Partnerships are at the heart of what creative placemaking projects are all about.
Creating effective local projects is always about more than just naming project allies. True community impact comes from building projects based on multi-sector coalitions with mutually understood values. Working together, you and your project partners can implement effective methods to design and community-driven, arts-based strategies that strengthen the community by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes.
But partnership isn’t always easy.
Stressors related to funding, experience, political clout, and other factors can create volatile imbalances in the power dynamic between partners. Early on, discuss the roles of each partner to establish mutual understanding of individual responsibilities within the larger project. All partners are bringing something to the table, and it is important to recognize and respect each player as a significant part of accomplishing your shared goals.
Dealing with partnership challenges
It is important to approach unforeseen challenges that may arise from partnering with artists in your project in a respectful and effective way.
Though project goals may be agreed upon early on, be aware that partners may come to the project with different expectations and ideas about how to achieve those goals. It is important to recognize that each partnership is unique and each artist will approach a project in their own way. Foster open, supportive communication between your organization and the artists; discuss issues as they arise; and continue to build on what’s working for the community and the project. To address these issues in advance, some organizations offer artists training on cross-sector partnerships and practical on-the-ground opportunities to prepare them for their work in the community.
"Meeting people where they are is key to our success."
—Margarita Villegas, Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network
Keep in Mind Natural Sources of Differences and Misunderstandings:
- Professional perspective and expertise
- Jargon
- Stereotypes
- Cultural norms
- Power dynamics
- History
- What else?
Avoid Problems with Discussion and Agreement:
- Moving too quickly or Ready, fire, aim! (We solved the wrong problem)
- Divergent goals (My unstated agenda....)
- Unexpressed expectations (You expected me to raise money?)
- Ambiguous responsibilities (Who was supposed to publicize?)
- Ambiguity about money (Who authorized that expense?)
- Inadequate or wrong resources (I thought you were volunteering staff time)
- Unequal power (My money, my way)
- Lack of respect (You people...)
- No written agreements (I don’t remember saying that)
- Responsibility without authority (I’ll check with the board)
- Conflicts of loyalty (Hey, that’s my donor!)
- Reality intrudes (Life goes on...)
- Unappreciated differences (You didn’t speak up)
"Start by offering a small thing. It's very rare for a person to come into government offering to help, instead offering a complaint."
—Marty Pottenger, Our Town Technical Assistance Resource Team Member
Making meetings work
Document discussion key points, decisions made assignments made, and actions taken:
- What works for you?
- Prepare smartly (develop an agenda)
- Let the agenda dictate the setting and pace
- Take time for the personal (but not too much)
- Help individuals come prepared
- Use establish agreements, roles and rules
- Challenge members to improve the meetings
- Follow up
CROSS-SECTOR PERCEPTIONS AND MISPERCEPTIONS
→ Download the Worksheet
PARTNERSHIP ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURES
→ 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:
5 to 150 Things to Know About Working with Municipal Governments
Nurturing productive relationships with government partners. In this session from the March 2021 Learning Lab for Our Town Grantees, Marty Pottenger shares her extensive knowledge about working with local government and open up discussion about your experiences and questions. In communities of all sizes, municipal governments are almost certain to have a risk-averse culture. With today’s mounting challenges, morale might well be low. Labor relations are often fraught. Community input overwhelmingly skews to criticism rather than appreciation. Everyone is working more hours with fewer resources under greater pressure. In this session, participants will explore the ways that creativity/arts-based activity, combined with specific goals and strategic design, can deal with today’s challenges, changing relationships, perspectives, policies, and practices.