Sunday, February 28, 2016

Look who's going to the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

The 2016 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit is attracting interest from a lot of key influencers from Massachusets to South Carolina.  These include leaders in federal, state, county and municipal government agencies; foundations; real estate development; cultural organizations; community and local economic development organizations; urban planning and design organizations; and universities.  The Summit will be held Friday, March 18 at Rutgers-Newark in Newark, NJ.

Here are among some of the organizations whose representatives will be at the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit  (Organizations in bold are sponsoring the program. Organizations in italics will have exhibit tables at the Summit.):

  • The Actors Fund
  • Ambassadora
  • American Planning Association - New Jersey Chapter
  • American Society of Landscape Architects - New Jersey Chapter
  • Americans for the Arts
  • AMS Planning & Research
  • Art Lives Here
  • ARTISIN
  • ArtPlace America
  • Arts Horizons
  • ArtsWorld GPS
  • Artware for Good
  • Banisch Associates Inc
  • Bergen County Cultural and Heritage Commission
  • Carnegie Hall
  • City Green
  • Civic Eye Collaborative
  • Cooper's Ferry Partnership
  • CORE Creative Placemaking
  • Cornell University
  • Creative New Jersey
  • The Cornerstone Group
  • Data Arts
  • Deborah Brett and Associates
  • Destination: Trenton
  • The Edgecombe Group
  • Gallery Aferro
  • Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
  • Gibney Dance Choreographic Center
  • Green Panthers
  • Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey
  • The Land Conservancy of New Jersey
  • Keystone Kidspace
  • Leadership Newark
  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  • Mainstage Center for the Arts
  • Marpillero Pollak Architects
  • Metris Arts Consulting 
  • Millville Development Corporation
  • Millville Housing Authority
  • Montclair Art Museum
  • Morris Arts
  • The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • National Park Service
  • New Brunswick Tomorrow
  • New Jersey Community Capital
  • New Jersey Performing Arts Center
  • New Jersey State Council on the Arts
  • New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
  • New York City Department of Design & Construction
  • Newark Arts Council
  • Newark Trust for Education
  • NewVue Communities
  • Next City
  • Nimbus Dance Works
  • Nishuane Group
  • Northeastern University
  • The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation
  • Noyes Art Center
  • Orange County Arts Council
  • The Ohio State University - Certification in Creative Placemaking 
  • Pandamonium Productions
  • Peters Valley School of Craft
  • PlanSmart NJ
  • People's Emergency Center
  • Prudential Investments
  • Rowan University
  • Rutgers University - Department of Landscape Architecture
  • Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick
  • Rutgers University - Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
  • Rutgers University - Newark
  • Saratoga Associates
  • Sikora Wells Appel
  • Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission
  • South Carolina Arts Commission
  • Township of South Orange Village
  • South Jersey Cultural Alliance
  • Springfield Avenue Partnership (Maplewood, NJ)
  • Station North Arts and Entertainment Inc.
  • Sustainable Jersey
  • Symphony in C
  • Torpedo Art Factory
  • Transportation for America
  • Trenton Community Music School
  • US Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone
  • Valley Arts
  • Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
  • Wilmington Renaissance Corporation
  • Young Audiences New York
  • Zimmerli Art Museum

Saturday, February 27, 2016

What's in the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit for me?

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Placemakers often have to deal with the question: 'What's in it for me?'  Here's how the 2016 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit  (March 18, Newark, NJ) can benefit you if you:
  • Are a developer, economic developer, or someone who finances development projects
  • Are a civic artist or a leader in a cultural organization
  • Do community building or community development
  • Are an elected or appointed official
  • Are an urban planner
  • Are new to creative placemaking
  • Aren't in or from Jersey
  • Get bored at traditional conferences
Everyone can get something from the morning discussion on how the arts is helping to revitalize downtown Newark, and on the keynote conversation about balancing the many forms of equity in creative placemaking. 

To make your networking more productive, we're offering plenty of time to talk between sessions, and limiting the conference to 300 people. So you would be more likely to meet the kind of people you want to meet.

