The Arts and Planning Toolkit is a resource for planners and other government staff who are interested in innovating their planning and community development work through projects and partnerships that engage arts, culture, and the creative community.

The Toolkit presents a menu of strategies grounded in case studies of real projects that are exemplary of how arts and culture can be an effective component of planning, community development, land use, housing, transportation, economic development, public health, and public safety projects and initiatives. Learn more about how this Toolkit is structured on the Contents by Section page.

Why an arts toolkit for planners?

Urban planners have immense influence in shaping the built environment through policy and planning. Through the development and implementation of plans and policies, planners help guide the development of vibrant and healthy places and communities. Arts and culture is an essential element of what makes places and communities healthy, connected, and vibrant.

Arts and culture enriches lives by providing opportunities for people from different walks of life to socialize, learn, and play; providing experiences that help people engage with elements in the past, present, and future; and creating unique, exciting opportunities to understand and interact with the built and natural environment and the places where they live, work, study, and play. [What is this Toolkit]

The Toolkit [online] presents a menu of strategies grounded in case studies of real projects that are exemplary of how arts and culture can be an effective component of planning, community development, land use, housing, transportation, economic development, public health, and public safety projects and initiatives. [What is this Toolkit]