Prior Grantees

Representatives from 17 Public-Space Activation Fund affiliated organizations received DCA sponsored scholarships to attend the Creative Placemaking Leadership Regional Summit, hosted by the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, in Downtown Los Angeles.

A sample of their discoveries from the CPL Regional Summit is below as public learning.

Memberships to the National Consortium of Creative Placemaking are free. Click here for more information.

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“Participating in the Creative Placemaking Leadership Regional Summit, afforded me an opportunity to learn about topics relevant to both my personal and professional work alongside other leading agents of change in the field. In addition to being able to learn together while in the same breakout sessions, I was also able to learn from folx working to accomplish similar goals and working with similar demographics. The insights gained around culture asset mapping and the grants process will definitely be employed in the very near future within our organization. The times during the summit reserved for networking (i.e. break, plenary, happy hour, etc.) also proved to be very fruitful and I made a handful of contacts and leads that I have already reached out to regarding future collaboration.

The topics of focus at the summit have definitely increased my knowledge and overall confidence with navigating within certain areas of conversation and carryout such as city planning, native lands, housing, and mapping.

The breakout sessions and plenary included new information that has since sparked new ideas, research, and potential projects on a professional level within our organization. The networking events have also led to some amazing contacts for some creative collaboration between our organization and others in attendance that we otherwise would not have known about.”

Alyssa M. Garcia
Las Fotos Project

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“It was great to learn about the efforts in Buchanan Street Mall, San Francisco by the Citizen Film group. Their case study can serve as a guide for many community groups that are looking to transform underutilized space but even more importantly how to nurture meaningful community engagement.

It provided one more community I can point to when discussing the erasure of people, the decimation of social networks, and poor planning. It also gave me another model to consider when thinking about grassroots efforts to re-engage a community fraught with trauma from past displacement.

LURN, along with partners, will be working on activating 6 city owned vacant lots. This case study was helpful as we explore the possibilities.

Nathaniel Ancheta
Art in Residence

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“It was really a great opportunity to connect with dozens of placemakers from Los Angeles and other communities. What I gained the most was the opportunity to network with other organizers, and funders, doing projects of all sizes, from small community activations, to large concerts at the Levitt Pavilion.  There was a wealth of information through the workshops on how to find funding, as well as how to collaborate with other community organizers and leaders with future events. 

The greatest gain personally comes from seeing how other organizers have learned to work together to build really impactful community events.  I was inspired by the Levitt Foundation’s relationship with their “Friends of the Levitt” partners in helping to build spectacular public spaces.  I still have a lot to learn about fundraising, but this has shown me that it is possible, and there are foundations out there looking to support positive placemaking.

This has opened up opportunities for us in a couple of ways.  First, I have now connected with several organizers who are interested in collaborating in my future events.  Second, this has helped open up doors for the future funding of the Mid City Arts and Music Festival so that we can continue to create space for creativity and connecting in our own community.”

Nick Spano
Mid City Neighborhood Council

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“I am a representative of Venice ARTBLOCK and am currently working with Venice Community Housing Corporation on an arts initiative to create a set of curated public artworks, with a wide array of community stakeholders.

Although I can’t say I learned new skills, I did learn about cultural initiatives in other places and meet persons involved in work that is similar to mine.  These interactions are of great benefit to me individually. My practice often occurs in marginalized communities with a lack of resources and work within organizations that have little access to the training or perspectives offered at the Creative Placemaking Leadership Regional Summit.

I am a community-based artist with a social practice spanning decades, working with communities throughout Los Angeles, the US and internationally. As a Latinx Chilean American issues of exile, place, community, memory, refuge, safety and human rights continue to be at the core of my work. The CPL Regional Summit gave me an opportunity to meet with and exchange vital perspectives with collaborators and colleagues from many places.

As an artist rooted in Los Angeles I welcome opportunities to talk about my home, community and experiences in Venice, I was grateful to receive a scholarship. In one of the workshops we were able to discuss the arts initiative currently being developed by Venice Community Housing and discuss strategies and methods. It was invaluable to receive comments, suggestions and insight from colleagues and professionals who understood the territory. My work is always strengthened through exchanged support, understanding and hope. I enjoyed the event.”

Francisco Letelier
Venice ARTBLOCK

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“I am just recently getting into the film, and thereby more creative industries. As a business major, a lot of my actual schooling is focused around the hows and the whys, numbers, and people skills. Over the past year or so I have been completing internships and other opportunities that have allowed me to tie in school smarts, with the actual industry that I am currently working in. Being able to attend the CPL Regional Summit was a very cool experience for me for many reasons. I am new to Los Angeles, so I think that I benefited from just learning about other art and creative institutions within that city. On a personal note, it was intriguing to learn about things like cultural mapping, and funding for the arts, and on a professional level, it was cool to find other people and other companies who could be potential partners within my current company, New Filmmakers LA.

Personally, I really enjoyed the session I attended from the Levitt Foundation, which was explained from a funder’s perspective. Since as of now I am currently working the business side of the entertainment industry, I think it was very effective to see how successful people have done this already, and how a huge foundation chooses to allocate its funds throughout the country. For my company, this was also important because we are a nonprofit film company that focuses on diversity, inclusion, and the projection of people’s voices who otherwise are not being heard enough. To hear from funders like the Levitt, and other nonprofits, educators, artists, and creative minds in LA was inspiring to try to find new partners so we can both help each other.”

Ryan Morrissey
New Filmmakers LA

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“Participating in the CPL Regional Summit actually provided me with an even deeper sense of appreciation for and understanding of the somewhat still emergent field that is also known as creative place-keeping, the term first suggested by Roberto Bedoya in his essay “Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-belonging.”

Learning further and in more depth about critical aspects of the field’s cross-sector inter-disciplinary range directly informs my own work as an independent co-curator of the LA iteration of a global public art initiative as well as a creative consultant for Esperanza Community Housing‘s own initiatives that comprise creative place-keeping.

The opportunities to participate in several small group discussions with clusters groups that occurred within almost every seminar and/or workshop I attended over the two and a half day Summit afforded me valuable networking opportunities that ensured I acquired greater knowledge of the work as well as values of the presenter(s).

Being able to directly connect, one-on-one, with folks based in LA, and elsewhere, whose work intersects with my own is a huge benefit in fields such as Creative Placemaking, where knowledge and opportunities are mostly gained through the very relationality the field aspires to foreground. I also appreciated learning how various folx, from visual anthropologists such as Manuia Samoa, doc filmmaking collectives like Citizen Film, Inc., urban planners like Kounkuey Design Initiative to landscape architects/designers like Johanna Hoffman, of ShiftWorks and more, not only value process but find ways to make process and documentation of process integral to the iterative learning and knowledge sharing essential to this field’s holistic advancement.

As I’ve shared above, I look forward to being directly in touch with local folx that I exchanged information with as a result of our meeting and conversing at the Summit. More specifically, I gained insights about equitable evaluation practices and how data can be harnessed in cultural asset mapping from the session I attended with Jeny Amaya (18th Street Arts Center), Betty Marin (Alliance for California Traditional Arts) and Annette Kim (University of Southern California), and more comprehensively defining Creative Placemaking itself, as discussed with Margy Waller in an intimate “Values in Practice” session. Some of the participants in this session went on to lead or engage in plenaries, such as Allegra Padilla from Levitt Pavilion. An Esperanza colleague with whom I work closely also attended the Pre-Summit Institute Prologue session “Values in Practice,” and it was especially meaningful to observe her realization and acknowledgement that she has been engaging in Creative Placemaking through her role for years before the term became widely used to designate the field. She and I will now have a common understanding and set of terms by which we can further facilitate how CP is harnessed and expanded upon to continue to support community members’ sense and experience of their own agency and self-determination.”

Aparna Bakhle
Shared Studios

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“I met and networked with colleagues who work in the field of creative placemaking. I also learned about other arts and cultural organizations’ different capacities and involvement in creative placemaking and participating in concurrent creative placemaking, place keeping, place marking projects on a national level. During the summit, I expanded my personal and professional networks and established partnerships with other organizations. It also further facilitated and supported my education & studies in the field and learned new techniques to bring together diverse stakeholders to address challenges prevalent in communities. Additionally, I learned about available funding avenues/resources that my organization has access to and I garnered interest in the project(s) that I’m a part of. I also participated in workshops that support the mission of my organization.”

Kwan In Janice Ngan
Art in Residence

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“I was able to meet and reconnect with creative and dedicated folks that share in my passion for creative placemaking. Together we learned about methods for building authentic community partnerships, engaged in hands-on activities to manifest a shared vision for a place of belonging, and were inspired by examples of projects that unite local artists (of all mediums) with community residents.

It is very validating to be in diverse spaces with like-minded individuals. I hope to continue to cross paths with people I met there (or already knew) because I get refueled by being in their presence. I am proud to be part of this intentional community of placemakers.

We will definitely reflect upon and utilize some of the tools that we learned about, including participatory cultural asset mapping and some of the community engagement strategies. The summit provided an opportunity to think about our current practices, what has worked well and what hasn’t, and connect with folks that can help us do better work in the future.”