If you are a developer, economic developer, or finance development projects
  • Market analysis for arts-related uses can help you learn the nuances for conducting feasibility studies and examining the potential for successful arts initiatives in your community.  The workshop leaders are experts in real estate market analysis, strategic planning for cultural organizations, and data collection.
  • Incorporating arts into development projects can help you see how you can incorporate more cultural activities and uses while also respecting your need to make a reasonable return on your investment. The workshop leaders are an architect and a developer who are also urban planners.  So they can help you explore site planning from a number of perspectives.
  • To be a more effective negotiator, you need to understand the other person's perspective.  And you can do this in Doing creative placemaking: An interactive exercise.  You'll get the chance to play different roles -- artist, elected official, community organizer -- so you can come up with better solutions faster.
  • Connect with the people who are making arts happen and work in communities -- civic artists, leaders of cultural organizations, elected officials, urban planners and creative placemakers from other walks of life.  There is plenty of time scheduled for networking.
  • You don't have to wear a business suit.
If you're a civic artist or a leader in a cultural organization
  • Some of the biggest funders in the field of creative placemaking will be there as speakers, participants or both:  ArtPlace America, National Endowment for the Arts, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and more.  Need I say more? I will, but really, I shouldn't have to.
  • If you want to influence developers and elected officials in your community, you should get to know their language and ways of thinking.  Workshops such as Market analysis for arts-related uses and Incorporating arts into development projects will help.  Also try Doing creative placemaking: An interactive exercise.
  • Leading creative placemaking conversations can show you how to a be more effective leader in your community, and how your knowledge and ways of seeing the world can be important tools for moving a community forward.
If you do community building or community development
  • Learn about (and how to use) innovative techniques for bringing people together with Creative community building tools.  
  • Get inspired by how communities around the United States deal with issues of gentrification and fairness in Equity success stories: Lessons from NEA Our Town.
  • The funders I mentioned above are also interested in community development.
Are an elected or appointed official
  • You can meet plenty of people who have addressed the same challenges you have in doing creative placemaking.
  • You can meet developers and funders who might be interested in investing in your community.
If you are an urban planner
  • The whole day is geared for people who are involved in making communities better places to live, work and play.
  • Through our partnership with the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association, we are requesting 6 AICP Certification Maintenance credits for the summit.
  • Creative placemaking is one of the fastest growing areas of community and economic development.  The more you know, the better it can be for your career.
If you are new to creative placemaking
  • Get started with The smart person's guide to creative placemaking.  Don't worry, everybody was a newbie once.
  • Spend the day learning from and with one of the largest concentrations of creative placemakers ever assembled.  
If you aren't in or from Jersey
  • This is a conference for creative placemakers that happens to be in New Jersey.  We're expecting participants from throughout the east coast -- from Boston, MA to Charleston, SC.
  • You might think you know about Jersey from "The Sopranos" or "Jersey Shore", but the state is actually a great model and laboratory for creative placemaking.  What you learn at this Summit you can take with you anywhere.
  • You're only a half hour from cool neighborhoods in New York City, Hoboken and Jersey City.  Ya heard of Brooklyn? Then you'll like Hoboken and Jersey City. 
If you get bored at traditional conferences
  • We do too, which is why this is going to be interactive and fun (Fun at a conference?  Yea!)
  • There will be no 'death by Powerpoint'.
Ready to register?  Register now

Friday, February 26, 2016

Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit 2016 updates

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Register for conference

  • After March 1, 2016, tickets to the Creative Placemaking Summit go up to $125 from $100.  Discounts will still be honored through March 17.
  • Sharnita Johnson, Program Director - Arts, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, will be joining Jamie Bennett as a keynote speaker.  They will be taking a '3-D look at equity in creative placemaking.'
  • Other speakers are joining us, including Frank Banisch of Frank Banisch Associates and Kadie Dempsey of Morris Arts
  • Through a partnership with the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association, we are requesting up to 6 AICP Certification Maintenance credits for the program.
  • Representatives from several of the New Jersey's and the nation's leading funders in creative placemaking will be there, along with representative of dozens of other organizations in the arts, public affairs and urban planning.


    Questions?  Please contact Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352 

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

NCCP partners offer discounted tickets to Leadership Summit

By Leonardo Vazquez

Organizations that are partnering with The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking to promote the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit 2016 are offering a limited number of discounted tickets to their members and constituents.

If you are a member or are otherwise connected with these organizations, please contact them or check their newsletter or social media to learn about getting up to $25 off the registration.

Up to 10 grantees of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation can get a free ticket to the summit.  Please contact your program officer for more information.

Questions?  Please contact Leonardo Vazquez, NCCP Executive Director, by email or at 973-763-6352

Monday, February 8, 2016

More sessions and speakers announced for Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Whether your interest is in physical development, the arts, public policy, or economic development, you can get a lot out of the 2016 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit.

