Public-private partnership aims to accelerate "creative placemaking" all across the U.S.

I, for one, like terms such as "creative placemaking." It heats up my blood, embiggens my hopes for a better America.

Some big foundations have joined with the National Endowment for the Arts (and several other federal agencies) to establish ArtPlace, a nationwide initiative "to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S."

ArtPlace believes that art, culture and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create vibrant communities, thus increasing the desire and the economic opportunity for people to thrive in place. It is all about the local.

ArtPlace invites Letters of Inquiry from initiatives involving arts organizations, artists and designers working in partnership with local and national partners (in fields such as economic development, transportation, neighborhood development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, health, etc.) to transform communities. 

To apply: http://www.artplaceamerica.org/loi/. Requests must be submitted by November 15, 2011.

Here are some examples of some cool creative placemaking projects already underway:

Creative Work Fund in northern California

Lakota Art Market at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D.

Farm/Art DTour in Sauk County, Wisconsin

And this Whirligig Park in Wilson, N.C.

The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park Project from Gerret Warner on Vimeo.