A Snapshot of Creative Placemaking in Higher Education by a2ru (2016)
October 1, 2018
The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) released a targeted survey in April 2016 examining the role of creative placemaking in higher education. The purpose of the survey was to identify creative placemaking activity in higher education as grounding for the 2016 Arts Business Research Symposium, April 28-29 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Little is known about how creative placemaking intersects with higher education, despite a burst of activity in the last five years within government, non-profits, community organizers, building sectors, and industry partners (fueled by significant federal, private, and industry financial incentives). This survey was an initial effort to begin this investigation. a2ru identifies issues and trends in higher education within arts-integrative research, curricula, and creative practice, and addresses institutional hurdles to implementation.
a2ru has identified Creative Placemaking as an important emergent and rapidly growing collective impact model, with arts at its core. As historical framing, Anne Gadwa Nicodemus notes, “Creative Placemaking is a relatively new term for work that’s been organically happening in neighborhoods, towns and cities all across the country for decades. Within the last few years it’s received new momentum in terms of funding and policy coordination.” a2ru is interested in the role arts and design play in the maintenance and development of communities. Specifically, we are interested in the role higher education can play in the advancement of this type of dynamic activity, known as “Creative Placemaking.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Special thanks to the a2ru network of leaders who provided detailed and thoughtful responses to this survey. This survey report was created and processed by: Greg Esser, Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute, survey design; Edgar Cardenas, a2ru, comprehensive analysis and data visualization; and Laurie Baefsky, a2ru, data translation and synthesis.
© 2016. All rights reserved.
This is a University resource:
Resources that specifically relate to Creative Placemaking work on university campuses. Want to get involved? Contact us at bolzcreativeplacemaking@wsb.wisc.edu