Creative Placemaking

with People at the Center

Webster’s on infrastructure: "the basic, underlying

framework or features of a system or organization."

Physical Infrastructure:

Roads, Bridges, Tunnels, Water Delivery Systems +

Info Tech Infrastructure:

Servers, Satellites, Cables, Software, Routers +

Social/Relationships Infrastructure:

Connection, Communication, Understanding, Empathy, Curiosity, History, Trust

City Water Tunnel #3• 3 year project 1993-1996

• Arts Partners + NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection & Local 147 Tunnelworkers Union

• Budget $250,000• On-jobsites

Videos, Performances, $20,000 Memorial Fund, Weekend Fair for employees & families

ABUNDANCE: a 4 year national arts civic dialogue project about money and America

Marty Pottenger interviewed 30 multimillionaires & 30 minimum wage workers.

The play toured 7 cities, with over 5000 people participating in civic dialogues about money.

How much is enough?

What would be enough for you?

What’s your earliest memoryconnected to money in any way at all?

What’s a lie you tell yourself about money?

CCE commissioned & produced ‘home land security’ with Terra Moto Inc. in 2005 & 2006

Portland 2007+ & Holyoke 2012 +

A national initiative to strengthen community resiliency & municipal

government through arts projects with municipal staff,

unions, politicians, the public & artists.

THIN BLUE LINES POLICE POETRY PROJECT

PUBLIC WORKSPublic Service Employees

Participating Portland hot beverage vendors used the same to-go cups for three days in March 09.

TIES THAT BIND Department of Health and Human Services

235 beds, Elizabeth Jabar

Print workshop with artist Elizabeth Jabar and Immigration & Refugee Services staff.

CITY WRITERS GROUP

Open to All City Departments

Parking Shift Attendant Donald Burns & his City Writers Group poster “Livery” at Spring Street Garage

Portland Police Chief Craig at Opening of Regional Crime Lab &AAW Photography Exhibit at Police Headquarters 2009

Janitors Workroom door at Police

Headquarters,

Evaluating Impact

Police officers killed an armed Sudanese man who had a history of run-ins with them. Primarily African-born youth saw it as murder, and expressed their outrage with over 15 incidents of rocks & bottle throwing at police and Public Service workers.

Indicator: City asks for arts projects

Police Chief Craig asked Art At Work to interview police officers and create a performance for police

officers to do in local high schools about their work.

Art At Work secured Chief’s agreement towork with officers more likely to ‘cross a line’

Project expanded to include a parallel performance

by immigrant & refugee youth about their experiences with the police, “The Weeping City”,

together creating “Forest City Times”

The Weeping City & Radio Callscurtain call after performances for

1100 students & faculty

The next few months after the performances…INDICATOR: officers report scores of

‘youth-initiated, positive contacts’ INDICATOR: violent clashes cease

RADIO CALLS

LINES Portland: the visible/invisible lines and labor that connects usA panel with artist Katarina Weslien & Public Services road repair crewNov.ember 9th, 2010

Union’s Issue: RespectPredicted Indicators:• increase in positive comments by residents• increase in positive media coverage

City Hall Chambers Gallery

MEETING PLACE NEA Our Town

Meeting Place Partners

Neighborhood Associations • City of Portland • Creative Portland • Portland Buy Local • Portland Trails • Maine Historical Society • Portland Adult Education • Portland Housing Authority • Aserela Sudanese Association • Portland Public Library • Maine Muslim Community Mosque • Maine Irish Heritage

with support from

National Endowment for the Arts, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Sewall Foundation, Maine Arts

Commission, Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers and the City of Portland

EAST BAYSIDE COMMUNITY PLANT

The ‘real’ Bayside

Can poetry stitch a

com-munity back

together?

Here’s Libbytown Story Poems

HERE’S LIBBYTOWN CELEBRATIONTraditional Indicators: Attendance, Diversity,

Elected Officials, Residents Volunteering to Tell Stories, Donations from Businesses, Sales

WEST END SNAPSHOTS

Each neighbor takes 3 photos

West End Celebration

EAST BAYSIDE

GOOD FENCES FOR GOOD NEIGHBORS

Maine Muslim Community Center Somali Poetry Hour

Recycled Materials, Old Fences

Colors represent high water lines for 2050

Portland Works: Municipal Leaders & Grassroots Community LeadersWorkshops that combine civic issues & artmaking.

• Poetry/History Ice Age On• Collage/Demographics• Storytelling/Crisis Scenarios• Singing/Leadership Followship

Alfred Jacob, Sudanese Activist, AAW Partner

Portland Works : municipal & community leaders

2013-2015

All THE WAY HOME PROJECT Veterans Story Exchange

HEARTS, MINDS & HOMES Gentrification & Homelessness

Art At Work Holyoke:Civic Dialogue/Arts Workshops

THANKS TO ALL THE ARTISTS, UNIONS, CITY STAFF, RESIDENTS,ELECTED OFFICIALS, FUNDERS, AND ARTS ORGANIZATIONS, COMMUNITY GROUPS, AND ALL THE REST FOR TAKING THE RISK

Art insists we be vulnerable, honest, courageous & connected. Useful tools to sustain a government that works for all of us

Art At Work

London