COMMUNITY CHARACTER How arts and cultural strategies create, reinforce, and enhance sense of place Kimberley Hodgson ARTS AND CULTURE BRIEFING PAPERS 03 Arts and culture strategies help to reveal and enhance the un- derlying identity—the unique meaning, value, and character— of the physical and social form of a community. This identity is reflected through the community’s character or sense of place. KEYPOINT #1: A community’s sense of place is not a static concept; rather, it evolves and develops over time, reflecting the spectrum of so- Understanding Community cial values within and around the community. Context In this way, the community character of a city, county, town, or neighborhood can be seen as a story or narrative of a place. Planners and community members can come to- KEYPOINT #2: gether to reveal and burnish this narrative through: Reinforcing Sense of Place: u an articulation of the historic, cultural, economic, and cul- Celebrating Community Character tural context of the community; u a commitment to the reinforcement and enhancement of KEYPOINT #3: the community’s identity; and u the implementation of policies, regulations, and incen- Local Implementation Framework tives that support and enhance this evolving identity. Awareness of community identity and character is strength- KEYPOINT #4: ened by the consideration of all community interests in de- cision-making processes; the integration of arts and cultural Arts and Cultural Programming resources with civic visioning programs; and the balancing of the inherent conflicting nature of past, present, and fu- ture social values. Prepared by the American Planning Association, as part of a collaborative project with the RMC Research Corporation and with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation KEYPOINTS Helping a community KEYPOINT #1: begin to understand its This brief explores how arts and culture strategies can historic, cultural, economic, be used to understand community context, celebrate Understanding and social context is an community character, and ultimately create, reinforce, Community essential foundation for or enhance sense of place. Context developing and building sense of place. This context Artistic and cultural inventories allow a community to includes a variety of community characteristics: popu- begin to understand the historic, cultural, economic, lation, demographic, and linguistic characteristics; and social context of a community—an essential foun- physical and natural resources; cultural history; climate; dation for developing and building sense of place. customs; landscape features; design and architectural elements; local educational institutions; and tempo- A creative community vision can continuously evolve rary artistic and cultural exhibits, events, and spaces. A and embrace new ideas while balancing the inherent comprehensive reading or inventory of place can help conflicting nature of past, present, and future com- a community begin to develop a voice for its narrative. munity values and culture. Such a vision must reinforce and embrace the changing climate, culture, and char- The urban planning process plays an important role acter of a place. in assisting residents as they inventory and explore their community context. In this way, the planning Preserving and enhancing the local identity, unique- process provides a grounding mechanism to ensure ness, and arts and culture assets of a community re- that the wealth of information latent in the community quire that local decision making, planning processes, is revealed, enhanced, and maintained over time. This policies, and regulations reflect and support commu- allows a narrative about the authentic elements of a nity character. community’s talent to emerge and thrive. Arts and cultural programming plays an important Artistic and cultural inventories allow a community role in providing education about the historical and to assess its historic, cultural, economic, and social cultural context of a community and in providing op- context. These inventories include the identification, portunities for participation in community life through assessment, and mapping of a community’s artistic festivals, events and performances, interactive classes and cultural resources. Conducting such an inventory and workshops, and a variety of other activities. allows planners to play a role in revealing the creative assets of a community. This role is strengthened by Each key point is explored in greater depth on the fol- collaboration with other stakeholders, such as artists or lowing pages. representatives from cultural institutions. Arts, cultural, and educational institutions are particularly skilled at capturing these special qualities and helping citizens understand their community through new eyes. An inventory can often be the first step in community character discovery—or a guided visioning exercise that engages residents from all segments of a commu- nity’s population in an interactive, creative process of developing a vision for the future of the community. According to the Culture, Creativity, and Communities u public spaces Program at the Urban Institute, however, traditional cultural inventories conducted by local governments u transportation infrastructure often overlook nontraditional cultural resources, u temporary markets and fairs venues, and activities. Cultural inventories typically focus on cataloging the variety of arts and cultural u patterns, colors, and materials of buildings organizations within a community, analyzing aspects u natural resources of the natural environment (such as natural and ar- chaeological resources), and describing traditional u native plants arts and cultural sites such as theaters, galleries, and other performance or exhibition venues. By expanding u street, business, and community signage the scope of a traditional cultural inventory, planners u art forms can better explore the wealth of artistic, cultural, and creative opportunities at the municipal and neighbor- u special places hood levels. u local educational institutions (colleges, universi ties, A comprehensive artistic and cultural inventory etc.) combines quantitative and qualitative methods and u arts institutions (museums, theaters, historic homes, includes a variety of stakeholders—such as artists, etc.) residents, and community cultural workers—in com- munity-based participatory research into the artistic, u galleries cultural, and creative characteristics of a community or neighborhood. Such a comprehensive inventory may As one example, the Boston Indicators Project—a include the following: partnership among the Boston Foundation, the City of Boston, and the Metropolitan Area Planning u population and demographic information Council—explores, measures, and assesses the val- u local social and architectural history ues, resources, and assets of the city and its residents within the context of civic vitality, cultural life and the u languages spoken arts, the economy, education, the environment, health, housing, public safety, technology, and transportation. u food culture The project relies on the interaction and participation u unique customs of a broad range of stakeholders (from schoolchildren and engaged residents to academic and community- u current landscape based experts to public officials and policy makers) to achieve its goals and objectives. u scale of existing buildings (residences, as well as commercial, governmental, and institutional buildings) amERIcaN PLANNING ASSOCIATION In an effort to better understand how Boston’s growing While an inventory ethnically and culturally diverse population—which KEYPOINT #2: of place provides the comprises more than 50 nationalities and ethnici- initial context for build- ties and more than 100 languages and dialects—is Reinforcing Sense ing sense of place and expressing its presence in the city and the region, the of Place: Celebrating establishing community project and the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians de- CommunityCharacter identity, the combina- veloped the Greater Boston Cultural Resources Survey. tion of context and the This survey was designed to “assess movement along a reinforcement of the continuum of cultural expressions, as groups develop current climate and cul- resources to transact their own businesses, move to- ture of a place create community character or identity. ward reflecting themselves to the larger community, Reinforcing sense of place therefore requires first a and grow in ways that begin to reshape the cultural comprehensive understanding of a community’s his- landscape of the city.”1 The survey invites residents to toric, cultural, economic, and social context, and sec- share “insider” information about the city’s cultural and ond a vision for the future that continuously evolves ethnic heritage, commercial establishments, traditions, and embraces new ideas while balancing the inherent resources, and amenities. It asks respondents to share conflicting nature of past, present, and future commu- their knowledge about a variety of community activi- nity values and culture. ties, places, spaces, events, and resources, such as: Community character is something a community u religious organizations or places of worship has inherently, not something that can be applied like makeup. It is conveyed by not only grand build- u informal gathering spaces (beauty salons, cafés, parks, corners) ings and public spaces but a whole range of urban elements: residences of all sizes and scale; commer- u sports or recreational