Placemaking Week 2024

In this session, a group of artists, designers, and city officials will discuss the full gambit of what it takes to activate a public space together — from community engagement, to finding political will and funding, to space design and choosing furnishings, to engaging artists for offering programs, to keeping it clean and safe, to handling promotion and marketing, to documentation and data tracking. Plus everything in between. Many people, including city and corporate leaders, want more vibrant public spaces in their cities and understand the importance of active, engaging, welcoming, and art-filled public spaces in supporting stronger communities of all sizes. People now see the WHY of doing this. Our workshop -— led by the team that worked on SPARK Monument Circle in Downtown Indianapolis — will focus on the details of HOW to do so — with thoughts on WHERE and WHEN as well. We’ll also talk about WHO is vital to involve in making it happen.  SPARK on Monument Circle is a major effort to turn an underutilized civic space in the heart of our city into a large pop-up park. This work began in 2015 with an NEA Our Town grant. That process led to multiple smaller iterations of the project before the City — with solid support from its Capital Improvement Board (which supports tourism in our City) — made a major investment and closed a large section of street on the Circle in 2023.  Why is this an important topic? Now, more than ever, public places need to be optimized to be as beneficial as possible to all citizens who visit and enjoy them. These spaces can—and should—serve as our civic commons. We’ll talk about some of these key outcomes of creating welcoming, enjoyable, respectful, comfortable, and active public places.