Artists and cultural institutions have an important role to play in neighborhood social and economic vitality. As community developers consider how best to reimagine space they can and should look to the arts to help create place. This work, otherwise known as “creative placemaking,” is beginning to take shape across the country. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is pleased to dedicate Volume 10, Issue 2 of the Community Development Investment Review to this emerging work.

The south arts education study was conducted across nine different states, with consistent methodologies and response rates. The findings showed that a high percentage of students have some exposure to arts education.

This report presents the findings of an effort undertaken by the Urban Institute to validate a set of candidate indicators for creative placemaking initiatives. Creative placemaking is described as a process or endeavor in which “partners from public, private, non-profit and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities.” [Executive Summary p. 2]

The Arts Council of England reports that the arts contribute to community cohesion, teach us compassion and increase our levels of subjective well being, make children from low income homes 3 times more likely to earn a degree and create economic growth. The full evidentiary report can be found here.

This evidence review by the Arts Council of England makes the case for the arts and culture's values in economic, health, societal and educational well being. Findings are summarized in this infographic.

The Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light, in partnership with Bloomberg LP, honors the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation each year as determined by an annual survey. Benchmarking and sharing the best practices of community engagement offers companies that participate in The Civic 50 a roadmap for using their time, skills, and other resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. The Civic 50 helps translate good intentions into sound business practices for years to come.

The Irrigate toolkit stemmed from the Irrigate project, which leveraged the arts to offset the disruption caused by construction of a new rail line in St.Paul, MN. Disruption is something that all communities face at some point in their trajectories, and this toolkit clearly lays out how the arts can help help turn a ubiquitous challenge into positive outcomes.

A briefing outlinig why public art is important to communities and some the challenges facing the field.

The integration of public art and the emphasis on design excellence and art in transit is a global phenomenon codified in the U.S. more than three decades ago. The periodic defining and recommendation of best practices ensures the continued relevance of processes and protocols used in the field. This paper documents best practices used by experienced transit art administrators who are well versed in contemporary art and have developed comprehensive art in transit programs across the country. 

This new plan is grounded in research that reveals the importance of arts education, and provides data that clearly establishes the starting point—the current state of the arts in CPS The first-ever CPS Arts Education Plan will provide specific recommendations to improve, expand, and strategically coordinate arts education across the District.