CreativePlace

The AARP has begun to do creative placemaking through its Livable Communities initiative, and we interviewed a New Jersey chapter leader who  innovated a Facebook live series as a way to connect the community during the pandemic. The series engaged New Jersey musicians and a local music historian to entertain, engage, and educate the public about research findings on the positive correlation between music making and listening and brain health. Listen in on this conversation with Christine Newman-Young, Director of Outreach at the AARP-New Jersey chapter and creator of the Melodies of the Garden State series, which was webcast in September and October of 2020. The chat was part of The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking's Community Coffee Talk series recorded September 24, 2020.   

Recorded Sept. 10, 2020 What does back to school look like when it’s an art form that requires space to move the body? In this recording from a Community Coffee Talk show we asked creative movement professionals. Guests were Ginger Haithcox, Executive Director of Modern Motion in Somerset, NJ and Paul Besaw, professor of dance at the University of Vermont. Armanii Saahd-Tann, Creative Director of Rahway Dance Theatre made a brief appearance via pre-recorded audio.  Bios appear below. Want to be a part of our next live, interactive program? Stay on top of what we're up to by subscribing at www.cpcommunities.org/subscribe .  Ginger Haithcox is the Executive Director of Modern Motion. She started Modern Motion in 2005 after her ballet instructor in college encouraged her to pursue founding a nonprofit dance company. Initially focused on liturgical dance for local churches and teaching at local dance studios, her vision for Modern Motion soon included a full scale dance school for children. Founded in 2010, Modern Motion Dance School had humble beginnings with Monday night classes all taught by Ginger while she built her career in non-profit ministries and youth serving organizations. Her leadership of Modern Motion dance school has focused on the development, training, and implementation of the school's curriculum; building up a youth leadership and mentoring program for older dancers; widespread community outreach performances; as well as extensive staff development. Paul Besaw who was born and raised in rural New Hampshire. He’s a dance and theatre artist with a primary interest in developing original performance works that integrate collaboration across art forms. He currently serves as Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Vermont, where he teaches courses in choreography, dance history, directing, performance, among others. Armanii Saahd-Tann made a brief appearance by pre-recorded video is the artistic director and owner of Rahway Dance Theatre, a 20 year old local ballet school. RDT aims to share the gift of dance with the community by showcasing cultural diversity, by using dance as an educational tool, and by clearing the biases of who is "fit" to be a dancer. Armanii's life work thus far has been to lead by example in helping dancers of all ages to feel empowered in their own skin - no matter their physique or experience in dance.  

Listen in on this chat with theater artists Darryl DeLoach and Juli Hendren of CworxTraining.com and PositivePolicing based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The pair have been using their theater arts tools to make interactions between law enforcement officers and young men of color safer. We had a conversation with them on July 23, 2020 as part of our Community Coffee Talk series, an unscripted, interactive video show for creative placemakers. Hear their exchange with other artists from across the country. Curious about creative placemaking? Visit www.cpcommunities.org/webinars to register. And if you like this show, please donate to help support. Any amount helps. 

Want to learn the secrets of crowdfunding? Join The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking as we chat with the innovators at ioby.org, who specialize in providing technical assistance, support, and a legal financial structure for community volunteers who crowdsource funding under a variety of circumstances. At the onset of quarantine, the non-profit organization stepped up with additional support for projects that specifically responded to the pandemic, and that included creative placemaking initiatives to care for artists and commission art that communicates public health messages. In this talk, ioby.org Community and Growth Manager, Dana J. Schneider, will introduce community leaders from Detroit and New Orleans, who will talk about how they care for artists and their communities during this crisis. This is the lineup of guests and their projects: Amelia Duran, Art on the Block: Detroit Artist and Community Relief Fund Eno Laget, URGENT: Shelter in Place Billboards in Detroit Neighborhoods Lindsay Glatz, Revelry: A visual celebration of New Orleans culture helping artists who are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic Want to join us for the next talk? Register! Stay on top of what we're up to. Subscribe to our website.   