The program, March 18 in downtown Newark, NJ, offers a variety of workshops for many different interests. We have great speakers too, including Jamie Bennett, the Executive Director of ArtPlace America, one of the nation's largest funders of creative placemaking.  You'll also learn from experts from many different fields.  You would be joining key influencers from a variety of organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Local Initiative Support Corporation, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, state arts organizations and more.


cpsummit imageIf you're expecting the Leadership Summit to be a traditional sitting-around-and-hearing-other-people-talk conference -- well, sorry, you'll be pleasantly surprised.


At the Summit you'll get plenty
of opportunities to share your thoughts. Our breakout sessions are training workshops, and we promise to go easy on the slide presentations.

At The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking -- which is producing the Leadership Summit -- we only make events that we would want to attend ourselves.

Here are some of the sessions and session leaders.  To learn more, visit the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit.

Doing well and doing good: the Newark story
Speakers: Nancy Cantor, Chancellor, Rutgers – Newark, Newark, NJ;    John Schreiber, CEO, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ;   Ommeed Sathe, Vice President, Impact Investments, Prudential Financial, Newark, NJ;: Tom Dallessio, CEO & Publisher, Next City, Philadelphia, PA

Leading creative placemaking conversations
Workshop leader:  Anne L’Ecuyer, Project Director, Art Lives Here, Gateway Arts District, Prince George’s County, MD

Incorporating arts into development projects
Workshop leader: Leland Edgecombe, Principal, The Edgecombe Group, Hyattsville, MD

Creative community building tools:  Sustainable Jersey Arts and Creative Culture Actio
Winnie Fatton, Project Manager, Sustainable Jersey, Ewing, NJ

Market analysis for arts-related uses
Workshop leaders: Deborah Brett, Principal, Deborah Brett and Associates, Plainsboro, NJ;
TBD, DataArts, Philadelphia, PA; Steven A. Wolff, Principal, AMS Planning & Research, Southport, CT

Equity success stories: Lessons from NEA Our Town
Jennifer Hughes, Design Specialist | Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC

Doing creative placemaking:  A role-playing exercise
Leonardo Vazquez, Executive Director, The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, Union, NJ

Early registration ends March 1.  Learn more or register

Creative placemaking plan developed by NCCP wins statewide award

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

The field of urban planning is recognizing creative placemaking and Community Coaching.

Creative Perth Amboy, a plan for the New Jersey city developed by The National Consortium for
Perth Amboy Creative Team members create their plan
(Photo courtesy: Noelle Jimenez Zaleski)
Creative Placemaking, got the 2016 Outstanding Plan - Municipal award from the American Planning Association New Jersey chapter.  The award was given to the City of Perth Amboy at the NJAPA's conference on Friday, January 29.

Creative Perth Amboy seeks to enhance the downtown and waterfront areas and revitalize the working-class Gateway neighborhood through arts and culture.  Connecting both community prosperity and social equity, the plan aims to bring more resources to the city through cultural tourism and help residents and local artists benefit from the new opportunities they bring.

The plan was made possible with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town program, the New Jersey Recovery Fund (a collaborative initiative of several New Jersey foundations) and the City of Perth Amboy.   The City partnered with the Jewish Renaissance Foundation in developing the plan.

Besides the document, the planning process has led to a catalog of properties that could be suitable for arts-related uses, a new Perth Amboy Arts Council, and a new festival in May that highlighted the city's waterfront and local artists.  The catalog was developed by Nishuane Group, an NCCP partner.

The plan was developed through Community Coaching, a planning model created by NCCP to help build plans and the stewardship to turn those ideas into action.  For about a year, a team of about 20 to 30 Perth Amboy residents and other stakeholders met every three to four weeks to explore social, economic and cultural issues in the city -- and how arts and culture could address those issues.  Team members met with other stakeholders in the city and held public dialogues.  Among those actively participating in this effort were City Council President Lisa Nanton (pictured above, standing at left) and city planners Leigh Anne Hindenlang and Andrew Toth.  NCCP Executive Director Leonardo Vazquez, along with former Program Associate Denisse Ortiz, coached the team and packaged their ideas into a robust, comprehensive plan.

To get a copy of the plan, please contact Perth Amboy Director for the Office of Community and Economic Development Leigh Ann Hindenlang by email or at 732-826-0290 ext 4028

For more information about the plan or about Community Coaching, please contact NCCP Executive Director Leonardo Vazquez at leo@artsbuildcommunities.com or at 973-763-6352