Public art can make your town more beautiful, more beloved and more economically productive.
Public art brings unique value and character to our neighborhoods.
The most successful public art is the result of community desires and goals, not top-down planning.
This park has served its purpose and now it's time to move on to the next phase of its life: as a mixed-use development that will support local businesses and bring more people downtown—to stay.
Top stories
What can signmaking’s past and present tell us about our cities’ futures?
As new residents move in, will the arts be pushed out?
Hurdles to revitalization based not on substance but control are the last thing America's cities and towns need.
This Public Art Week, we discussed big questions about the value and role of public art in our towns. Here's what got the most reads this week.
Is public art doomed to only be invited and placed in locations that are lacking and empty—a band-aid to cover up our cities' design failures?
This park has served its purpose and now it's time to move on to the next phase of its life: as a mixed-use development that will support local businesses and bring more people downtown—to stay.
For one day in June, hundreds of artists, dozens of venues and tens of thousands of residents take part in a free, all-night art festival in the Twin Cities. Here's the story of Northern Spark.
A unique program in Cook County, MN gives local organizations and businesses grants of up to just $1,000 to take on small projects that improve their town. And it's making a big impact.
Art that invites interaction and play can help us build more social and active towns.
A "museum without walls" draws visitors and residents to Asheville's downtown, providing an opportunity to learn about the city's history and culture, as well as encouraging patronage at local businesses.
We challenge you to use public art to encourage positive, concrete change in your town.
How can towns support artists in a way that benefits the community as a whole? Several unique art spaces and programs offer examples of this across the country.
Like what you're reading? Value this mission? Please support the work of Strong Towns by becoming a member today.
Your contributions are tax-deductible and go directly toward advancing our mission and creating more great, free content like this.
Here are the three core characteristics you need for a successful urban center, plus how to creatively make them happen on a shoestring budget.
American communities need to shift away from a big box retail strategy to a local, placemaking retail strategy. When placemaking urban centers become the default model, local retailers flourish and a broad, diverse Democratized Economy emerges.
You cannot build a place of enduring value that isn't homey, that isn't loved.
Austin's Neighborhood Partnering Program gives neighborhoods the tools and financial support they need to implement small-scale improvements in their community.
What would it take to keep us in the place where we grew up? Or if we do move, what characteristics of a place would lead us to decide to settle in?
This week Chuck Marohn was invited to the White House to talk about rural placemaking with leaders from around the country.
Somewhere inside you is that childlike itch to make-believe or draw funny faces on things. Play is such an amazing way to engage with the city and people around us. It creates an atmosphere of light-heartedness and curiosity. It humanizes an environment instantly and can lend your city a sense of humour. It's also good for you!
Last week, I was asked to join a panel discussion posed with the question, What role does placemaking have in building sustainable communities? This gave me a great excuse to break down and map out my personal theory of change. Here it is: love and working together. Have no doubt, the triteness is not lost on me - I grimace even writing this, but I really believe there's something to it.
Some of the best from contributor Andrew Price, including our favorite: Places and non-Places.
Three years ago, I discovered something really cool happening in my city. It might be happening in yours too.
What can signmaking’s past and present tell us about our cities’ futures?
A futuristic civic building still inspires awe, but that's muted by the changing suburban landscape around it.
Historic preservation is often used to prevent something being replaced by something worse, but are we focusing on the symptom or the cause?
A new community center could've fallen victim to the typical auto-oriented public project pitfalls. Instead, local designers created a walkable, bikeable neighborhood amenity that is spurring fresh development.
Andres Duany is an American architect and urban planner, a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), and the author of several books including Suburban Nation. In this interview, Chuck Marohn and Andres Duany discuss the founding and growth of the new urbanist movement, gentrification, and the future of the suburbs.
When cities grow organically, they are productive platforms for generating wealth.
Cities are complex ecosystems. For areas in need of redevelopment, the only way to return to a healthy urban fabric is incrementally, a few small projects a year until the neighborhood has buildings of every age and condition, suitable for adaptation to the particular needs of some future time.
San Juan, Puerto Rico demonstrates a commendable combination of both historic design principles and modern transportation concepts.
(Top photo source: Brisbane City Council)
This Public Art Week, we discussed big questions about the value and role of public art in our towns. Here's what got the most reads this week.