Arts Intranet

The Chicago Public Art Plan has been authored by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). DCASE is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of  Chicago’s nonprofit arts sector, independent working artists, and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the city’s future cultural and economic growth, via the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012; marketing the city’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free, and affordable

Understanding the social value of the arts and culture in New York City neighborhoods was the goal of the research undertaken between 2014 and 2017 by Penn's Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) in collaboration with Reinvestment Fund. This brief is a summary of the conceptual framework, data and methodology, findings and implications of the research discussed in the full report--The Social Wellbeing of New York City's Neighborhoods: The Contributions of Culture and the Arts (March 2017).

One of a number of field scans conducted by ArtPlace, this paper summarizes research and best practices in the intersection of arts and public safety.

This study report from Yale University's School of Medicine examined Mural Arts' Porch Light Program with a rigorous scientific method and shares the results of that research.

The Creative Community Builder's Handbook gives you successful strategies, best practices, and "how-to" guidance to turn cultural gems into effective community change. The text delves into key principles of community development and presents 20 case studies from across the U.S. In addition, it lays out five steps to assessing, planning, and implementing creative community building projects.

This white paper summarizes two decades of creative American placemaking, drawing on original economic research and case studies of pathbreaking initiatives in large and small cities, metropolitan to rural, as well as published accounts. The case studies stretch from Providence, Rhode Island, to Los Angeles, California, and from Arnaudville, Louisiana, and Fond du Lac, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. Each reveals a distinctive strategy that succeeded when initiators built partnerships across sectors, missions, and levels of government, leveraging funds from diverse sources and programs.<

The report examines the research on NEA Our Town projects to determine whether proposed indicators were the correct ones for measuring project impact.

This paper from the National Endowment for the Arts, written by Springboard for the Arts' Laura Zabel, explores different strategies and techniques for integrating the arts into planning.

The study provides empirical evidence that the drivers that create emotional bonds between people and their community are consistent in virtually every city and can be reduced to just a few categories. Interestingly, the usual suspects — jobs, the economy, and safety — are not among the top drivers. Rather, people consistently give higher ratings for elements that relate directly to their daily quality of life: an area’s physical beauty, opportunities for socializing, and a community’s openness to all people. [from Introduction]

This toolkit is intended to help municipalities incorporate arts and culture into their communities, enhance livability by improving quality of life, and become more attractive places to live, work, and play.

This report outlines steps governors can take to incorporate arts and culture into state economic development plans and policies.

This study debunks the myth that arts economic development (AED) is a recent phenomenon. Although marked by piecemeal policies, different motivations, and scattered implementation, AED has played a strategic role in modern city planning over the past hundred years.

This is one of several briefing papers created by the APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center on how planners use arts and culture to achieve economic, social, environmental, and community goals.

This is one of several briefing papers created by the APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center on how planners use arts and culture to achieve economic, social, environmental, and community goals.

This is one of several briefing papers created by the APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center on how planners use arts and culture to achieve economic, social, environmental, and community goals.

This is one of several briefing papers created by the APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center on how planners use arts and culture to achieve economic, social, environmental, and community goals.

This is one of several briefing papers created by the APA's Planning and Community Health Research Center on how planners use arts and culture to achieve economic, social, environmental, and community goals. To see all the papers visit https://planning.org/research/arts/.

"We theorize how culture jamming as practiced operates as critical public pedagogy, through the ways in which it (1) fosters participatory, resistant cultural production; (2) engages learners corporeally; (3) creates a (poetic) community politic; and (4) opens tran-sitional spaces through détournement (a “turning around”)." [Abstract p. 323]

The nonprofit arts, unlike most industries, leverage significant amounts of event-related spending by their audiences. Attendance at arts events generates related commerce for hotels, restaurants, parking garages, and more.

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times.

Youth in social circus programs across the US are making big leaps in the skills they need to lead productive lives, according to a recently completed study commissioned by the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) and conducted by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality. The study found that circus arts has a positive impact on the Social and Emotional Learning outcomes of youth at risk. 

This Public Art Roadmap is intended to chart a course for what the Public Arts Trust should do next. The Roadmap process took place from October 2014 through June 2015.

This handbook outlines the process of creating GEOLOOM, a tool to foster creative placemaking through capturing the broad range of arts and culture in Baltimore, Maryland. While Baltimore is a city of approximately 600,000 residents, the process can be adapted for a community of any size, city or town, urban or rural. All communities have both formal and informal arts and cultural activities and we believe that mapping them along with other data can assist in teh decision-making necessary for making communities vibrant and sustainable.

While nobody truly knows what to expect 25 years from now, the convening indicated that cultural facility leaders in 2032 will require greater community-building skills, new leadership styles, and the ability to build different physical spaces.

This Monograph tells the story of the Arts Council of Greater Lima (Ohio), which harnessed the power of the arts to prompt civic action, and high-lights best practices culled from the experiences of 37 arts and humanities projects.

Cultural Perspectives in Civic Dialogue shares the efforts of cultural organizers who are skilled in working deeply within and across cultures to understand important cultural considerations in arts-based civic dialogue work. Their endeavors illuminate how cultural norms mediate public space and participation, as well as how the choices regarding art forms and dialogue approaches can support or discourage civic participation of various cultural groups. In the King Kamehameha I Statue Conservation Project, rural Hawai’ian residents deliberated how best to conserve a

When AMS Planning & Research began working with Americans for the Arts on its strategic planning process, an essential part of the effort was a comprehensive national environmental scan. The scan explored opportunities and challenges facing America’s arts and culture sector by gathering input from more than 6,000 individuals who represent the breadth of the field.

In this case study, Bill Cleveland offers an engaging in-depth excavation of the genesis, planning, and implementation of Creative CityMaking, a collaboration between the City of Minneapolis and Intermedia Arts aimed at integrating creative thinking, strategies, and processes into the operations of city departments. Detailed stories of the five collaborative projects at the heart of Creative CityMaking along with outcomes and learning from the first phase provide an illuminating and instructive look at how collaboration between artists and municipal government can achieve

The purpose of this overview and form contract is to give a general idea of the structure and make up of a Design Development Agreement, not to suggest that this is the only way to draft such an agreement.