Placemaking in Practice: Municipal Arts and Cultural Plans’ Approaches to Placemaking and Creative Placemaking

Abstract

The set of place-based strategies known as placemaking and creative placemaking has become ubiquitously used by local leaders to revitalize downtowns and neighborhoods. The ultimate goal of placemaking is to create thriving, active places that people want to visit and live and work in, without pricing out current residents or making them feel unwelcome, and without losing the individuality of the place. In this study of sixty-four municipal arts and cultural plans, we find that plans show an appreciation for the first part of that goal but an incomplete awareness of what it would take to achieve the second part.