Creative placemaking uses arts and cultural expression to create or rejuvenate parks and open spaces. This cooperative, community-based process deepens a sense of place and inspires community pride.

This guide is intended to connect creative placemaking with parks and open spaces. It answers two important questions:

  1. What is creative placemaking?
  2. How does creative placemaking make for better parks and stronger communities?

The Field Guide shows how creative placemaking can:

  • Strengthen the role of parks and open space as an integrated part of comprehensive community development.
  • Advance arts and culturally-based approaches to all phases of park-making, thereby creating social connections within and between communities.
  • Foreground the role of parks as cultural products and important sites for civic gatherings and activity.
  • Foster innovation, design excellence, and beauty in community parks and open spaces.

The Field Guide includes two sections:

  • A “how-to” guide for strategizing and implementing a park-based creative placemaking project
  • 11 Case studies that demonstrate the breadth of this kind of community development

The Field Guide for Parks and Creative Placemaking

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