May 13, 2014
Listen to the call here
Strategies for Cultural Planning Resource Newsletter

Municipalities, arts councils, and community-based organizations around the country engage in cultural planning in order to better engage their communities, identify and build on resources, and integrate the arts and culture into larger community development strategies. In the New York State Decentralization program arts councils createcultural plans to ensure they are effectively reaching their communities. The process of cultural planning often involves a larger exploration of how communities express and practice their unique cultures.

On this call, we heard brief presentations from two veterans in cultural planning: Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Co-Director, Animating Democracy, and Tom Borrup, Principal,Creative Community Builders. They discussed both the promising practices and potential pitfalls of cultural planning.

Tom Borrup is a leader and innovator in creative community building - leveragingcultural and other community assets to advance economic, social, civic, and physical development of place-based communities. Consulting with cities, foundations, and nonprofits across the U.S, his approach integrates the arts, economic development, urban planning and design, civic engagement, and animation of public space. His book, The Creative Community Builders' Handbook, profiles communities that have transformed their economic, social, and physical infrastructures through the arts and provides a step-by-step planning guide.

Barbara Schaffer Bacon co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Additionally, she provides leadership in program development for Local Arts Advancement at Americans for the Arts. Barbara has worked as a consultant in program design and evaluation for state and local arts agencies and private foundations nationally. She previously served as executive director of the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts.