T4America Blog

How can cities embed creativity through artist-in-residence programs?

Join us for the second webinar in our series further exploring the role of arts and culture in transportation planning and community development, as we discuss two cities’ artist-in-residence programs.

The Architecture of Endlessness designed and painted by NKO, a mural on the Red Wall surrounding the Link Capitol Hill Station. Flickr photo by Sound Transit

In 1977, Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the first, and still only, artist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation, a job she still holds today. Four decades and thousands of handshakes later, Ukeles’ pioneering work has become a model for cities engaging with artists to bring a creative approach to municipal challenges.

Today, Minneapolis, Seattle, Saint Paul, Boston, Los Angeles, and other cities across the US run artist-in-residence programs, embedding local artists inside city departments to promote creative thinking, attract attention to mundane but crucial municipal processes, and shift narratives about city residents and workers.

Register to join us on September 21, 2016 at 4 p.m. EDT for our online discussion about artist-in-residence programs and hear from experts as we explore some recently created and established artist-in-residence programs in city agencies.

• Ben Stone, Director of Arts & Culture, Smart Growth America/Transportation for America
• Seleta J. Reynolds, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Transportation
• Alan Nakagawa, Creative Catalyst Artist in Residence, Los Angeles Department of Transportation
• Colleen Sheehy, President & Executive Director, Public Art Saint Paul.

Back in February, T4America launched The Scenic Route, an online interactive guide to creative placemaking in transportation to introduce the concept to transportation planners, public works agencies and local elected officials who are on the front lines of advancing transportation projects.

To continue building on that work, we’ve launched this series of webinars to further explore the role of arts and culture in transportation planning and community development. Catch up with the first one from August here.