Creative Placemaking
What is creative placemaking? Artistic and cultural activities strengthen a community, particularly when they reveal and celebrate its character and identity. At LISC, we support residents coming together to make social, physical and economic changes in their neighborhoods through the arts and culture.
This is known as Creative Placemaking — it provides the vital spark that brings a neighborhood to life, making it a place where things are happening and people want to be. We launched our national creative placemaking program, with major funding from The Kresge Foundation, because we believe that providing space for creativity and culture to flourish in disinvested neighborhoods is as important to comprehensive community development as is meeting basic needs.
Creative placemaking is best defined by what it encompasses. It can mean renovating a historic theater or building affordable live-work space for artists. It can entail transforming a weedy lot into a lively gathering place or an abandoned church into a community exhibition space. It can be organizing a dance festival or providing opportunities for youth to discover their creative power. When the energy of the arts is a driving force, the possibilities are limitless.
The LISC difference
We believe creative placemaking can and must be inclusive and equitable to everyone, reflecting the hopes, dreams and desires of community members, including traditionally marginalized groups. LISC's core creative placemaking goal is to leverage the unique power of arts and culture to empower people build vibrant, resilient and socially connected communities in the places they call home.
What does it take to create a neighborhood gathering place that’s beautifully designed and reflects a community's history and aspirations? After months of give and take among community members, RISD architecture students, the city and LISC, the result is an urban lawn and a translucent pavilion that lights up like a beacon at night, piquing curiosity and signaling possibilities.
