper include:

• Kresge’s Arts and Culture program now “focuses exclusively on partnerships with low-income and vulnerable communities,” utilizing community engagement and design to create equitable change.

• The foundation’s grantees shared three elements that are essential to long-term change in low-income communities: increased social cohesion among residents, change in narrative and a positive physical transformation.

• The foundation is seeing progress from this work within organizations, from adding staff to support creative placemaking efforts to creating resources to inform the work.

• Challenges facing the foundation’s grantees in this work include:

  • Quantitative tracking of outcomes, as they may lack capacity to do evaluation themselves.

  • A lack of peer-to-peer or on-site learning experiences about creative placemaking work to exchange insights.

An example of a recent grant by Kresge’s Arts and Culture program demonstrates what this work can look like in communities. In 2017, the foundation awarded a two-year grant to Focus: HOPE in Detroit to “accelerate neighborhood projects that use food as an anchor for health, economic development and creative placemaking in low-income communities.”

On April 16, CMF’s Arts and Culture Affinity Group is hosting a convening in Flint that will highlight on-the-ground, place-based examples of cross-sector approaches to economic development, education and community engagement. If you’re interested in hearing from CMF members working in this area, be sure to register. 

Next month, we’ll share examples of placemaking from the Thumb region supported by three CMF member community foundations in the next video in our rural philanthropy video series.

Want more?

Check out Kresge Arts & Culture Program: The First Decade.

Join Creative Many for Michigan Arts Advocacy Day on April 18 in Lansing.