Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance

Asset Mapping

Putting community strengths on the map.

It’s important to start a community dialogue by first identifying strengths and assets. Naming our collective points of pride and identity creates a strong foundation from which to build future ideas—and address challenges when they arise. Although mapping sounds complicated, it can be as simple as creating a list.

Assets to identify:

✔ Tangible Assets
✔ People
✔ Recurring Events
✔ History and Traditions
✔ Public Services



"I think of myself more as a partner and collaborator."
—Kaki Martin, Our Town Technical Assistance Resource Team Member


Capacity and creativity focused  

Asset mapping is a capacity-focused way of reimaging the placemaking practice around the strengths and gifts that already exist in our communities. By fixating on a community’s problems, the solutions proposed by a traditional deficit approach rely on outside resources and experts rather than the deep knowledge and expertise of community leaders and residents. Although an asset-based approach may not fully remove the need for outside resources, but it certainly makes their use more effective. By gathering the collective knowledge, skills, and resources of of the community into one shared document, asset maps are designed to build connection and spark collaboration between individuals, organizations, and local government as your team works together to imagine new ways to shape the spaces and places you love.


What do we need to identify?

  • Favorite places
  • Problem spaces
  • Gathering places
  • Arts & cultural resources
  • Artists and creative workers

Tangible assets 

  • Public spaces
  • Parks, gardens
  • Landscapes, streetscapes
  • Housing
  • Local businesses
  • Markets
  • Cultural organizations
  • Schools
  • Faith-based institutions

People

  • Local heroes
  • Power brokers
  • Community leaders, activists
  • Creative workers: artists, writers, musicians
  • Tradition bearers
  • Resident demographics
  • Resident attitudes and attributes

Recurring events

  • Fairs and festivals
  • Parades
  • Public holidays

History and traditions

  • Memorable events
  • Cultural traditions
  • Historic building sites

Public services

  • Health
  • Education
  • Recreation
  • Public safety

How will you represent your findings visually geographically within your community?

If mapped spatially, this same information can also begin to show patterns, cultures, and opportunities for community action. Use the worksheet below to begin brainstorming community assets on your own and in your next meeting with partners!


ASSET MAPPING
→ Download the Worksheet


Additional Resources

Curated for you by the LISC team, the resources below provide models of best practice, insights from our Resource Team, and other extras we hope will be useful to you as you navigate your creative placemaking projects. 

WATCH:

Field Guide for Creative Placemaking and Parks, Trust for Public Land in partnership with City Parks Alliance
Themed around “Building Arts-Driven Community and Economic Development Solutions for Your County,” this prerecorded webinar shows how counties are improving their economies and building thriving communities by leveraging arts, and culture. Community spokespeople discuss their creative solutions to local challenges, providing county elected officials and staff members with strong case studies in county-wide placemaking.

This material emerged from a past Our Town Knowledge Building project. Through the Our Town Knowledge Building program, the NEA has invested in community development and arts membership organizations to build out knowledge on how to do creative placemaking. 

Analyzing Site
How can early steps guide a meaningful and impactful project? In this session from the November 2020 Learning Lab for Our Town Grantees, you will be inspired to creatively consider the range of possibilities for incorporating art into your project. Join landscape architect, Kaki Martin, as she offers ways of assessing the spatial and cultural characteristics of your site toward a deeper understanding of the ways art can enhance and support community goals. Knowing the opportunities and challenges of your location will inform the creation of design criteria and strengthen your connection to artists during the visioning process. You will see case studies that offer a new ‘library’ of inspirational images that will make it easier to explain the value of art in your work to others.