Avital Aboody
LA-Más

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“Attending the summit helped to clarify what constituted creative place-making and also helped me to understand how our organization’s rising leaders and my theatre company can participate in creative placemaking projects and activities. They’d been interested in grant programs and collaborations before, but had trouble figuring out how to intersect or relate.

Understanding how creative placemaking works or is being carried out, helped me to rethink how my theatre company produces site-specific work, and if we potentially can engage more deeply with the communities we produce in.

Similar to the answer above. But also, the connections with other groups, understanding of other placemaking projects, etc. has helped me better understand the practice of creative placemaking to be able to advise and consult the leaders in Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles who want to work in that capacity.”

Claudia de Vasco
Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles

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“Being in this space and learning from the various folks in the workshops reaffirmed for me that a lot of the methodology that is central to my work is something that resonates with communities across the globe and is an effective method of community empowerment and a catalyst for social justice change. I was able to learn how to refine a few of the storytelling and art-making skills that I use in my own practice by learning how others are using these tools.

I had the opportunity to meet folks from ArtPlace America and share with them directly about the work I do here with communities in Los Angeles. As a result, their editor is interested in connecting and featuring Pueblo Planning in a story.

I also learned about how the arts are being used as an advocacy tool specifically here in Los Angeles (particularly with the Little Tokyo Service Center and the East LA Community Corporation). This is part of the work I do and provides me an opportunity to engage with these organizations to explore opportunities for partnerships.”

Monique G. López
Pueblo Planning

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“I learned about different funding opportunities with City and County of Los Angeles and learned new ways of refining my funding proposals, including measurements and quantitative results, and how to measure success in obtaining my goals.  I do most of the fundraising so it was helpful to obtain tips on improving funding requests.”

Suzanne Thompson
Venice Arts Council

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“This year’s summit was so helpful to me personally, because I met so many people at the summit that were like minded; creative and compassionate; and committed to connections, capacity and communities of the world. The Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit is a world of special specific people.

I attended the Government Perspective on Sustaining and Funding Creative Placemaking session. It was very enlightening how many organizations and groups are funded by the Department of Cultural Affairs and supported by Community Partners in large, diverse regions; and urban and rural areas.

It was a pleasure meeting Joe Smoke, Rebecca Ehemann and Anji Gaspar-Milanivic. Each one of these wonderful humans helped by giving me their best information on working with placemaking and place makers.  It the best information I got was, “I’m not alone”.

Our nonprofit WARP, Inc. is partaking in new experiences in funding and sustained large projects. There was a wealth of information that will help us grow in the near future. Networking with specific groups of people and developing specific new skills and knowledge was the best experience for me and for WARP, Inc.”

Shuntain Thomas
WARP, Inc.

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“Both on personal and organizational level, I realized that there is a lot of pressure for economic survival for the individuals and the organizations they lead/work for. There is a tremendous amount of competition, stress, and desire for relationship building. Sustainable funding is a must for a healthy organization and its people.

I loved the exercises and craft making. There were shared creations, suggestions, give-and-take to use the materials that we were given. When groups were combined, there was no resentment to combine the work even though it meant giving up another group’s ideas. By the same token, I saw where cultural and background differences can lead to misinterpretation.

In projects, there are groups, people and their interest, in a project that sometimes conflict and requires thoughtfulness. Leaders have to be careful. The best example was a project in San Diego where, after finishing the work, they were not able to give it a name. They left it nameless.

The importance of listening and building trust were recurring themes. Successful outreach and information gathering depends on building trust, and once this trust is established, careful listening will increase good outcomes.

I am glad to reaffirm that art and culture are great ingredients for a healthy society.”

Nikki Legesse
Little Ethiopia Cultural and Resource Center

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“As an arts organization providing services to communities on the east side of Los Angeles, I found the discussion about gentrification and displacement to be extremely informative and inspiring. Hearing from the panelists gave me some insight into the ways our organization and continue to combat gentrification and what can be perceived as art washing, while also staying true to our mission of providing arts programming to those who would typically not have access. I was able to meet 3 other leaders in the Los Angeles arts community and found the space created by this conference to be inclusive, supportive, and necessary.

Learning about the ways that I, as the director of the organization, can institute practices and produces to ensure I am staying true to the mission of the organization while also bringing in revenue to sustain the work was the biggest takeaway. Often times when having to raise money, I ask myself if the partners we are working with are community-oriented. This talk helped me better understand ways of exploring those conversations.”

