Placemaking Newsletter - July 2018

Placemaking Indiana’s monthly newsletter celebrates placemaking happening locally and nationally. We share placemaking trends and opportunities to inspire and support the work you do in your communities.

Creative Placemaking at… the museum? The Indiana Historical Society exhibits a great creative placemaking case study in their Concerts on the Canal series. Through the months of June and July, the museum offers free concerts on the canal filled with local favorites in combination with free Thursday admission to the museum. This combination of programming allows the museum and local artists to get exposure while also utilizing the great public spaces along the canal. Check out the remaining Concerts on the Canal here.

Placemaking for Main Streets The Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) is hosting multiple workshops across the state on “Placemaking for Main Streets.” These workshops are free and open for anyone interested in placemaking. There are six workshops around the state from late July through mid-October. Register for this workshop here.

Hometown Innovations Accelerate Indiana Municipalities, or AIM, highlighted IHCDA’s youth planning program My Community, My Vision. AIM’s Chelsea Schnieder and IHCDA’s Carmen Lethig sat down with Bryant Niehoff, Director of Planning and Building for the City of Shelbyville, to discuss the importance of youth involvement in community development. You can listen and subscribe to AIM Indiana’s podcast, Hometown Innovations. You can also learn more about the My Community, My Vision program here. Applications for the 2018-2019 school year are due on September 10, 2018.

Funding Opportunities

• Activate underutilized public spaces with the CreatINg Places program
• Kaboom offers playground grants to help communities build safe places for kids to play
• The National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant Part 1 for placemaking is due August 9th.
• INDOT’s Community Crossings Matching Grant for shovel ready local construction projects is due on September 28th.
• The Walmart Foundation is providing grants for community development projects for the benefit of low income populations. Application are due on December 31, 2018.  
• Indiana Arts Commission's Arts in the Parks and Historic Sites

Webinars and Conferences

• Patronicity is hosting free webinars on crowdfunding experiences in Massachusetts on July 26th and Michigan is highlighted on August 8th. 
• The Indiana Arts Commission is hosting the Indiana Arts Homecoming conference on October 18 – 19 in Fort Wayne.
• EfficientGov.com offers a webinar on utilizing GIS to improve communities’ economic development and planning efforts.
• These past webinars from the National Association of Realtors focus on affordable housing opportunities and programs.
• The Walk Bike Places conference to promote greater access to walking and bicycling for cohesive and vibrant communities will be held in New Orleans on September 16-19.
• The Project for Public Spaces offers a variety of other conferences and events on placemaking.
• Community Builders offers webinars on community development and placemaking.

Resources and Guides on Placemaking

• This article explores how community gardens can be used as a means for placemaking within lower income communities.
• This is what our cities need to do to be truly livable for all people.
• Eight simple ways to make neighborhoods safer for your aging residents.
• A guide on how to locate potential sites to start transforming your communities.
• This article highlights the qualities of walkable spaces in cities and towns and how communities can utilize them.
• Need to get community support? Here’s how to plan and implement a successful town hall meeting.
• A guide to rural placemaking to capitalize on local creativity.
• A webinar on small town economic development through case studies throughout the United States.
• A guide for how local government officials should pay attention to their public spaces.
• Resources from the National Trust for Historic Preservation on maintaining historic places through placemaking.
• Listen to Slate’s Placemakers podcast about placemaking efforts across the nation.  

Case Studies

• The Fort Wayne Electric Works is a $62 million placemaking intiative in Fort Wayne.  It is the redevelopment of the old General Electric building. Some think it could change the economic course of the city.

Placemaking in the News

• Moving Community Foundation Dollars from Wall Street to Main Street and its impact
• How hip-hop music is encouraging youth to think about architecture and placemaking.
• San Diego is testing out a new system of development permits to allow for quicker and cheaper placemaking initiatives to thrive.
• A North Dakota town goes all in for creative placemaking while featuring local artists and honoring local citizens who have passed away.
• Batesville, Indiana looks to transform their downtown through an “Our Town” planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
• Buffalo, New York’s downtown library is experimenting with placemaking by “turning the library inside-out.”
• The Indianapolis Symphony helps improve Batesville's quality of space.
• Placemaking's role in Kokomo's rebound. 
• Indianapolis begins to view the White River as an amenity for improving quality of life in the city.
• South Bend participates in the “Bike and Build” program to bring affordable housing awareness to the community.

Jobs

• CEO – Brown County Community Foundation
• Cultural Arts Coordinator – JCC Indianapolis
• Director of Community Development – Community Alliance of the Far Eastside
• President and CEO – Indiana Philanthropy Alliance
• Program Director – Forward Wayne County (FWC)
• Program Director – Arts for Learning Indiana
• Program Director – Brookside Community Development Corporation
• Assistant Director – Noblesville Economic Development
• Executive Director – Remington Wolcott Community Development Corporation
• President – Athenaeum Foundation
• Planner II – City of Fishers, IN
• Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator – City of Goshen, IN

Hello! I’m Brett Roberts, IHCDA's 2018 Placemaking Intern. I will be a junior this fall at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). I am originally from Columbia City, IN in Whitley County. I hope to have a career in local government and economic development after completing my Masters in Public Affairs.  Feel free to contact me at robebret@indiana.edu, I'd love to connect!

Contact me with ideas, comments, or questions: Carmen Lethig, IHCDA Placemaking Manager at clethig@ihcda.in.gov or 317.234.6290. If your agency has a new staff member who wishes to receive this newsletter, please e-mail communications@ihcda.in.gov