Placemaking Week 2024

Across history, the experience of place has been critical to the self-exploration of cultural identity, and yet also simultaneously linked to its oppression. Institutions with power over space have often implicitly – and explicitly – used this influence in community and economic development for the erasure of cultural identity and to disrupt the abilities for diverse communities to thrive. In many respects, it has been a history of place and land-based injustices that have set a foundation for some of our societies’ greatest inequities. While tremendous momentum has built to recognize, reconcile, and redress past injustices, often such actions are limited in their effectiveness to leverage place, identity, and justice together.  As part of our practice, we believe Culturally Responsive Placemaking is a participatory community-driven approach to create affirming and transformative environments for diverse and marginalized populations through shared knowledge and collective action. More than just a form of entertainment or something to be consumed, cities and communities have an opportunity to center identity and culture as a modern strategy to address some of our most pressing place-based economic, social, and environmental justice needs.  This panel will share case studies from leaders across the country around what culturally responsive placemaking can look like in practice to reconnect place, identity, and justice. These stories include: vacant storefront activation; cultural real estate development; creative engagement & storytelling, and equitable coalition building. Audiences across public, private, non-profit, philanthropic, and community sectors will learn how to leverage each other’s lived experiences – and resources – toward shared and sustained impacts. This session is a call for reflection, exchange, and action to transform the power of placemaking/keeping for true equity in community and economic development.