T4America Blog

How are artists being trained to collaborate with civic leaders on transportation & planning projects?

In cities across the country, artists are helping to solve civic problems. But what sort of training is helping them and other cultural workers facilitate smoother collaborations and better projects? Our third webinar on creative placemaking will continue exploring how cities and artists are working together in transportation planning and community development.

Whether it’s bringing people to an empty plaza through performance, improving navigation options through better design, or connecting neighborhoods through interactive installations, artists bring a unique perspective to many municipal challenges.

But artists and civic professionals do not always speak the same language, however. These two groups often answer to different stakeholders and work along different timelines. With the proliferation of new programs integrating arts and culture into community development—like municipally sponsored artist-in-residence programs—artists and cultural producers need to be trained to work with government agencies and community members, and to inhabit interdisciplinary roles that extend beyond the traditional duties of an artist.

Recognizing this need, several organizations have launched programs to train artists and cultural workers to facilitate smoother collaborations and better projects. Projects like the Regional Arts Commission Community Arts Training Institute in St. Louis, Intermedia Arts’ Creative Community Leadership Institute in Minneapolis, Nashville Metro Arts Commission’s Learning Lab, Creative Capital’s Community Engagement Workshop, and the Center for Performance and Civic Projects are all designed to help better integrate arts into civic and transportation projects.

Learn more about these training programs during Training programs for artist and civic/transportation collaboration, a webinar on Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 2:30 PM EDT. This is the third webinar in our series exploring the role of arts and culture in transportation planning and community development.

Register for the event to hear from experts who have trained, taught or worked alongside alumni of these innovative and exciting programs. We’ll also be taking your questions about how you can use these programs in your own community. We hope you’ll join us for this conversation next week.