Through the support of LISC Rhode Island and the Kresge Foundation, NWBRV has been able to prioritize Creative Placemaking as a strategy to support our work. These efforts are most keenly witnessed in the Millrace District in Woonsocket. Here we work to bring residents, artists, and businesses together for arts and culture projects transforming the district into a vibrant center of economic prosperity.
What is it?
Creative Placemaking is a tool that helps people and places prosper by advancing arts and culture-based development strategies, including:
- Community Cultural Development: The project will create opportunities for residents to express the unique culture and identity of their community through the arts as a way of building human and social capital;
- Physical Transformation: The project will create visible change in the physical landscape of the ARTech Campus and Island Place Arts Park to reflect and support community cultural development; and
- Economic Benefits: The project will help artists, arts-related businesses and other non-arts related businesses grow their income and assets.
Call for Creatives
To facilitate our creative vision for the Millrace District, NWBRV is granting free space at 40 South Main Street to individuals interested in sharing their talents through pop-up events aligned with our creative placemaking values.
Interested in hosting a creative event? Find the application HERE.
Need some inspiration? Check out this list of past Creative Placemaking projects HERE.
Creative Placemaking Values
- Artists as Leaders – artists themselves have tools, skills, and talents to lead the path to change
- Racial Equity – we value equity as a whole, but in particular, racial equity to ensure that people of color and those historically marginalized are at the center of transforming their communities
- Community-Driven Collaborations – we prioritize collaborative efforts and believe that residents and communities must identify their own needs and be at the heart of community transformation efforts
- Sustainability – the impact of great projects should be felt long after the project concludes
Background
Since 1987, NWBRV has been working with residents, businesses, neighborhood institutions, partners, and communities to enrich neighborhood life and make affordable housing opportunities available throughout Northern Rhode Island. As a community development corporation, NWBRV prioritizes asset-based development that is community-driven with broad resident involvement. Development is more than the bricks and mortar; it encompasses that which moves neighbors from strangers into community.
This Creative Placemaking initiative focuses on bringing this culture and vibrancy to NWBRV’s newest development in the Millrace District, 40 South Main Street, right at the gateway to Downtown Woonsocket. Previously a hub for the arts and technology, NWBRV seeks reenergize this rich history.
