CPG offers a wide variety of cultural planning services delivering transformative success with complete access to our principal partners every step of the way.
The planning journey is a profound time of discovery and possibility. CPG empowers communities to lead their own creative transformation through an inclusive and insightful process that deeply connects people and place.
CULTURAL AND CREATIVE ECONOMY PLANNING
Cultural planning is the heart of CPG’s work. We believe every community has the right to chart its own cultural and artistic future, reflecting the character of the place. We develop cultural plans in diverse communities ranging from rural towns, such as Healdsburg, CA to major metropolitan regions, such as Houston, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Our practice is grounded in deep community engagement — a hallmark of our work— and keen knowledge of the local arts environment.
We employ the community’s vision and values as the foundation for development of community cultural goals and strategies. We listen carefully for suggestions during the engagement process to be incorporated in the plan. Our comprehensive planning process elicits a community wide vision for arts and culture. While commonalities appear among cultural plans, each community poses its own unique history, vision, ambition, and potential. We are passionate about identifying a community’s aspirations and creating the best plan to achieve its goals.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic planning is an opportunity to reflect and be responsive to the time, environment, marketplace, and people that frame who you are and what you accomplish. It begins with your mission, the foundation from which planning arises, and is built upon a CPG framework for exploring your organization’s future vision. CPG offers a fundamental toolkit for understanding your organization that includes a comprehensive organizational and financial assessment, a mission and vision review, stakeholder engagement on critical issues, and research into key concerns or opportunities.
A robust planning process creates the right setting to ask questions and craft strategies. What are the most compelling aspects of your mission for constituents? What is your greatest value and competitive advantage? Are there opportunities for growth, and what will be required to bring your vision to reality? Ultimately, an effective strategic plan builds on strengths, reflects the consensus of those engaged in the process, provides a clear set of priorities, and balances aspiration with the realities that exist within the context of your operation.
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.
Successful arts planning is fully understanding and
reflecting a community’s history, values, and vision.