Collaborating with community-engaged artists can be transformative for mayors, city staff, and the communities they serve. From addressing infrastructure needs to building trust with residents, bringing arts and culture into city design work brings rich layers of opportunity. Our new series on Arts and City Leadership highlights some of the creative ways mayors and their staff can partner with artists to create transformative change in their cities.
A sample of the lessons learned:
- Mayoral leadership in infusing the arts into city departments, supporting staff in seeking creative solutions, and hiring artists within City Hall can help build equity and elevate the democratic process for residents.
- Supporting native and other cultural heritage unique to a city can aid in key mayoral goals of increasing the authentic profile of a city, rectifying past harms, and increasing the tax base to pay for city services.
- Structural changes to city government, such as merging legacy authorities into more centralized, coordinated departments, can pave the way for more effective community collaboration and focused experimentation.
These case studies cross institutional and professional boundaries, addressing goals in public safety, public health, infrastructure improvement, effective community engagement, public service improvement, community wealth building, space activation, climate and greening, and affordable housing and homelessness.
Explore the seven case studies below.
+ Rebuilding Austin’s infrastructure through community-engaged dance
My Park, My Pool, My City | Austin, TX
The City of Austin’s Parks & Recreation Department’s Aquatics Division partnered with a lauded dance company to engage East Austin residents along with city leadership and staff in a creative, participatory process to help equitably address the infrastructure crisis facing the city’s public pools, turn a community sore spot into joyful experiences for all, and build trust between city staff and residents. Read more +
+ Growing Boston’s public sector support for the arts, with a focus on equity
Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture | Boston, MA
Under former Mayor Marty Walsh and now Mayor Michelle Wu, Boston created the first cabinet-level position for the arts, formed a department focused on the arts, and implemented the first citywide Cultural Plan. Since then, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC) has become a leading city and region-wide voice for innovative and equitable arts investments and creative policy solutions. Read more +
+ Integrating creative placemaking into how Fargo, ND city government operates
World Garden Commons at Rabanus Park | Fargo, ND
Through a groundbreaking collaboration with an artist and a diverse set of communities, the City of Fargo, North Dakota designed and built its first public park that is also an ecologically self-sustaining stormwater basin. Read more +
+ Enhancing Gretna’s riverfront and water transit infrastructure through the arts
Gretna Riverfront | Gretna, LA
Since attending MICD in 2016, Mayor Belinda Constant has set out to use the arts to catalyze new interest in Gretna’s riverfront and spark a reimagination of its future, culminating in a large-scale arts installation in 2023 that drew thousands of visitors. Read more +
+ Re-indigenizing public spaces in the gateway to Alaska, for locals and visitors alike
Kootéeyaa Deiyà (The Totem Pole Trail) | Juneau, AK
In Juneau, a new trail of totem poles stands as a bold visual marker welcoming visitors and solidifying locals’ knowledge of the Alaska Native tribes and clans who have been continuously living and cultivating traditions in the region for thousands of years. Read more +
+ In Lancaster, integrating arts into civic engagement to build trust and enhance neighborhood leadership
Department of Neighborhood Engagement | Lancaster, PA
When Mayor Danene Sorace came into office in 2018, she set out to incorporate creative structures, tools, and policies into her administration. She established an Office of Neighborhood Engagement, laying the foundation for creative new approaches to everything from neighborhood arts grants to comprehensive planning. Read more +
+ Tulsa invests in creative placekeeping and community-driven solutions to address longstanding inequities
Greenwood Art Project, Our Legacy Tulsa Plan, and the Community Impact Initiative | Tulsa, OK
Under Mayor G.T. Bynum, who has been leading the city since 2016, Tulsa has made many innovative efforts to address racial inequity as a key aspect of strengthening the city as a whole. Read more +
This series was authored by Congruence Cultural Strategies as part of a larger initiative to elevate the role arts and culture can play in accomplishing municipal goals.