The Kresge Foundation is accepting Letters of Inquiry for creative placemaking activities designed to increase Creative Capacity to Shape Healthier Neighborhoods

According to the foundation, society must do more to address the harm done to people with low incomes — including systemic racial injustice and normalized acts of exclusion — and the disinvestment in the communities in which they live. Only then can it recognize and deploy creative placemaking as a necessary dimension of the strategies needed to create the conditions by which people thrive and communities are supported. 

To that end, the foundation seeks to invest in pre-conditions for long-term change such as resident empowerment and agency, social cohesion, narrative change, and equitable capital improvements. The foundation will support arts and community development organizations and projects with the potential to advance innovative and creative approaches to community development and inclusionary practices and policies.

Projects receiving priority include those that position arts, culture, and community-engaged design as a central element of community development and planning; adopt an explicit equity lens that seeks to dismantle structural inequities; empower residents with low incomes to advocate for and lead change in their community; take an asset-based approach when working in historically marginalized communities; promote models of distributed leadership and wealth; reinforce collaborations and equal partnerships across multiple sectors; advance just practices and principles in the creative placemaking field; and create career pathways and learning opportunities for NextGen creative placemaking leaders of color.     

To be eligible, applicants must be a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code and not be classified as a private foundation or government entities.

See the Kresge Foundation website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.