ArtUp uses arts and culture as a tool for fostering robust equitable placemaking through economic development, community revitalization, and entrepreneurship. ArtUp challenges the status quo of traditional arts-based community engagement, in which the goal is simply to expose people in underserved neighborhoods to the arts from more privileged areas of a community. Instead, ArtUp tackles obstacles common in many cities, such as unemployment, crime, disengaged residents, and neighborhood blight through innovative and unexpected uses of arts and culture. At ArtUp, we make it our business to spur resident-centered, neighborhood-driven, arts- and culture-based community development. We break down barriers. We nurture ideas. We launch creative entrepreneurs. We ArtUp. Are you looking for equitable and inclusive models of placemaking? Are you seeking models that incorporate arts and culture into placemaking? This session is for you. In this session you will learn the 10 Principles of Equitable Placemaking used by the award winning project, ArtUp, based in Memphis, Tennessee. These ten lessons are for all stakeholders in that process -- from residents to artists and arts organizations, and from architects and consultants and government officials to funders. Each principle here is also a hard-won lesson, but each is absolutely essential to the success of the work and to maintaining an ethical approach along the way. ArtUp Founder Linda Steele will share these 10 Priniciples and the lessons behind each. She will dive into specific funding strategies, budgets, and community engagement so you will leave with a plan on how to lead your own equitable placemaking project at home.
