From ripples to waves: NCCP’s thought leadership on creative placemaking

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

To influence beliefs and actions, quiet conversations can be as powerful as megaphones.  It’s not just about the message; it’s about having the right conversations with the right people at the right opportunities.

NCCP works to build the new field of creative placemaking.  This involves professionalizing the field – developing high standards for conduct and ethics and promoting good work.  We also work to show how creative placemaking is a new and different way of connecting arts and community improvement.

We’ve been busy.

Executive Director Leonardo Vazquez was on a panel to review proposals for the upcoming US GreenBuilding Council’s Greenbuild conference in Louisiana.

In April, Leo will be talking about creative placemaking at the TransAction conference April 8 in Atlantic City and at the AmericanPlanning Association’s national conference in Atlanta on April 29. In May, he will be talking about the Certification in Creative Placemaking program at the Association of Arts Administration Educators annual conference in Montreal.

Leo also wrote about creative placemaking and community coaching for the forthcoming book Introduction to Community Develoment, second edition.  (We’ll have more on that when the book comes out.)

Last month, we started a series of complimentary webinars on creative placemaking.  The webinars explain the concept and explore issues such as human needs placemaking, social equity, and sustainability.  Learn more about the webinars.

We are partnering with Creative New Jersey to conduct special community building events using ‘open space technology,’ in several communities.

The New Jersey Consortium for Creative Placemaking, a local affiliate of NCCP, is also partnering with the Together North Jersey initiative, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and ArtPride NJ Foundation on a creative placemaking leadership conference in Rahway, New Jersey on June 19.  (Please save the date).  Rahway is easy to get to by train from New York, Philadelphia or any other city on the NJ Transit/Amtrak Northeast Corridor line.  It’s also 15 minutes by car or 40 minutes by train from Newark airport.