The City of Hamilton Community Development Department and the Fitton Center for Creative Arts have been selected as partners to participate in the Creative Placemaking Immersion Program (CPI). This year-long intensive program aims to build knowledge and advance creative placemaking initiatives in selected states as well as to revitalize communities and local economies by intentionally leveraging the power of arts, culture, and creativity.

There have been a number of recent arts projects the City has taken on in collaboration with local arts communities. The StreetSpark murals, completed over the summer off of both Main and High Streets, were created primarily through the partnership between the City and the Fitton Center. Other recent arts projects supported by the City include fire hydrant painting by InsideOut Studio (pictured below) and the completion of the Artspace Lofts in Hamilton's urban core. The CPI Program will make it possible to pursue more of these types of projects and will provide resources to encourage the integration of art within all areas of the community.

The CPI program is managed by the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Association (NACEDA) in partnership with Americans for the Arts. The program contracts with three NACEDA member state and regional community economic development (CED) associations to build knowledge of creative placemaking among CED and arts practitioners in the CED association's footprint through the creation and implementation of a "knowledge building activity." For the purposes of the program, "knowledge-building activity" is defined as follows: a programmatic activity of the CED association - in partnership with an arts organization or individual - that builds creative placemaking knowledge and familiarity for both CED and arts practitioners, with an eye to implementing creative placemaking in their geography.

For more information about this partnership and what it means for Hamilton, contact Bud Scharf in Community Development at 513-785-7022 or Ian Mackenzie-Thurley at the Fitton Center at (513) 863-8873.

For further reading, visit the article on the City of Hamilton's webpage here.