November 12, 2020

Two new resources are now available as part of the collaboration between ArtPlace America and NASAA, Strengthening the State Arts Agency Support System for Creative Placemaking. These tools provide information on how practitioners can better access public resources for creative placemaking, and are intended to heighten awareness and ease the pathways to public funding for those working at the nexus of the arts and community development.

• The Creative Placemaking Public Resources Guide is a website to help creative placemakers, community developers and arts organizations navigate federal funding opportunities. The new guide includes tips on how to apply for relevant funding programs, a database of information on federal resources and case studies that illustrate creative placemaking innovators using a variety of public sources.
• State Arts Agency Resources for Creative Placemaking Practitioners illuminates ways in which state arts agencies can be useful information-providers, conveners and funders for local creative placemaking efforts. It provides tips for approaching state arts agencies as well as recommended resources for readers interested in the arts and state policy.

Public funding streams are meant to be available broadly, yet knowing what they are or how to tap into them can pose challenges. Federal opportunities are especially difficult to navigate. Eligibility requirements can be strict, application documents are often long and complex, the universe of grants is vast while opportunities themselves are highly specific, and the administering agencies may not always understand creative placemaking. We hope that these resources will help to address these gaps, providing a starting place not only for practitioners seeking opportunities, but for agencies that provide technical assistance to stakeholders seeking such resources.

NASAA thanks ArtPlace America for its generous support of this work, Metris Arts Consulting and Susan Fitter Harris, who wrote and assembled the Creative Placemaking Public Resources Guide, and the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Agencies (NACEDA) for its partnership throughout these efforts.