04/12/2012

Conference Promotes Creative Placemaking

"Urban planners, commercial real estate developers, elected and appointed officials, and academics sat down with artists and arts administrators in Newark, NJ, to learn how to use the arts to energize their communities.

Rutgers University officials gathered members from these diverse circles—leaders who rarely interact with each other—at Create a Place: Arts Build Communities.

The goal of the day-long conference at Rutgers-Newark wasn’t just to celebrate the power of art, but to learn how to get use art to build and energize communities.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker set the agenda with a moving speech to 150 people at the Paul Robeson Campus Center.

'I am a mayor, and I am a pragmatist. I know the arts are one of the biggest economic development drivers in a community. I see the arts drive development. I see the arts drive jobs,' Booker said. 'But that’s not why I am excited to be here today. Art isn’t about pragmatism. It is about the divine...'

The conference featured panel discussions on starting, funding and sustaining a 'creative placemaking' project and peer coaching sessions to help members of different communities communicate and collaborate more effectively.

The Star-Ledger 04/05/2012