{"id":4285,"date":"2015-09-16T02:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T06:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4285"},"modified":"2015-09-15T22:06:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T02:06:12","slug":"a-21st-century-commons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/09\/a-21st-century-commons\/","title":{"rendered":"A 21st-Century Commons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4288 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SantaFePlaza.jpg\" alt=\"SantaFePlaza\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SantaFePlaza.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SantaFePlaza-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/>In June I was asked to speak to representatives of New Mexico\u2019s Arts and Cultural Districts. The occasion provided me the opportunity to reflect on the intersection of creative placemaking and community engagement. Creative placemaking is designed, among other things, to bring \u201cdiverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.\u201d [Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa, <em>Creative Placemaking: <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/arts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/arts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf<\/a>] If arts organizations are participating in CP work, this is a description of community engagement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The presentation I gave in New Mexico reflected a revelation on my part about creative placemaking. These projects, that are becoming such an important part of the cultural landscape, have the capacity to create 21<sup>st<\/sup>-Century versions of the town square or plaza, the commons from earlier eras\u2013places where people gathered to celebrate and be in community.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The full text of those remarks was very specific to New Mexico. I have created a condensed and generalized version that is available on the ArtsEngaged website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsengaged.com\/21stCentCommons\" target=\"_blank\">Creating the 21<sup>st<\/sup>-Century Commons<\/a>. Even it, however, is too verbose for the purposes of a blog post. I am providing below a \u201cCliff\u2019s Notes\u201d outline of the main points.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Is A Commons for the 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Place<\/strong>\u2013a physical location where people can come together,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Attractive\/Inviting<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Appropriate<\/em> (Scale, appearance, environmental fit)<\/li>\n<li><em>Memorable<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>An Idea<\/strong>\u2013a concept or set of concepts that makes the community assume\u2013even demand\u2013ownership of that place,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Barrier Free<\/em> (No\u2013or minimized\u2013physical, economic, historic, or social impediments)<\/li>\n<li><em>Welcoming<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Community Defining<\/em> (Including opportunities to create and build the community\u2019s identity)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A Container of Events<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Vibrant<\/em> center where attractive things always (or with great regularity) happen<\/li>\n<li><em>Crucible for Relationship Building<\/em> within and between all local communities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And, from the perspective of the presenters of arts and culture,<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Cultural Commons<\/strong> that<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reflects the local community<\/li>\n<li>Is welcoming to <em>all<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is a need for places for community members to come together, to interact, to learn from each other, to form social bonds. Arts organizations, partnering with community members on creative placemaking projects can have an active hand in making more livable communities. And, it\u2019s no coincidence that doing so will also greatly enhance the visibility, stature, and, ultimately, viability of those organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Engage!<\/p>\n<p>Doug<\/p>\n<p>Photo:<span class=\"ccIcn ccIcnSmall\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Attribution\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" alt=\"Attribution\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span> <a title=\"Attribution License\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\">Some rights reserved<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/puroticorico\/\" target=\"_blank\">puroticorico<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 21st-Century Commons is a place, an idea, and an event container, reflecting the community and welcoming all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"21st-Century Commons\u2013a place, idea, & event container, reflecting community and welcoming all","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[12,13,34],"class_list":["post-4285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-overview","tag-arts","tag-community-engagement","tag-placemaking","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-177","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SantaFePlaza.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4285"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4300,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions\/4300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}