in effectivity incorporating the arts into community development efforts by funding creative placemaking projects across the country.

These projects advance local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes by placing the arts at the table with other sectors, such as agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, public safety, transportation, and workforce development.

For the last decade, these activities have primarily been supported through the agency’s Our Town grant program.

In the course of this work, it became clear that many Our Town grantees would benefit from direct, hands-on technical assistance while executing their projects at the local level.

In 2016, the Arts Endowment began the Our Town Technical Assistance Pilot Program to provide select Our Town grantees with targeted technical assistance.

To build upon the pilot program’s success and to further strengthen the field of creative placemaking, the Arts Endowment now plans to develop a more expansive technical assistance program.

The Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Program will serve a wider audience of both prospective applicants to and grantees of the Our Town program, as well other communities interested in undertaking creative placemaking activities.

Short-term technical assistance institutes will be convened to gather experts with teams of local leaders.

Social EntrepreneurshipSpotlight

The Social Incubator North, a £2 million incubator fund spearheaded by Sheffield-based Key Fund in collaboration with the four Northern Social Enterprise Partnerships and Locality, is providing 0% interest loans to North of England’s social entrepreneurs.