Creative Placemaking

This report reflects on how creative placemaking efforts can impact rural communities. It presents findings from a year-long initiative that explored different platforms for supporting arts and culture in rural communities, including working groups, trainings, publication, pilot projects, and peer learning exchanges. Then it highlights key lessons for each initiative, ranging from engaging youth in community projects to using the same language to introduce creative placemaking. Finally, it describes two pilot projects focused on community storytelling in Kinston, North Carolina and wayfinding strategies in Thomas, West Virginia.