ArtPlace is an unprecedented $11.5 million public-private grant initiative to advance place-based strategies for community transformation with art and culture at their heart. With inaugural support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Robina Foundation, ArtPlace promotes the strategic role of art and culture in making communities successful.

ArtPlace makes investments in initiatives to revitalize neighborhoods; stimulate job growth and economic development; create new anchors for communities; increase the appeal of transit corridors; bring new economic opportunities to rural communities; build brand for communities; address urban challenges; connect people and help them tell their stories; provide artists’ housing and workspace; and foster research in creative placemaking. ArtPlace will be supported by a $12 million loan fund capitalized by six major financial institutions and managed by the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Participating institutions are Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, MetLife and Morgan Stanley. 

For information about the inaugural 34 ArtPlace investments and the Letter of Inquiry process for ArtPlace support, please visit www.artplaceamerica.org.

Press

• A Powerful New Collaboration of Foundations and Federal Agencies Puts Arts at The Center of The Revitalization of Cities and Towns Across (press release): The U.S. Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts Convene Private Partners and Federal Agencies to Launch the ArtPlace Initiative Initial Grants Invested in 34 Projects Nationwide Chicago, IL, September 15, 2011 — In an unprecedented private-public collaboration, 11 of America’s top foundations have joined with the National Endowment for the Arts and seven federal agencies to establish ArtPlace (www.artplaceamerica.org), a nationwide initiative to drive revitalization in cities and towns with a new investment model that puts the arts at the center of economic development.... MORE
• Consortium Views Arts as Engines of Recovery, by Robin Pogrebin: "In the two years since he became chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman has been trying to make the case that art is an effective linchpin to economic development. Now in a broad effort to build on that thesis, he has helped to enlist an unusual consortium of foundations, corporations and federal agencies that will use cultural enterprises to anchor and enliven 34 projects around the country, from a struggling city block in Detroit to a vacant school in East Harlem..." MORE