We have a lot of exciting programming planned for you. Sign up for upcoming Office Hours, Peer Exchange and special events to level up your work.
New support for creative placemakers like you.
In 2016 and in partnership with LISC, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Design & Creative Placemaking team established the Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance (CPTA) Program to assess and respond to unique needs of local governments and cultural leaders working to undertake creative placemaking projects in their communities. This unique program creates and disseminates technical assistance resources (TA) and training experiences for the creative placemaking field, and particularly for grantees and prospective applicants to Our Town, the Arts Endowments’ flagship creative placemaking grant program. The Our Town, TA resources are meant to expand communities’ capacity to harness the powerful potential of arts, culture, and design when intentionally incorporated into community development strategies.
Resources and trainings created through TA aim to prepare local leaders to carry out impactful arts, culture, and design projects that are well-positioned to yield catalytic, long term, and equitable outcomes for their communities.
Beneficiaries of the program receive tailored advice from experienced creative placemaking Resource Team members, and have access to a range of technical assistance materials covering a range of topics including: partnership with artists, community engagement, project management, and sustaining creative placemaking work during challenging times.
Explore the Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance program offerings and learn alongside our network of peer practitioners from across the country!
Working through a challenge in your Our Town project or just want to see what the Technical Assistance Program can offer your team? Schedule a consultation call by filling out this online form.
Technical Assistance Offerings:
Download the Program Offerings as a PDF
Resource Team Consultation and Coaching
Our team of experienced practitioners is ready to partner with current grantees as they navigate their Our Town projects. This group of creative placemakers lives in communities of all sizes across the country and brings experience in a wide variety of arts and community work. Whether you’re looking for a thought-partner, mentor, or cheerleader (or all three!), the Resource Team is on-call and ready to lend their support. Reach out through December 2023 for inspiration, advice, and help troubleshooting any questions that arise as you produce your Our Town initiative.
Creative Lounge
Held once each month, the Creative Lounge is a space to swap and share stories, ideas, and questions about creative placemaking with Our Town grantees, partners, and Resource Team members. Join in on the conversation, or just listen: wherever you are in your Our Town journey, the Lounge is an informal place to drop in, celebrate your project’s successes, collaborate on strategies, and inspire connections as we learn from one another.
Creative Placemaking Workshop
Drawing on the deep knowledge and unique skill sets of the CPTA Resource Team and Partner roster, this new offering for Grantees is designed to build knowledge, hone skills, and add to your Creative Placemaking Toolkit–all in an hour and a half of focused instruction. Centered on a different skill each session, this year’s Workshops will give Our Town teams the tactical tools they need to execute their projects and work toward systems change.
Our Town Grantee Peer Exchange
Creative Placemaking is a collaborative and evolving field we’re all creating together. In Peer Exchanges practitioners come together with shared learning in mind, creating a virtual space for current grantees to network and learn from each other. Facilitated by the Resource Team and organized thematically around common questions, project activities, or community characteristics, these gatherings are an opportunity to celebrate and connect with peers across the country
Peer Affinity Groups
Peer Affinity groups offer opportunities for Our Town grantees to candidly discuss aspects of their creative placemaking practice that might benefit from peer support, including the following:
- Addressing Gentrification and Displacement
- Working with Local Government
- Building Trust and Creating Meaningful Engagement with Community Members
- Accessing Resources in Rural Places
- Incorporating Arts, Media, and Creative Practices in Community Development
- Strengthening BIPOC Arts Leadership; BIPOC-Centered Groups
Each Peer Affinity group is peer-led by participants, with a Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance (CPTA) Resource Team member offering a flexible agenda and additional guidance. Joining a Peer Affinity group does not commit you to staying with that group, and all groups are open to everyone. If you would like to join a group or have any questions about this program, please email Melissa Kim at mkim@lisc.org.
Creative Placemaking Toolkit
Intended to be a guide for anyone interested in beginning a creative placemaking initiative, this digital toolkit can beused flexibly—in whatever way best suits the needs of you and your team. Wherever you’re coming from, the webinars, worksheets, and activities in this resource are designed to help you recenter artists and residents within creative placemaking projects from the very beginning, offering practical and tactical advice on topics like partnership, community engagement, and evaluation.
Current Our Town grantees are invited to register to recieve updates about upcoming technical assistance events and opportunitites to connect with placemakers across the country.
