Memphian and colleague Carol Coletta heads up ArtPlace, which is doing fascinating work on creative placemaking.

We thought more information about ArtPlace’s work would interest you:

Launched one year ago, ArtPlace works to accelerate creative placemaking by making grants and loans. So what does that actually look like on the ground? A new video from ArtPlace gives a glimpse of what they’ve accomplished so far.

ArtPlace is an unusual collaboration of foundations, banks and federal agencies including the NEA and HUD. In 2011, they awarded $11 million in grants to 34 “creative placemaking” projects, which they define as “putting art and culture at the heart of a portfolio of integrated strategies that can drive vibrancy and diversity so powerful that it transforms communities.”

“Creative placemaking can be found in the Lunar New Year parade that The Wing Luke Asian Museum brought out into the streets of Seattle’s ailing International District, and in the vision for a new town square for Miami based around the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts,” explains the ArtPlace blog entry.

This video shows some of the work they’ve funded in the past year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LqNWb2g5MU&feature=player_embedded#t=0s

For more information about ArtPlace, click here.