Creative Counties Placemaking Initiative
Integrating arts into solutions to local challenges
Author
Patrick Spence
As public funding becomes increasingly strained, counties must search for and employ new strategies to improve their communities and local economies. NACo, in partnership with Americans for the Arts and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, has launched the Creative Counties Placemaking Initiative to support counties as they work to identify and strengthen ways to integrate arts into solutions to local challenges.
Creative Placemaking Toolkit for Counties
Webinars
NACo's webinars are free to everyone and recorded for viewing after the live event. Recent webinars have included:
- Building Arts-Driven Community and Economic Development Solutions for Your County
- Leveraging New Tools & Resources to Build the Arts in Your County
- Telling Your Community Story: Strengthening Economies through Place Branding
Check out all of NACo's upcoming and past Creative Counties webinars here.
Resource Hubs
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 6
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 5
- Social Impact Explorer
- 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies
- Animating Democracy
- Local Arts Agency Dashboard
Reports
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 National Statistical Report
- Business Support for the Arts 2021: Art for Everyone's Sake
- Community-Based Arts Organizations: A New Center of Gravity
- Building Worlds Together: The Many Functions and Forms of Arts and Community Development
- Programs Supporting Art in the Public Realm: A National Field Scan
- Artists & Communities: Conversations on Passion, Practice, and Engagement
- Animating Democracy--Aesthetic Perspectives
- Animating Democracy--Diving into Racial Equity
- Creative City Report
- Local Arts Agency Partnerships: Types, Components, and Impacts
Fact Sheets
I Love My County Because...
NACo's "I Love My County Because..." art contest bolsters civic education and educates communities around the role of county government. Students grade levels K-12 are invited to submit artwork, with winning entries included in an annual calendar.
Students from all U.S. counties, boroughs and parishes are eligible to enter. Applications for the 2023 contest are due September 29!
Dive Deep
Explore All Arts & Culture Resources
Explore all of NACo's resources on arts and culture, including latest news and resources, related committees and featured initiatives.
Public Leadership in the Arts Award goes to Mobile County commissioner
Surrounded by her peers Saturday, July 13, Mobile County, Ala. Commissioner Merceria Ludgood received the Public Leadership in the Arts Award from Americans for the Arts at a reception held at the Tampa Museum of Art during the NACo Annual Conference.
County, Native Americans work together to create ‘cultural tourism’
Coconino County, Ariz. and the Navajo Nation have built a partnership together to create cultural tourism initiatives, both educating visitors on Native American history and traditions and benefiting the local economy.
National Association of Counties launches economic mobility program for rural counties
The National Association of Counties (NACo) today announced the creation of Rural Leaders for Economic Mobility (RLEM), a national program with teams of 10 county elected officials and 10 non-elected county leaders to pursue effective strategies to improve economic mobility conditions that move individuals and families out of poverty.
U.S. Supreme Court protects key flexibility for county governments responding to homelessness
On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case of major significance for counties working to develop comprehensive responses to the homelessness crisis.
Georgia county program exposes students to fashion careers
Fulton County’s Fashion, Art, Culture and Education program helps students explore opportunities in fashion as an art form and as a career.
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