Listen in on this chat with Kent Kerr and RJ Thompson of Plus Public based in Bellevue, PA, just north of Pittsburgh. This live, interactive, open-to-the-public call was recorded on June 11, 2020. Guest hosted by Meghan Rutigliano, Burning Man Cultural Ambassador and Founder of Globally Curated. At the time of recording, Kent was a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Radford University, and his thesis was a research project on using design thinking techniques to uncover how a community thinks of itself. He and RJ did their research in Bellevue, a small, rust-belt town that has experienced something of a renaissance after ending prohibition in 2015. They spoke with The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking as part of the organization's Community Coffee Talk program, a series of live, interactive, virtual conversations. Subscribe to updates from NCCP to stay informed!

The featured recording is from The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking's Community Coffee Talk series. Guests are the innovators from Opositivefestival.org in Upstate New York, who have been organizing festivals that bring underinsured artists together with medical providers. Recorded on May 28, 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With Meghan Rutigliano , Founder of Globally Curated & Burning Man Cultural Ambassador, Tamara Gatchell, Principal at Cadence Creative, Andrea Orlando, Community Director at NCCP, and Joe Concra and Holly Kelly of Opositivefestival.org . The audio was taken from a live videoconference. 

Washington D.C.-based social innovator Philippa Hughes was close to refining best practices for bringing together liberals and conservatives together over food and art to engage in meaningful discussion on politics and policy. Then the pandemic happened, and one key element of the formula was rendered impossible--at least for a while--the ability to gather face-to-face. The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking hosted a live, interactive video conference on May 14, 2020 with co-host Meghan Rutigliano to find out how she's shifting her work to cross political and social distance until it's safe to gather again. The video conference was the pilot in a new series called, "Community Coffee Talk." Register for the next one on Thursday, May 28 at 1 pm EDT for a chat with guests from Opositivefestival.org, which brings underinsured artists together with medical providers in Upstate New York for an exchange of services. Guest host, Tamara Gatchell, Principal of Cadence Creative, will lead the discussion. Meghan Rutigliano, Founder of Globally Curated and Burning Man Cultural Ambassador, will co-host. Sign up for our newsletter to stay in touch! 

Listen into this audio recording of a webinar with David B. Pankratz recorded live on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Learn how to use evaluation to grow your creative placemaking projects.  David serves on the steering committee for the Culture Research Network and was formerly Research & Policy Director for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council where he conducted research for diverse audiences on the impacts of the arts & culture, racial equity and arts funding, the health of the arts and culture sector, and the working lives of artists. He is also an instructor in the Certificate in Creative Placemaking program hosted jointly by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and the New Hampshire Institute of Art and Design at New England College. Want to join us live and in real time at our next webinar? Register! Subscribe to our newsletter for all updates. 

The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking's Founder, Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP offers some words of encouragement for creative placemakers as they move from shock to acceptance and action during the pandemic. This reading was recorded on April 4, 2020 less than a month after millions of Americans were ordered to stay home to help flatten the curve of the Coronavirus outbreak.  Like our podcasts? Join us for live, interactive, pay-what-you-wish webinars. Register now! Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.

In this episode of CreativePlace  you'll join the teens from Territory Design Studio in Chicago. We caught up with them after they presented a session at the 2019 Midwest Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Cincinnati in October. Hear what Jaime Flores, Victoria Norrington, Tamia Johnson, and Martin Herrera had to say about their experience. The podcast is produced by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.     

Hear what Executive Director Meggan Gomez has to say about her work at Theatre of the Oppressed NYC in this November, 2019 interview. Gomez talks about how the organization's unique theatrical process helps communities become more just, and how her journey began when she quit acting school to follow her calling. The road took her from Allentown, PA, to Bogotá, Colombia, Albuquerque, NM, Italy and back to the East Coast. Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now! Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. 

