A collaboration between Intermedia Arts and the City of Minneapolis.
Creative CityMaking Minneapolis (CCM) is a multi-year, arts-based innovation initiative within Minneapolis City government designed to advance City priorities through in-depth collaborations between City departments and highly skilled community artists. Creative CityMaking Minneapolis is a leading-edge program that was launched in 2013 through a collaboration between Intermedia Arts, the region’s premier multidisciplinary, multicultural arts center, and the Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy program at the City of Minneapolis.
Creative City Making was designed to leverage the power of the creative process as a resource for City government to make progress on complex challenges. Between 2013 and 2017, sixteen experienced artists were placed in five departments to generate new approaches to community engagement and data gathering, resulting in innovative, inclusive pathways for community residents to influence City government policies, practices and decisions.
At the start of the three-year pilot, City of Minneapolis colleagues and Intermedia Arts aligned Creative CityMaking with the City’s racial and economic equity goals, and set an intention to demonstrate enough value that, by the pilot’s end, the City would continue to embed artists in City departments.
The pilot wrapped in December 2016 and Creative CityMaking Minneapolis is now an ongoing program within Minneapolis government under the full responsibility of the City’s program for Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. Intermedia Arts is turning its attention to bringing the lessons learned from Creative CityMaking Minneapolis to other communities and institutions, locally and beyond.
Check out the videos below to get a taste of Creative CityMaking!
Creative CityMaking Minneapolis was supported by a grant to Intermedia Arts from the Kresge Foundation Arts and Culture Program, which seeks to build strong, healthy cities by promoting the integration of arts and culture in community revitalization. The demonstration year was supported by ArtPlace America, which exists to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical and economic fabric of communities.