Information sessions for Certification in Creative Placemaking program begin in February

By Leonardo Vazquez

Information sessions are a great way to learn more about the Certification in Creative Placemaking program offered by The Ohio State University and NCCP.  In these videoconference sessions, you can learn from and talk with the designer and Program Director.  You can also meet program faculty and current students or graduates.


Join any information session free:

• Wednesday, February 10, 2016  6 to 7 pm eastern     Register
• Wednesday, March 16, 2016      6 to 7 pm eastern     Register
• Wednesday, April 6, 2016          6 to 7 pm eastern     Register
• Wednesday, May 11, 2016         6 to 7 pm eastern     Register
• Wednesday, June 8, 2016           6 to 7 pm eastern     Register
• Wednesday, July 13, 2016          6 to 7 pm eastern     Register

If you're unable to make any of these sessions, please contact Program Director Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352.

The Certification program is a unique program that helps you build mastery in a fast-growing field that connects arts, urban planning and public policy.  Through this program you can:

• Build your knowledge and skills in community development, economic development, strategic analysis, team building, site planning, destination marketing, and interpersonal leadership.
• Learn from expert and experienced professionals who teach the courses, as well as from the artists, urban planners, nonprofit leaders and others you will  engage with in class.  Your classmates may be nearby, or from halfway around the world.
• Develop real strategies for a real community of your choice.
• Demonstrate to clients, colleagues, supervisors and potential employers that you have a deep understanding of this field.  Anyone can say they are familiar with creative placemaking.  With a Certification in Creative Placemaking, you show that you know. 

Only 30 seats are available for this 2016-2017 program.  You can reserve your seat with a $100 deposit. If you think you might join the program this year, please join us for the next information session.

Registration open for 2016 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit

By Leonardo Vazquez

Whether you're an artist, developer, urban planner or elected official, if you work to make communities better through the arts, you are a creative placemaker. On March 18, 2016, you can join your fellow placemakers for a day of learning and knowledge sharing.  Learn how creative placemaking can help communities do good and do well.

Registration is now open for the 2016 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit, at Rutgers

University in Newark, NJ. Hear from keynote speaker Jamie Bennett, Executive Director of ArtPlace America, the largest consortium of funders in the creative placemaking field. Learn how the arts in downtown Newark are enhancing economic development and providing new opportunities for residents.  Build your skills through training sessions designed for arts professionals, public officials and design professionals, and developers.

Register by March 1 and save $25 on registration.

It’s informative and enjoyable.  You can learn a lot, and meet other people like you who want to engage the power of arts and culture to enhance communities.  You can also meet people from different fields or areas who can help inspire you and help you be more creative.  You can share what you’ve learned.

The Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit is one of the largest gatherings of people involved in the intersection of arts, culture, community improvement, and local economic development.  In 2014, it attracted more than 250 people.  They included public and elected officials, leaders of community based organizations, developers, urban planners, and leaders of cultural organizations and, of course, artists.

The Leadership Summit is produced by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking in partnership with Next City, PlanSmart NJ, Northern New Jersey Community Foundation and other organizations.  It is supported in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. 

For more information, please contact NCCP Executive Director Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352.

Webinars help you learn about creative placemaking and support others who want to

By Leonardo Vazquez

You are welcome to join an upcoming creative placemaking webinar for free.  But a small donation of $20 (or whatever is personally meaningful to you) can help support the Certification in Creative Placemaking program.  This will help reduce costs for those who want to excel in this growing field that connects arts, culture and public affairs.

There are six webinars scheduled for 2016:

• January 19, 2 to 3 pm eastern: Creative placemaking and human needs placemaking.  Learn more or register.

• January 26, 2 to 3 pm eastern: Community coaching: a new way to speak truth to power, Learn more or register.

• February 23, 2 to 3 pm eastern. Incorporating arts in urban and site design.  Learn more or register.

• March 8, 2 to 3 pm eastern. The rise of freelance artists: implications for urban planning and design.  Learn more or register.

• April 12, 2 to 3 pm eastern. Cultural districts and cultural institutions: suns or black holes?  Learn more or register. 

• May 10, 2 to 3 pm.  How creative placemaking can help build more resilient communities Learn more or register.

Now it's easier to reserve a seat for the 2016 Certification in Creative Placemaking program

By Leonardo Vazquez

If you're interested in the 2016 Certification in Creative Placemaking program, but need more time to cover the tuition, there's good news.

You can now reserve one of the 20 seats available with a $100 deposit.  And, you will be able to pay tuition in three installments, from August 2016 to February 2017.  Learn more about registering for the program.

Applications to the program will be taken on a first come-first served basis.  We don't require any tests to get into the program; we do expect enthusiasm and a desire to learn this craft at a deeper level.  Anyone with interest or experience in the intersection of arts, culture and public affairs is encouraged to apply.