Sit on the porch with The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and three guests from Indianapolis, collaborators who are engaging community theater, neighbors, and small business owners to imagine a better future. The guests are Moriah Miller of the Harrison Center, Keesha Dixon of Asante Children's Theatre, and Shirley Webster, a longtime resident and community organizer. The three were instructors at the 2019 Midwest Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Cincinnati in October. They taught a session on engaging theater to address neighborhood change and cultural gentrification. Themes include gentrification, community theater, improvisation, honoring and integrating elderly residents, cultural festivals to encourage dialogue around difficult topics and more. The event is called PreEnact Indy. Learn more by watching this video: https://vimeo.com/387485504  Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Albuquerque native Carlos Contreras has made a name for himself as a slam poet who now organizes community engaged art events through Immastar Productions. We caught up with him during his tenure at the City of Albuquerque as the municipality's Director of Marketing and Innovation. Find out what happened when The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking asked him to share his insights through teaching a session entitled, "Introduction to Creative Placemaking" at the 2019 Midwest Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Listen in on this chat with Kiran Singh Sirah, Executive Director of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN. He stopped in to record with us while visiting New York City for the United Nations International Day of Peace in September, 2019. He also joined the climate strike, Fridays for the Future, and was beginning a collaboration with the organizers on a storytelling game app. He also became involved in designing the nation's first storytelling hospital. Find out why he believes storytelling is the solution to many of the world's most vexing problems.  Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Listen in on this conversation with Cornell Carelock, a hip-hop teaching artist and founder of True HeART Academy in Westchester County, NY. Carelock is a Certificate in Creative Placemaking graduate from the class of 2019 and developed a series of workshops that integrate arts modalities into mindfulness practice. In this conversation he talks about a concept he calls 'heartfulness' and why it's such a useful tool for practitioners in the field. This interview was recorded in August of 2019, less than two months prior to the Midwest Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit, where he was set to teach a workshop to leaders across the Midwest in Cincinnati in the beginning of October. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where our handle is @cpcommunities   Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Hear how the Anchorage Museum in Alaska has partnered with the Northern Norway Art Museum to address some of the challenges that are unique to Northern places. The museum is exploring equitable community solutions through its new Solutions for Energy and Equitable Design Lab (SEED Lab). This episode is a conversation with Julie Decker, Director and CEO of the museum and Bodil Kjelstrup, who is serving as curator of the SEED Lab. Kjelstrup is from the Northern Norway Art Museum, and the two met at a conference on the arts in the circumpolar north several years ago. Find out how the SEED Lab is engaging the creativity of the community to address some of its most pressing challenges. This conversation hits on climate change, equity in indigenous communities, do-it-yourself culture and shifting narratives to empower local communities.  The two museum officials co-taught a breakout session at the 2019 Pacific Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Los Angeles in June. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Dancing in a big circle? Show and tell? Drinking cocktails made from the fruit of an old tree? Flower arranging? These may not be the activities that one associates with anti-displacement community organizing, but they play a central role in fight to preserve Little Tokyo, LA, one of three remaining historic Japantowns in the nation. This episode is a conversation with Scott Oshima of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. The JACCC is involved in the campaign to preserve the historic neighborhood. We chatted with them at the 2019 Pacific Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in LA in June where they taught two breakout sessions and led a field workshop into Little Tokyo with Summit participants. Although this conversation is about a specific neighborhood we go deep on why arts and culture remind community activists what they are fighting for in the first place. They also discuss some of the tactical urbanist and cultural asset mapping strategies they use to gather data and celebrate small wins in the long, hard work of reaching towards a vision several years into the future. Like this episode? Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!  

