Unlikely Poets / Guerrilla Haiku Movement / Sharing The Sidewalk
We hailed down a police car in Orange, N.J., and Police Director John Rappaport pulled over. We explained our situation. He thought for a...
The $9 Jar of Artisanal Pickles: Equity and Local Food
Sustainability is about thriving, not just surviving. We will not thrive if we are poorly paid martyrs to a good cause, and thus, in a healthy, diverse and vital food system, some of our efforts might need to be directed to those who can pay nine dollars for a jar of pickles.
Parks, People, and Inclusive Collaborative Planning
A Philadelphia park conservancy develops arts-based partnerships within the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood to strengthen the community's cultural identity.
New Visions of Justice Through the Camera Lens
An experimental learning opportunity allows formerly incarcerated individuals to use photography to explore ideas of freedom, complex relationships, and their personal experience with the criminal justice system.
Art that Amplifies the Stories of Formerly Incarcerated People
Art that highlights the effects of long-term sentencing and the need to support and expand services for those who are reentering society.
Using Art to Create Community at a Clinic
Arts projects at a Minneapolis clinic created a natural connection between people who might not otherwise interact.
Creative Placemaking: Honoring the Past While Welcoming our Futures
A discussion about honoring the history of a place while actively working to encourage its growth and foster positive change.
Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 6
Gentrification Is Bad For One's Health | Housing Teachers-At School | Protecting Space for Local Business | TOD Doesn't Have to Displace | Community Artists Win in Court | More . . .
A Community Planning Process–Even A Good One–Is Not Enough
Just the inherent language of community “transformation” signals that what has come before is not worth holding on to, and renders the history of these public housing sites insignificant.
Keeping Your Artists Close to Home
New Orleans relies on its artists as a core part of its economy. What can be done when those artists can no longer afford to call the city home?
Exploring Foreclosure Through Art
In Minneapolis and Boston, artists help explore the losses (and gains) of foreclosure with work that supports advocacy and community building.
The Cultural Ramifications of Gentrification in New Orleans
Gentrification is not just physical displacement; it’s cultural appropriation across entire neighborhoods. Artists have an obligation not to participate.
If We Want the Arts in Baltimore, We Need Its Artists
Artists have left their mark on Station North and paved the way for an arts district, but the organically-developed communal live/work spaces that play such a vital role in helping make Baltimore an arts mecca are an endangered species.
False Narratives About Artists Harm Artists, and Communities
In 2002, Richard Florida published a book that kicked off a wave of urban development efforts based on the belief that architects, artists, musicians,...
Arts in Public Schools: Essential. Life Saving.
This is dedicated to that Little Girl
who experienced the first part of life in such a hard way
who used to retreat to her world...
An Antidote to the Negativity Surrounding Rural America
With all the news of downward trends in rural America, this rural sociologist says he finally has something to smile about.
Poem: “Tires Stacked in the Hallways of Civilization”
Yes, Your Honor, there are rodents, said the landlord to the judge, but I let the tenant have a cat. Besides, he stacks his tires in the hallway.
Regrets of an Accidental Placemaker
Had I unintentionally contributed to the gentrification of my neighborhood and other neighborhoods around Washington, D.C.?
Arts for Community Control: Planning an Arts and Innovation District Without Displacement
Jason Moreno first learned about redevelopment efforts taking place in his Boston neighborhood on a sunny summer afternoon in July 2018 at his local...
Artists as Organizers
Creative placemaking means more than merely adding public art into the mix. To be sustainable it needs to build relationships—and power.