2015 program graduate Amira Badran sharing
ideas at the Knowledge Exchange

This unique and convenient program provides one of the richest and most holistic learning experiences in the growing field of creative placemaking.  Over a 10-month period, students build their knowledge and skills in:

• Community development
• Local economic development
• Cost-effective analysis
• Team building and community engagement
• Site planning
• Destination marketing and development
• Entrepreneurial leadership 

Students also develop a capstone project that shows their mastery of creative placemaking, and are invited to present their ideas at the annual Creative Placemaking Knowledge Exchange in late June. 

We will provide monthly information sessions beginning in February. If you have questions before then, please contact the program's Academic Director, Leonardo Vazquez by email or at 973-763-6352

The Certification in Creative Placemaking program is jointly produced by a partnership between the City and Regional Planning program of The Ohio State University's Austin Knowlton School of Architecture and The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking.

Registration now open for the 2016 Certification in Creative Placemaking program

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Registration is now open for the 2016 Certification in Creative Placemaking program from The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and The Ohio State University.  This unique, online program helps up to 30 continuing education and graduate students learn creative placemaking at a deep level, as well as develop practical leadership and planning skills.  

Coaching success stories: Hackensack murals, Englewood historical exhibit

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

If you are in Englewood, NJ, you could see an exhibit about the city's long history and success in sports at the historic Mackay Park gatehouse.  Go 15 minutes west to Hackensack, and you can see an outdoor gallery of murals on Main Street.

Both projects stem from community coaching and team building provided by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking (NCCP).

In Englewood, the sports exhibit runs through December 13.  NCCP was contracted by the City of Englewood to prepare a vision plan for Mackay Park, the city's largest and most central park.  Since its founding in 1906, Mackay Park has gone from being a woodsy escape for weekend picnics to something more like an outdoor sports complex. Several residents wanted the vacant historic Gatehouse at the park's north end to become a museum.

Members of Englewood's Mackay Park Vision Plan
Leadership Team in a visioning exercise

On behalf of the City, NCCP helped to build and coached a diverse team of neighborhood residents, city staff and park users to develop the team.  NCCP invited members of the Englewood Historical Society to join the team. Through the team-building process,  diverse team members developed several ideas for programs and physical improvements to the park. The historical exhibit is among the first of what is hoped to be several more community-oriented activities in the park.

In Hackensack, NCCP, in partnership with the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, provided community coaching to Creative Hackensack.  This team, which is completing a creative placemaking plan, involved as many as 40 people from throughout the city.

Hackensack muralists meeting.  Image source: Main Street
Business Alliance Facebook page

The team developed a number of short term projects. The first one now being completed is the set of murals along a construction site on Main Street in the heart of its downtown.  The team took an innovative approach to its first mural project.  With an asset-based orientation and a goal to make art accessible to as many Hackensack residents as possible, team members saw 32 wooden panels at a construction site as a set of canvases.  Working with the property owner, the foundation and City organized a call for artists in June, and contracted with five artists to complete murals.

As the new building behind the murals is constructed, and the boards are no longer needed for public safety, the murals will travel throughout the City to inspire more creative activity.

In December, NCCP will begin working with the Glassboro Partners -- a partnership of the City of Glassboro, New Jersey and Rowan University, on community coaching to develop a creative placemaking vision plan.  The first community event will be from December 1, from 4:30 to 7:30, at the Rowan University Art Gallery, 301 High Street in downtown Glassboro.

Community coaching is available to any individual community within two hours travel (by train or car) of Newark, New Jersey.  Coaching services are available elsewhere in the United States if a minimum of five communities are involved.  Learn more about community coaching.

A finished mural by Lissane Lake. Image source:
  Main Street Business Alliance Facebook page

New and upcoming webinars on creative placemaking

By Leonardo Vazquez

The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and The Ohio State University are offering eight webinars on creative placemaking between December 2015 and May 2016.  The webinars cover a wide variety of subjects, including community development, economic development, psychological well-being and sustainability.

• December 3, 2 to 3:30 pm eastern: Creative placemaking: integrating community, cultural and economic development,   Learn more or register
• December 16, 2 to 3 pm eastern: History of creative placemaking in the United States, Learn more or register.
• January 19, 2 to 3 pm eastern: Creative placemaking and human needs placemaking.  Learn more or register.
• January 26, 2 to 3 pm eastern: Community coaching: a new way to speak truth to power, Learn more or register.
• February 23, 2 to 3 pm eastern. Incorporating arts in urban and site design.  Learn more or register.
• March 8, 2 to 3 pm eastern. The rise of freelance artists: implications for urban planning and design.  Learn more or register.
• April 12, 2 to 3 pm eastern. Cultural districts and cultural institutions: suns or black holes?  Learn more or register. 
• May 10, 2 to 3 pm.  How creative placemaking can help build more resilient communities Learn more or register.

To learn more about these webinars, please visit the Certification in Creative Placemaking program

A donation of $20 per webinar is requested.  Funds will help support the Certification in Creative Placemaking program at OSU.  However, anyone can participate free with the discount code:  donation