Hear how free concerts transformed two communities in Texas and Nevada. We had a conversation with Sharon Yazowski, Executive Director of the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation; Patti Diou of the Levitt Pavilion in Arlington, TX, and Gina Lopez-Hill of the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City, NV. This episode touches on the power of getting the community together over free, outdoor concerts. Our guests give their programs credit for introducing couples who later got married, helping local employers retain talented employees, and helping neighbors meet and bond over music. The recording took place during the 2019 Pacific Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Los Angeles, which was co-produced by the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation, ArtPlace America and The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Listen to this interview with a father-daughter team who are taking cultural tourism to the next level in South Dakota. Their company, Tatanka Rez Tourz, offers custom tours of the Pine Ridge Reservation that can feature music and dance performances, a discussion of tribal governance, a history lesson at Wounded Knee, genealogy, or a prayer ceremony. Warren "Guss" Yellow Hair and Tianna Yellow Hair do it all in the spirit of serving their community and telling their story to those who come to listen. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

With the early 2019 release of "Rural Prosperity Through the Arts & Creative Sector" and the 2019 Rural Generation Summit, the creative placemaking world is turning its attention to arts and culture-driven economic and community development in less-populated areas. Bob Reeder, Program Director of Rural LISC, explains why it's important for people in the field to learn the 'languages' spoken in other sectors, and how that knowledge can result in more productive creative placemaking.  We interviewed him at the 2019 ArtPlace Summit in Jackson, MS, which was immediately followed by the Rural Generation Summit, also in Jackson. He served on the advisory committee for the Rural Generation Summit. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

This episode is an interview with Queen Muhammad Ali who is using film to document the ancient food and pharmacopeia traditions in American Samoa. Her collaborators on the project are filmmaker Hakeem Khaaliq and media archivist David Neary, who completed work at MoMA in New York City. The name of the project is Manuia Samoa, and she will (did) present at the 2019 Pacific Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Los Angeles. The project began as a labor of love after her maternal grandmother died in 2012. Ali talks about how nearly half the island is diagnosed with diabetes and her belief that a return to a traditional diet will help. The recording was  completed in May of 2019 at the ArtPlace Summit in Jackson, MS. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Several lucky attendees at the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit for the South and Appalachia were treated to a field workshop at the main branch of the Richland Library in Columbia,  SC. We interviewed the workshop leader, Chief Program and Innovation Officer, Tony Tallent, to ask about the changing role of the public library and why creative placemaking can help the institution meet the needs of the community. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

We incorporated art making into one of our Creative Placemaking Leadership Summits to help summit attendees decompress and have conversations about community and home. We interviewed SaBrina Jeffcoat, the artist who made it happen at the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit | South + Appalachia. Have a listen. And to learn more about our Summits across the country, please visit www.cpcommunities.org/summits  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now! Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. 

Meet two individuals who are creative placemaking welcoming environments in the American South and beyond. We interviewed Jordyne Krumroy and Janeen Bryant at the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit | South + Appalachia in Columbia, SC in April of 2019. Krumroy works for Welcoming America, a non-profit that offers toolkits to communities in the new South, across the country, and internationally that want to become hospitable to immigrants. Bryant owns Facilitate Movement, LLC, and operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina. The two talk about their work and what it feels like to be engaged in a larger movement at this moment in history. CreativePlace is produced by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

We interviewed Jaunita Hardy, who recently finished a fellowship at the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit research and education organization that serves members who are mostly in real estate development. The occasion for this interview was a visit to Charlottesville, VA, for the 2019 Tom Tom Festival and Summit where Hardy and Andrea Orlando, Community Director at the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and podcast host served together on a panel on creative placemaking. She talks about her research into best practices for real estate developers and the direction of creative placemaking in that industry. The interview took place one week before the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit | South + Appalachia in Columbia, S.C. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Art can elicit strong emotions, but what happens when a museum contemplates installing a work that is expected to scrape at the scabs of historic wounds? This is the story of what happened at the Mississippi Museum of Art after deciding to install a work entitled, "White Gold" by William Sayre. The immersive exhibit evokes being in a cotton field. Listen to this interview with the museum's Executive Director, Betsy Bradley, and Monique Davis, Managing Director of the Center for Art and Public Exchange as they tell the story of internal soul searching, staff preparation and community conversations in advance of and during the exhibit. This episode was recorded at the 2019 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit | South + Appalachia. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Is it possible to get liberals and conservatives to talk about politics without resorting to name calling? What if there were a way to get ordinary people from both sides of the political divide to discuss politics and policy using art and a creative process? We interviewed Washington D.C.-based creative placemaker Philippa Hughes when we were together at the 2019 Tom Tom Festival and Summit for a panel on creative placemaking. Hear her tell the story about how her curiosity about people's political views prompted her to start Blueberries and Cherries, a series of dinners that puts  'blue' and 'red' people together over dinner for civil discourse and how those dinners have evolved into larger events at art venues. Our interview took place in early April just as she was about to bring her concept to six other cities in the United States in collaboration with New American Economy and the American University School of Public Affairs.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our Community Coffee Talks. Register now! Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.

