Creative CityMaking
03/01/2014
Intermedia Arts has been awarded $1 million by the Kresge Foundation for a three-year pilot of its Creative CityMaking program. This grant follows a successful pre-pilot partnership in 2103 between Intermedia Arts and the City of Minneapolis’ Long Range Planning Division and its Arts, Culture and Creative Economy program.
The pre-pilot, funded by ArtPlace America, fostered year-long collaborations between local artists and City planners to develop fresh, innovative approaches to community engagement. Seven artists embedded in the Long Range Planning Division of the Community Planning and Economic Development Department (CPED) gathered input from communities on issues from light-rail transit to historic preservation. These collaborations resulted in new creative strategies and tools to engage residents, especially those who are underrepresented in conventional city planning processes.
Included in the pre-pilot: Artists Ashley Hanson and Wing Young Huie working in North Minneapolis generated nine engagement strategies—including interactive theater at bus-stops and table-toppers at restaurants—to spark dialogue and collect input from people who would not normally be part of a city planning conversation about land use or transit. Data gathered through informal artistic means was plotted onto graphs to inform the formal planning processes.
Over the next three years, Creative CityMaking will apply what was learned in 2013 about the roles artists can play as innovative collaborators in city government, integrating artists into the operations of up to five City of Minneapolis departments. Kresge Foundation aims to use what is learned through Intermedia’s partnership with the City of Minneapolis Arts, Culture and Creative Economy program to promote effective creative placemaking on a national scale.