The Cultural Planning Group serves the field of arts and culture. Based in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania, we bring clarity and collaboration to the cultural planning process, delivering a variety of services designed to connect communities to their unique sense of people and place.
TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES THROUGH CULTURAL VISION
CPG partners with communities to unlock their creative potential through comprehensive cultural planning services. Our collaborative approach ensures you have direct access to our principal partners throughout every phase of your journey—from initial visioning to implementation and beyond.
We believe cultural planning is more than strategy—it's a transformative process of discovery that reveals what makes your community unique. Through inclusive engagement and deep listening, we help communities articulate their cultural identity, harness their creative assets, and chart a path toward meaningful change.
Our process connects people to place and vision to reality, empowering communities to lead their own cultural renaissance. Whether you're revitalizing a downtown district, developing a cultural master plan, or strengthening your creative economy, CPG provides the expertise and partnership to turn possibilities into lasting impact.
SERVICES
CULTURAL AND CREATIVE ECONOMY PLANNING
Every community deserves to shape its own cultural future. We develop comprehensive cultural plans that reflect your community's unique character, from rural towns to major metropolitan regions. Through deep community engagement and careful listening, we help articulate your vision and create actionable strategies that honor your history while building toward your aspirations.
PUBLIC ART PLANNING AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
Public art has evolved into a sophisticated tool for achieving civic goals—from economic development to community engagement and placemaking. We guide every aspect of public art planning, whether you're launching a new program, creating a master plan, or defining the future of an established initiative. Our expertise helps communities harness art's power to create vibrant, economically successful places.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic planning creates space for reflection and responsive decision-making. Using our proven framework, we conduct comprehensive organizational assessments, facilitate stakeholder engagement, and help you answer critical questions: What's your greatest competitive advantage? Where are your growth opportunities? We build consensus-driven plans that balance aspiration with operational realities.
CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
Creative placemaking integrates arts development with economic and community development, helping cities compete for talent, businesses, and visitors. We identify synergistic partnerships among government, business, education, and the arts that foster dynamic communities. Our approach harnesses resident energy and innovation to create more livable, economically vibrant places.
ARTS AND CULTURAL DISTRICT PLANNING
Cultural districts create compelling daily experiences for residents and visitors alike. We help define the fundamentals: compact, walkable areas with distinct character shaped by your community's vision. Our planning takes the long view while identifying early wins that establish place character and contribute to economic vitality, enhanced city branding, and artist support.
URBAN PLANNING PARTNERSHIPS
As comprehensive municipal planning expands beyond traditional land use, cities increasingly include arts and cultural elements in their general plans. We assess your community's cultural assets, identify gaps in the local cultural ecology, and develop policies that support your community's vision within the broader municipal planning framework.
PUBLIC ART PLANNING AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT SERVICES
The field of public art has evolved to include a more sophisticated variety of approaches to artistically enrich the community. Public art is a powerful tool in achieving civic goals, such as economic development, branding, civic engagement, equity, revitalization, and placemaking. Increasingly, art is recognized as integral to the creation of vibrant and economically successful communities.
CPG assists in all aspects of public art planning, from developing a new program, to creating a master plan for an existing program, to defining the future for a mature, successful program. Our public art planning practice provides a significant value add and draws on our experience with cultural planning and placemaking in diverse communities across the nation.
CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
Creative placemaking is a revitalization strategy that integrates arts development with economic and community development. Creative placemaking is an opportunity for cities to address their competition for jobs, businesses, education, young professionals and families, and visitors by offering a higher-quality economy and lifestyle. Creative places make communities more livable for their citizens, reflect the diversity of multicultural societies and benefit local economies. Successful creative places harness the energy and innovation of their residents and build collaborative partnerships among government, business, education, and the arts. Creative placemaking planning begins with synergistic partnerships that foster vibrant, dynamic communities. Our insight offers clients an advantage in identifying collaborations and inspirations that support your creative placemaking journey.
CULTURAL DISTRICT PLANNING
Creating cultural districts offers your residents and visitors vibrant experiences every day. Districts can vary greatly, from collections of major arts institutions in the city center to organic artist-run neighborhoods and spaces. What they share in common is a focus — claiming a place, celebrating an identity, and offering a unique encounter. It is placemaking that makes districts a compelling element of the urban fabric.
We approach cultural district planning with clear goals and an eye for defining the fundamentals — a compact, walkable area with distinct character shaped by a community’s shared image of what it wants to present to the world. Districts also require an appropriate infrastructure to encompass the vision and goals, provide governance and financial stability, oversee programming, and market themselves effectively. Because districts develop over time, planning must take the long view while identifying early wins that capture public attention and establish the character of the place. Effectively devised, cultural districts contribute to economic and cultural vitality, enhance a city’s brand, and support artists and arts organizations.
URBAN PLANNING PARTNERSHIPS
Traditionally, municipal comprehensive planning focused on land use, creating policies that govern where residential, commercial, and industrial enterprises may locate. Over the last three decades, general planning and city visioning have expanded to include elements that address transportation, economic development, education, human services, character and design, and recreation and leisure. These comprehensive plans are important because they constitute the policy framework that drives municipal decision-making. Increasingly, cities are including an arts and cultural element in their general plans. To support this process, CPG assesses the arts and cultural assets of the community, identifies gaps in the local cultural ecology, and develops policies and strategies that support the community’s vision.
The Cultural Planning Group serves the field of arts and culture. Based in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania, we bring clarity and collaboration to the cultural planning process, delivering a variety of services designed to connect communities to their unique sense of people and place.
Successful arts planning is fully understanding and
reflecting a community’s history, values, and vision.
