Announcing instructors for Creative Placemaking Certification program

By Leonardo Vazquez

The Certification in Creative Placemaking program at Ohio State University will be taught by some of the most experienced and skilled practitioners in the field of creative placemaking in the United States.  Together, they bring a wealth of skills and knowledge from many fields, including community organizing, public relations, marketing, public administration, architecture, urban design, arts administration and tourism development.

Tom Borrup

Tom Borrup, who it could be said literally wrote the book on creative placemaking, will be teaching the first two courses -- Building Creative Communities and Sustainable Creative Economies.  Tom is a nationally-known consultant in this field, and the author of The Creative Community Builder's Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Art and Culture.  This book is also one of the key texts for the program.  Tom has been teaching college-level courses in creative placemaking for several years.  Most recently, he was one of the lead instructors in a precursor to the Certification in Creative Placemaking program.



Tom will be joined by Wendy Benscoter, Lee Edgecombe and Juana Guzman.

Wendy Benscoter

Wendy Benscoter will be teaching Building Capacity for Creative Placemaking.  She is the Project Manager for Shreveport Common, a successful creative placemaking initiative in Louisiana; and Community Liaison for the Louisiana Creative Communities Initiative.  She is a former adjunct professor, teaching Communications at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, and has recently completed a Certificate Program for Creative Placemaking from Rutgers University.  Her course will focus on how to help communities plan and implement creative placemaking efforts, and be effective stewards of community improvement.

Lee Edgecombe

Leland (Lee) Edgecombe, a successful architect and urban planner, will be teaching Making Spaces for Culture, a course that helps students learn how to select good locations for creative and cultural activities. Lee is Principal of The Edgecombe Group, which specializes in making communities and neighborhoods stronger through architecture, urban planning and crime-preventing urban design. Like Tom, he taught in the precursor to the Certification program.

It's easy to promote tourism in places with a nice beach or a vibrant main street. Juana Guzman's expertise is in making the other kind of places into tourism destinations -- in ways that support local communities. As Chicago's cultural affairs

Juana Guzman

commissioner, and later as Vice President of the National Museum of Mexican Art, Juana helped use tourism to promote economic and community development in a working-class Chicago neighborhood. She does similar work around the country as Principal of I Juana Know.

The Certification Program starts August 26, and there are still some seats available.  Learn more or register for the program.  Questions?  Comments?  Please contact the Program Director, Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352.

The program is a partnership between the City and Regional Planning department of The Ohio State University's Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture and The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking.