Placemaking is the practice of creating environments that foster community building by centering urban planning and design around the human experience at both the individual and collective levels. How can we turn spaces into places that are attractive, safe, and accessible for everyone in the community? In this session, we explored a few different approaches to placemaking and what “participatory” means in this particular context. We will learned about how placemaking relates to different elements of social life and think about how each participant can integrate placemaking practices as a strategy to advance their work.

Agenda

• Introduction
• Expert Interview with Jamie Bennett, Executive Director at ArtPlace: “Placemaking: Making places by and for our community”
• Breakout session
• Break
• Case Study: El Paso Transnational Trolley Project
• Breakout session
• Closing

Speaker Bios

Jamie Bennett has been the Executive Director of ArtPlace America since January 2014. Previously, Jamie served as Chief of Staff at the National Endowment for the Arts and Chief of Staff at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. He has also provided strategic counsel at the Agnes Gund Foundation; served as chief of staff to the President of Columbia University; and worked in fundraising at The Museum of Modern Art, the New York Philharmonic, and Columbia College. His past nonprofit affiliations have included the Board of Directors of Art21 and the HERE Arts Center; the Foot-in-the-Door Committee of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation; and Studio in a School’s Associates Committee. Jamie received his B.A. from Columbia College in New York City.

Peter Svarzbein is a photographer, curator and El Paso city councilman. During graduate school at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Svarzbein created the El Paso Transnational Trolley Project, a self-created activist/artist project that resulted in working with community leaders to secure a $97 million state grant for a Intra-city trolley route using the Original PCC Streetcars that ran between Juarez, Mex, & El Paso, Tex. He is currently the proud City Representative for District 1 in El Paso, Texas and Mayor Pro Tempore. He is a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of El Paso, as well as board member of Sister Cities International, and 2nd Vice President of the Rio Grande Council of Governments and the Jewish Federation of Greater El Paso.