Facing the challenges of today—together.
For those grantees looking to network and learn from fellow grantees, the technical assistance program facilitates opportunities to connect with peers based on common challenges, project activities, or community characteristics. During each Peer Exchange, a resource team member or LISC representative assists in organizing conversations and sharing information, supporting grantees as they work together to understand and navigate the creative placemaking process.
Partnering for Systems Change: Laying a Foundation through Long-Term, Cross-Sector Collaboration
October 5, 2022
In this 90 minute session, “Partnering for Systems Change: Laying a Foundation through Long-Term, Cross-Sector Collaboration,” Lori McKinney of RIffRaff Arts Collective and Greg Puckett, a local county commissioner and longtime community partner to RiffRaff, discuss their partnership and how it paved the way for community-based systems change. Resource Team member Michael Pride facilitates the discussion.
Creating a Level Playing Field: Power and Information Dynamics in Artist Selection
August 18, 2021
In this 90 minute session, “Creating a Level Playing Field: Power and Information Dynamics in Artist Selection,” presenters Christine Wong Yap, Richard Young, Mat Greiner, Dan Swern, and Julie Garreau focus on artist selection through the lenses of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. Resource Team member Renee Piechocki facilitates this conversation among Our Town grantees and artists as they describe their experiences navigating power imbalances in artist calls and applications, developing equitable payment practices, connecting artists with community, and creating artist selection processes that align with project values.
Sample Materials:
- Shoreline Signals RFP (Polk County, IA)
- Shoreline Signals RFQ (Polk County, IA)
- 2021-22 Artist in Residence Application (coLAB Arts)
- Civic Artist in Residence Application Worksheet (CivicLex)
- RE-Tool: Racial Equity in the Panel Process (MAP Fund)
Creating the Infrastructures and Partnerships to Support Creative Businesses
May 12, 2021
This informal conversation about creating the infrastructure and partnerships vital to supporting creative businesses was led by Our Town grantees Dinah Minot (Creative Portland), Margarita Villegas (Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network), and Meghan Gallagher, (Yoknapatawpha Arts Council). Together, these local leaders facilitated discussion about the services and partnerships they offer to artists in the course of their creative placemaking projects, creating a new infrastructure for establishing and growing these creative offerings. After three short presentations with a chance for questions, attendees met in smaller groups to talk about individual projects and brainstorm together.
Creating During COVID-19
January 22, 2021
The Our Town Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Program Peer Exchange offers grantees the opportunity to speak about their experiences with project implementation during the COVID-19 era. For the first iteration, Megan Wanlass, Executive Director, Cornerstone Theater and Cat Peña, Germantown Public Art Manager contributed an informal sharing of their own organization’s improvements and obstacles followed up with a free space for grantees to share their work or ask for suggestions.
Our Town Learning Lab
November 20, 2020
In this closing session, Resource Team members and Our Town grantees debrief the November Learning Lab sessions, identify areas of shared interest and need, and foster ongoing peer learning connections. Through open discussion lightly facilitated by Resource Team member Leah Reisman, grantees had the opportunity to share more about their project work, ask questions, and raise topics for broader discussion. Together, they laid the groundwork for ongoing peer learning, connection, and exchange to enrich and inform their work.
"Together, we reflected that creative placemaking and placekeeping invite us to dream about our homes and what we want to make a reality, thinking of the Our Town proposals as dream journals. As such, this work is iterative, incomplete, and ongoing, and the process is as or more important than the product."
—Leah Reisman
Shared Resources: