Creative Placemaking Communities was launched in January 2021 by members of the Certificate in Creative Placemaking community and Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP, the Founding Director of The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking.
Today, the United States, and cultural ecosystems in particular, are addressing three issues:
- The fragmenting of civil society from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as social media and political actors who thrived by exploiting disagreements and long-standing tensions among people.
- Huge economic losses in communities and especially among cultural sector organizations and professionals, who had major income losses when public safety measures prevented people from gathering in theaters, museums, and other indoor venues.
- Racial justice reckoning in light of recent killings of Black people and longstanding patterns of systemic oppression against people of color.
CPC is working to address these interrelated issues by connecting, inspiring, empowering, and supporting creative placemakers working to help their communities heal better, recover faster, and become more resilient.
With our programs and network, we will collectively build new and stronger partnerships, projects, programs and policies that guide political, social, and economic systems.
Creative Placemaking Communities stands on the shoulders of the work of The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking (NCCP). From 2012 to 2021, NCCP worked with 150 partnering and grantmaking organizations while building a network of more than 8,000 creative placemakers in the United States and abroad During those nine years hundreds of professionals in arts and culture, public affairs, cultural tourism, and real estate development were introduced to the field.
Where NCCP helped develop and formalize the field of creative placemaking -- CPC seeks to activate the field to grow healthier, more resilient, and more equitable communities - in the United States and around the world.