Eric Ibarra
Las Fotos Project

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 “I gained the knowledge, confidence, and resources available to help initiate creating spaces in the places most needed in my neighborhood. I learned what the government helps and plays a role in. I also met and learned how much creating places for the arts matters and the strength that the movements have when initiated in large numbers.

As an individual, I am more encouraged to become involved on a political level and help encourage the philosophical shift amongst my friends and family towards having more artistic opportunities, spaces and events to help fuel our economy and create opportunities for myself and other artists.

As an organization, I learned and took away, that if you do not have the proper systems in place, it is possible that your nonprofit can starve, or begin to unravel, and will need further support to continue towards the desired goal. For-profits and proper fund development plans are an essential portion to support and pay the artists, as well as the staff.”

Carmen Flores
Green Communications Initiative

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“I enjoyed the discussions of best practices, new trends and the introduction of terms like placemarking and placekeeping. We will share these concepts with our Orange County peers and our city council in Santa Ana in order to reframe creative placemaking towards a community-led and historically sensitive endeavor, rather than a tool of gentrification and displacement, which has been the case in our community.

The discussions of placemaking and gentrification, artists and anti-displacement, cultural districts, asset mapping and indigenous perspectives were insightful. I especially enjoyed the presentations and discussions by Larissa Fasthorse and Michael Jon Garces of Cornerstone Theater, the Alliance of California Traditional Arts and the Levitt Foundation. I also enjoyed speaking with James Rojas.

I was happy to see that community-based creative placemaking is leading the discussion of best practices, and that the national conversation is looking for solutions and inclusive alternatives to displacement and gentrification.

We were fortunate to have a lengthy conversation with Andrea Orlando, and learn more about the work of the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. We also had inspiring conversations with participants from Montreal, San Francisco, San Diego, and numerous communities throughout Los Angeles.

The conversations and connections we made at the Creative Placemaking Leadership Regional Summit were inspiring, and it was encouraging to be introduced to such an exciting and forward-thinking community. I definitely met people who I will be contacting in my own work, as the leader of an organization, but also as an artist working on communitywide and national projects.

Our organization works with the media arts to help youth and community members tell their stories and address community and civic concerns. We will follow up with people and organizations we met at the summit to see if there are films we can program into our annual film festival in order to enrich the discussion of and organizing around placemaking and placekeeping in Orange County.

After experiencing what might be considered worst practices of creative placemaking foisted on our community in Santa Ana, it is empowering to know that the national dialogue and innovations are being driven by the kind of placekeeping and placemarking that we have been advocating for in our community, but we didn’t have a name for it. Now we do. It is time for some placeshaking!”

Victor Payan
Media Arts Santa Ana: MASA

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“Working in the arts, in a particular community, with a particular set of issues and constraints can feel isolating, can feel as if one’s own problems are unique and uniquely unsolvable. Summits, such as the CPL Regional Summit, provide needed perspective and tangible, actionable advice to keep one in the struggle.

I participated in a Saturday workshop, Telling the Story of a Community, with Sophie Constantinou, Tamara Walker, and Meseka Garcia.

This workshop centered around a case study of the Buchanan Mall Park in San Francisco. The story starts with the post-war razing of 5 city blocks, and the transplantation of Victorian homes to the upper hills of the city. Homes for which former residents were compensated to the tune of around $5000 sell for $5 million today. Some displaced residents were given vouchers, good for returning to the area and reclaiming a residence in what would be newly developed housing projects, but never came to fruition. These excavated pits stood as a figurative and literal wound to the community for years. The story of the park’s development was a story of healing. This is a neighborhood that was robbed of its housing, and that was for a long time one of the most dangerous places in SF.

As a filmmaker, I was excited to hear about the role of documentary video in this project. It was a tool not only for archival purposes, but for advocacy. Sophie shared her experience of taking the footage from community meetings, and sharing it as evidence to city officials in making the case for the park. It was also useful to hear their successes with holding community meetings and workshops, as that’s a strategy we plan to employ on an upcoming project. The moving image is one of the most powerful communication tools we have today and this workshop inspired new ways of thinking about a medium I’ve worked in my entire professional life.

Members of our organization attended a number of the session over the three days. The insights we gained as a fledgling organization were invaluable, and we are scheduling follow-up meetings with the contacts we made through the summit. For us, the most valuable things is knowing we’re on the right track with our ideas and strategies for creative placemaking.

I’m grateful for the artists who were generous with their time and talent, and grateful for the scholarship opportunity. The CPL Regional Summit is something we will certainly look forward to in years to come.”

David Martin
Art in Residence