2022 Leadership Summits Reach New Heights | Apply to speak at the next Summit

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

In our final newsletter this year, we’d like to highlight the successful relaunch of the Creative Placemaking Leadership Summits. We’re also starting a new scholarship program for social practice artists, and hope you can help.? We also want to encourage you to apply to lead a session at the upcoming Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit in May or get involved as a reviewer.? Would you like your community to host a future Summit? Scroll to the end to find out more about how to become a host in 2023 or 2024.? Thanks to everyone who was a part of the success of the Leadership Summits, and thanks to everyone who supports Creative Placemaking Communities.?

If you’ve benefited from a Summit or any other Creative Placemaking Communities program, or value our efforts to support your work, please make a tax deductible donation as a CPC member.

Creative Placemaking Leadership Summits reach new heights?

The 2022 Creative Placemaking Leadership Summits were back in person for the first time since 2019 – and better than ever.??

• A record number of people participated in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Summit in Schenectady, NY and the South & Appalachia Summit in Chapel Hill, NC.? Altogether, more than 800 people from around the United States and other nations were involved with Summits in 2022.??
• Both of the Summits got great reviews, with more than 90% of participants surveyed saying they enjoyed their experience, gained useful knowledge, and made valuable connections.? See the wrap-up from the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit. ? See the wrap-up of the South & Appalachia Summit.
• We made it possible for more people to get the benefits of the Summits by offering more than 30 sessions in person, and offering lower registration fees for online participants.?
• With the new hybrid Summit model (partially online, partially in-person), we offered participants much more content for the same price as earlier Summits. The Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit featured?
• We supported dozens of artists and nonprofit organizations by providing stipends for session leaders. Pay the artists! We did.
• Through a new Summit model that encouraged participants to immerse themselves in the cities where the events were held, we helped generate and circulate thousands of dollars in new spending in Schenectady and? Chapel Hill.? This helped support a number of businesses, including local restaurants, event spaces, audio-video technicians and more.?
• The immersive model also helped hundreds of people learn more about the wealth of arts and cultural activities and placemaking in small cities such as Schenectady, Troy (NY) and Chapel Hill.?
• We also received a record amount of support for the Summits. ? More than 40 organizations – including public agencies, colleges and universities, foundations, and local businesses helped support the Summits.? We hope you can help support the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit in May 2023 as a sponsor, or by helping support a scholarship.
• Dozens of Schenectady residents, nonprofit arts leaders, and placemakers interested in helping immigrant communities received full or partial scholarships to participate in the Summits.?

Scholarships to support social practice artists and creative placemaking to help immigrant communities or women and children who have suffered abuse

We are seeking support to provide two types of scholarships to the upcoming Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit.?

The Raul Vazquez Scholarship will support full scholarships and discounts to social practice artists to enhance their creative placemaking practice. The Raul Vazquez Scholarship is named after my father, an Argentine immigrant who sang tango and who admired Cesar Chavez.?

The Nilda Vazquez Linger Scholarship supports anyone who uses or wants to use creative placemaking to help support immigrants, or women or children who have suffered abuse.?

Anybody in the United States is eligible for these scholarships. Guidelines for these scholarships will be available in 2023.??

If you would like to help support either or both of these scholarships, please make a tax-deductible donation. We appreciate any amount you can give.? Every $300 provides a full scholarship. Thank you for your support.

Apply to lead a session at the 2023 Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit.? Deadline: January 13

Do you have insights you would like to share?? Or maybe you would like to facilitate a meaningful conversation about creative placemaking?? Submit a proposal to lead a session at the 2023 Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Summit by January 13. The Summit is taking place May 9 online and in Jersey City, NJ May 11 and 12.?

You can submit a proposal on anything you’d like involving creative placemaking, but reviewers are especially interested in these topics:?

1. Cultural planning | cultural district and public art planning | creating cultural community hubs

2. Identifying and choosing collaborators | Managing collaborations

3. Environmental issues

4. Financing public art and creative placemaking

5. Government involvement in creative placemaking

6. Doing research on community issues

7. Housing?

8. Inclusivity and accessibility

9. Fundraising

10. How to get into the creative placemaking field

Need some advice on submitting a good proposal?? Check out these tips, or contact Leo Vazquez at [email protected] or 973-763-6352, x1

Apply to host a Leadership Summit in 2023, 2024 or 2025

Any community in the United States or Canada is eligible to apply.? Apply now or check out the requirements to host.??

Host communities are expected to 1) provide a minimum of $10,000 to support the Summit, 2) help CPC in building a steering committee made up of local leaders and others from the region, state or metro area, and 3) help in designing place-based experiences for participants.?