Listen in on this interview with Sharnita Johnson, the Arts Program Director for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Find out what her favorite Garden State experiences are and why she thinks creative placemaking is one of the keys to building an equitable, sustainable and informed New Jersey. The private foundation supports the arts, education and environment in the state and has recently undergone a strategic plan update. The interview was recorded on March 29, 2019. NCCP thanks the foundation for their support. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

We interviewed anthropologist Dr. Maribel Alvarez between breakout sessions at a Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Alvarez was appointed Associate Dean for Community Engagement at the University of Arizona. She talks about work she did in Tuscon, Arizona with La Doce: Barrio Foodways Project. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

In this episode show host Andrea Orlando interviews Hakim Bellamy and Darryl DeLoach on a workshop program they created to improve safety during interactions between young men of color and law enforcement officers. Hakim is a poet, and Darryl is an actor. The program, called Positive Policing   employs the tools of their trades to role play common encounters, such as traffic stops. The two men demonstrated their methods at the 2019 West Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Albuquerque, NM. In this interview they talk about how their methods evolved and what they hope to accomplish. They share an example of one workshop that accidentally transformed into a genuine reckoning because one of the officers in the room had actually stopped and questioned one of the young men who participated in the exercise in a prior encounter years earlier. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!        

Filmmaker Angelo Baca captured the effort to designate Bears Ears in Southeastern Utah a National Monument in 2016. Visit utahdinebikeya.org for the latest information. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

In this interview Joe Palazzolo of New Jersey Community Capital talks about why the organization is investing in creative placemaking projects, and how the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy illustrated the importance of such work. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

In this episode you'll learn about the state of creative placemaking in South Jersey and find out more about the ArtsTank competition, a creative placemaking riff on a similarly named television show. The winner receives $5,000 for a project and the honor of being selected. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.  Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Julie Burros, Principal Cultural Planner at Metris Arts Consulting talks about the culture of 'yes' and the culture of 'no.' She's worked in the realm of public art for the cities of Chicago and Boston and has a few suggestions for creative placemakers who are struggling to gain permits and approvals for their public arts projects. This advice also applies to elected and other public officials who seek to enliven their cities and towns through public art and arts programming. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!  

Kadie Dempsey of Core Creative Placemaking in Morristown, New Jersey talks about the importance of incorporating fun into creative placemaking. Also, building community and consensus is not as difficult as one might imagine, and she breaks it down for listeners. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

We caught up with Jeremy Moss, Executive Director of Valley Arts in the Valley Arts District in Orange, New Jersey. He's the fashion photographer who took the now-famous photos of Naomi Campbell tripping on the runway in the 1990s, and he talks about how that moment led him to the work he's doing now. He also talks about the variety of art and art programming happening at the former warehouse-turned-art-center. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.   Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!

Andrea Orlando, Community Director of The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking interviews Kadie Dempsey of Core Creative Placemaking in Morristown, New Jersey. She talks about how her life took an unconventional path from a meditation ashram to public art administration to founding a creative placemaking company. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates.    Like our podcasts? You'll love our webinars. Register now!