We're doing more for creative placemakers

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

It was a busy summer at The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking.  With the Municipal Art Society, we trained about 100 residents of the Bronx and Queens in creative placemaking. We trained New Jersey stakeholders in crowdmapping, thanks to the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and Together North Jersey.  In our first  Certificate in Creative Placemaking program with New Hampshire Institute of Art, we welcomed 14 professionals from 10 states.  And we started planning for a host of new programs and services for creative placemakers around the United States.

Here's what we're working on for you over the next 12 months:

• Five Creative Placemaking Leadership Summits & Knowledge Exchanges between March and October 2018. They will be in a Southeastern city, Denver (CO), Newark (NJ), Charleston (WV), and a city in Maryland near Washington D.C.
• More workshops in New Jersey and New York on various aspects of creative placemaking.
• A new website.
• More Learning Tours and learning activities in New Jersey.  Please join us in Orange in September, Hackensack in October, and Hammonton in November.  We'll take the winter off and start the Learning Tours again in March. 
• An online community forum for New Jersey Creative Placemakers.
• The second year of the Certificate in Creative Placemaking program.
• Talks and panel discussions at  several conferences: Under One Roof (Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey) and Governor's Conference on Housing and Economic Development, both in October; and the New Jersey State League of Municipalities conference in November.
• And more...

And we're not doing this alone. We've got the support of major grantmakers such as Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.  We also have more than 50 partners from the nonprofit, business and government sectors around the United States.

We're looking forward to serving you, and the field of creative placemaking, better in 2017 and 2018.

If you'd like to partner with us on any of these projects, or have projects that we might be able to help you with, please contact Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352