News

Creative Placemaking Sparks Conversation, Says NCSG’s Ronit Eisenbach

Image: Rachel McCrea/For the Diamondback

Professor Ronit Eisenbach, founding Director of the National Center for Smart Growth’s Maryland Creative Placemaking Collaborative, was quoted recently in The Diamondback about the new minor in creative placemaking.

“‘It kind of is a jamming between arts and culture and what we call placemaking, or reference keeping,’ said Ronit Eisenbach, an architecture professor and the director of this university’s new creative placemaking minor.”

Read the full article here.

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Event: Creative Placemaking Symposium, March 1, 2023

In celebration of the University of Maryland’s new Creative Placemaking Minor, please join us for a one-day symposium considering how the fields of art and design can be leveraged in the service of social justice, democracy, and equitable communities.

“Story + Place” a workshop led by poet, dancer, and urban planner Amy Shimshon-Santo will take place on Thursday, March 2 from 6:30 – 9:00 pm in the Art Building. Please see the event webpage for full details.

 

Presentation topics

  • Elevating arts, culture and design to support healthy communities
  • Arts-based and community-led placemaking and keeping
  • Student-centered civic engagement
  • Creating diverse and inclusive built environment discourse and action

 

Find a list of speakers and their bios, here.

Symposium RSVP (In person and Zoom)           Workshop RSVP

FLYER: Creative Placemaking Symposium Flyer

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Nick Finio on ‘creeping segregation’ in Columbia, MD

Image: Paul Newson/The Baltimore Banner

NCSG’s associate director Dr. Nick Finio was quoted in a recent article from the Baltimore Banner, “Report: ‘Creeping segregation’ in Columbia, originally envisioned as model of racial integration.”

From the article: “The report, published last week by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, called for leaders to make the community a more affordable place to live ‘so that Columbia really can once again be an example for the entire country in diversity and opportunity.'”

Speaking about income and racial segregation, Finio said a similar trend is taking place across central Maryland and in other parts of the country, in part due to a failure to integrate housing types within suburban communities.

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