NEW IBERIA, La. –
Be part of a regional endeavor to introduce neighboring communities to ongoing Creative Placemaking work throughout Acadiana, and to each other, and join in workshops that seek to assist with shaping projects that better YOUR community, town and/or city. Each year different towns/cities will be invited to participate, thereby continuing to expand this nascent network of placemakers.
Creative Placemaking is all about the transformation of communities and neighborhoods via art and/or culture centered projects that result in places where people want to live and visit. It is about inclusion and partnership building, and the want for an improved quality of life.
While this summit is certainly something that community and organizational leaders, public officials, decision makers, municipal and economic planners, and innovators in arts and culture would find beneficial - you need not be one who is considered a leader to affect change. All are invited.
What to expect
Five days, in five towns/cities throughout Acadiana. Presenting each day is a leading authority and/or practitioner of Creative Placemaking. Presenting each afternoon are project leaders for ongoing local Creative Placemaking projects and international, state and local practitioners of programs in tourism, cultural heritage and economic development.
Each day concludes with breakout sessions designed to assist with the creation of one new project for implementation in that community. And finishing out each of the days, five unique evening celebrations representative of each of the hosting communities to which the general public is invited.
Day 1 - Sunday, April 22 - NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, Arnaudville
Ann Markusen, Director of the Arts Economy Initiative and the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and Principal of Markusen Economic Research. Co-author of the 2010 “White Paper for The Mayors' Institute on City Design,” a leadership initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Day 2 - Monday, April 23 – Sliman Performing Arts Center, New Iberia
Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) and former director of the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division. White is credited with the development and implementation of the Year of Creative Economy that resulted in doubling advertising return on investment to $12.93 for every $1 spent in Mississippi.
Day 3 - Tuesday, April 24 – Abbey Players Theater, Abbeville
Carol Bebelle, a native New Orleanian, and co-founder and executive director of Ashe' Cultural Arts Center (Ashé CAC), an organization dedicated to community and human development using culture and art. Ashé CACA served as an anchor institution in the revitalization of Central City, and is a key partner in the renewal of New Orleans as a whole.
Day 4 - Wednesday, April 25 – St. John Episcopal Church, Washington
Maria Rosario Jackson, a senior advisor to the Arts & Culture Program at The Kresge Foundation, and an Institute Professor at Arizona State University where she holds appointments at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and also in the College of Public Service and Community Solutions. In 2013, President Obama appointed Jackson to the National Council on the Arts. She serves on the advisory board of the Lambent Foundation and L.A. Commons, and on boards of directors of both the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and The Music Center in Los Angeles.
Day 5 - Thursday, April 26 – Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette
Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, a leading voice in the intersection of arts and community development. She co-authored
"
Creative Placemaking
," the report for the Mayors’ Institute of City Design (2010) that defined the field. Her journal articles “
Fuzzy Vibrancy” (Cultural Trends, 2013) and “
Creative Placemaking: How to Do it Well” (Community Development Investment Review) look more deeply at creative placemaking as cultural policy and its ethics and practical challenges. She leads Metris Arts Consulting (Easton, PA)
The Cost
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