Page 8 - Toolkit

INTRODUCTION
In early 2020, Culture Bank/Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (with financial support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation) contracted InterUrban ArtHouse to begin the long process of formulating a Tool Kit for Creative Placemaking that reflects both our specific achievements and how our work fits into the Kansas City metropolitan art ecosystem.
In the broadest terms, Creative Placemaking when art
and culture are leveraged by a group collaboration
of representatives from multiple sectors, to elevate the meaning, use and health of a place. It takes into account the many factors that contribute to community health in the built environment. It can be applied to projects as small as a street-intersection mural or as large as a neighborhood revitalization plan. This young, fast-evolving field is
a dynamic, process-oriented form of community and economic development that has captured the imagination of funders, developers, city leaders, community activists, educators and health-care professionals.
InterUrban ArtHouse is an example of Creative Placemaking practice. We are an artist-founded, artist-led
TOOLKIT BASICS
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nonprofit in Kansas, within the Kansas City Metropolitan region. Our formation was in response to a series of surveys that called for an affordable, inclusive, accessible, safe and stable place for artists to work, teach, learn, make, sell and share with the community. When we began forming in 2010, the governor had defunded the state Arts Commission and we were in a recession. We launched
5 programs, tailored to the needs of artists and started the 5-year fundraising journey to buy and renovate an underutilized industrial property. Now in our 9th year, our 10,000 square-foot building sits in an acre of land, housing 30 artists in 19 studios with a large community space for programming, exhibitions and performances.
Some of our many projects: InterUrban ArtHouse led the formation of an Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Arts District in Overland Park, KS (IDEA District) where we are located; helped update the Public Art Master Plan; placed public art, murals, sculptures, bike racks and cultural programs throughout the downtown; and participated in research to further inform local Creative Placemaking.
TOOL KIT BASICS
This Tool Kit continues on-going processes in the KC Metro to measure, understand, listen to and support the regional arts ecology.
In this Tool Kit, we will:
• introduce the field of Creative Placemaking, some key players, definitions, evolution of knowledge, tools and resources.
• summarize several regional research and public forum processes that have already been articulated about the KC regions’ art ecology.
• sketch-out a series of phases that can be undertaken to employ equitable, artist- centered Creative Placemaking practices.
• provide a bibliography and more details about research and tools available to continue deeper work.