The Case for Creative Placemaking

Placemaking is a multidimensional approach to community development that strengthens the connection between people and the places they share. Its main philosophy states that housing development alone is not sufficient to improve the quality of life in a community. This philosophy empowers us to think more broadly and to advocate for community rights like accessible transportation and more green spaces in our neighborhoods.

Creative placemaking adds to this idea by introducing art and culture into the placemaking process for BIPOC, queer, and immigrant communities. It allows for cultural exchange between community members and provides the opportunity for empathic connection. Have you ever been to a block party or a cultural event? These are examples of creative placemaking.

We can also begin to decolonize our identities by centering, healing, and celebrating our ancestral cultures. Creative placemaking celebrates unique aspects of our communities, provides us the opportunity to take up space, and resists assimilation. It can help us forge authentic connections to Indigenous history and struggle and create traditions by welcoming communities seeking refuge from systemic injustice.

While creative placemaking is not commonly discussed, there are many ways to practice it in our everyday lives. Some examples include:

1. Connecting to each other virtually. Group video calls with friends or organizing virtual events can be easy and accessible ways to connect with folks and stay in touch. This helps reduce the geographic barriers to accessing our community, especially for disabled people.

2. Participating in community gatherings. Potlucks, block parties, and paint & sips are places where we can express cultural appreciation through food, stories, music, and traditions in public spaces.

3. Using art to decorate our homes and communal spaces. Using art from our cultures and experiences can make our homes and communities welcoming, celebratory, and affirming spaces for ourselves and others.

A crucial part of creative placemaking is acknowledging and honoring the land we’re inhabiting. We can research the history of the Indigenous people who have and continue to live on it. By including land acknowledgments and supporting efforts like the Land Back movement, our creative placemaking resists settler-colonial patterns of oppression.

Creative placemaking challenges us to reexamine our relationships to land, our responsibilities to one another, and to our cultural identities. Taking up space, gathering, and celebrating each other is an act of resistance, a way to heal, and a process through which we can feel rooted in our spaces. 

Through creative placemaking, we can find various ways of belonging, connecting, and being in community with one another. Although many of our cultures have been suppressed by colonialism, we can find radical joy in our homes and collective spaces by reclaiming our traditions and creating new ones along the way.

What are some ways you already practice creative placemaking? Are there examples of creative placemaking in your community?