We’re learning to use art to transform public places

“Creative placemaking” has been around since the beginning of time. Honestly, since the term was coined, I realize I’ve been practicing it almost all of my life.

In 2011, ArtPlace America formed as a public-private partnership to incorporate the disciplines of art in all components of our lives. The birth of this entity has shaped what we know as creative placemaking, which uses a multifaceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces.

Many artists and art organizations are facing financial cuts right now due to government assistance that no longer exists. If we begin to incorporate more creative placemaking movements, the results would equal growth. For example, using art as a means to eliminate blight or to revitalize a neighborhood is creative placemaking. Think of how public art and festivals create a sense of gathering.

Creative placemaking forces our appointed and elected officials get out of the boardrooms and more into the places they’re making policies for. Creative placemaking also makes way for artists to have seats in the boardrooms. So many times folks are displaced when something for the good comes to the ‘hoods. In order to make it nice and safe, some of the existing components are removed before development takes place.

Physical displacement is one thing. We face it on economic and cultural levels, though. With a creative placemaking blueprint, we can eliminate many of our social ills. Community development should be about rebuilding more than erasing all that existed for a new start. Housing and work space for artists created in these urban and rural areas create a vibrancy that attracts tourists and engages the people of the existing community by providing them with opportunities to grow.

ONE South CDC is a community-based organization founded by Danny Glover to acquire vacant lots in a designated area of south Macon for farmland. This project is made up of art, community engagement and farming. Artists are already being commissioned and contracted. There is a zero-displacement policy for the project, and almost all who live in the “urban agrihood” and its surrounding area are aware of the project’s details. This week, the first blighted lot acquired by ONE South CDC has been tested and approved to grow produce.

Once the agrihood vision becomes more of a reality, people will gravitate to this space. ONE South CDC received a $500,000 grant form ArtPlace America at the end of 2017. This grant will span a two-year period. It will not fix every problem faced by the southside, but it will spell success.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 2:59 PM with the headline "We’re learning to use art to transform public places."