Creative Placemaking in Twin St. Paul Neighborhoods

Located on Dakota and Ojibwe land, St. Paul is a unique hub of arts, enterprise, and history. The city’s landscape has been shaped by racial covenants, economic hardships, and migration to surrounding suburbs. Today, community members, developers, and government officials are involved in ongoing discussions about how to best enhance infrastructure and businesses throughout the city, especially in urban areas, while protecting residents and each neighborhood’s identity and culture. One way of doing this is through creative placemaking. For my research, creative placemaking refers to the use of art-based solutions to enhance public spaces in order to support sustainable communities. My research is a comparative study of St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ) and Frogtown neighborhood with the goal of understanding how both areas employ creative placemaking to shape identities, support economic growth, and strengthen communities.  

Until recently, St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone was a manufacturing center with little residential real estate; however, the area now houses residents, artists, and other creative businesses. In the past ten years, the CEZ launched creative placemaking initiatives including the Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival to effectively host and connect arts with residents. Thomasina Topbear created a mural for the 2021 festival entitled Unci Maka (“Grandmother Earth” in Lakota/Dakota) and I argue that this piece is an example of the effective use of murals as a form of creative placemaking. This piece displays vibrant sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, and a morning star--symbolic plants that are reflective of the artist’s Indigenous roots. In this way, Topbear uses art to share her culture and pay respect to the Indigenous peoples who originally inhabited the neighborhood.     

Alternatively, the Frogtown neighborhood has a different set of needs and history. Frogtown faces different challenges of commercial development, as expensive high-end apartment buildings and other factors threaten to displace residents. For example, Topbear also created a mural in this neighborhood, but rather than making cultural references to her Indigenous roots, this work, a large wall with text reading “Development Without Displacement,” speaks out directly against gentrification. 

The juxtaposition of these two examples shows how artists adapt their work to be reflective of the neighborhoods’ needs. For example, creative placemaking is used to bring life to a once primarily industrial area in the Creative Enterprise Zone, whereas Frogtown uses creative placemaking to amplify community messages and speak out against displacement. The aim of my research is to examine how creative placemaking strategies, specifically murals and street art in St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone and Frogtown neighborhood, work to address neighborhood needs, as well as preserve the rich history of these two distinct locations 

I have chosen to do research on the Creative Enterprise Zone and Frogtown neighborhood because of the complex history of the areas, the diverse culture, and how creative placemaking strategies are used in both neighborhoods. Given that it is challenging to quantify the effectiveness of creative placemaking projects, I have followed the lead of scholars from across the world who use a “case study approach” when analyzing the topic. Assistant Professor Magdalena Rembeza, of the Gdansk University of Technology in Poland, analyzed the role of creative placemaking in Philadelphia in which she broke her research into five parts: urban context, history of art in the area, programs and initiatives, examples of murals, and discussion to evaluate street art in the area. ¹  Given the research, instead of using now obsolete creative placemaking benchmarks such as “livability indicators,” a set of indicators to measure factors such as voter turnout, median household income, unemployment, etc.., ²  I have conducted my research in a similar manner to Rembeza, by looking at creative placemaking from an interdisciplinary lens when analyzing the two neighborhoods.  

I have collected both quantitative and qualitative data for this project by conducting 14 interviews (six artists, four community organizers, two employees, one business owner, and one resident) as well as creating and distributing a survey in which I received 48 total responses. The goal of this story map is to creatively display the results of my research by interactive means to highlight the placemaking work being done in both neighborhoods.  

Works Cited

1. Rembeza, Magdalena. 2016. “Shaping places through art. The role of creative placemaking in Philadelphia. Paper Presented at the 3rd International Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Art SGEM, Vienna, Austria, 2016. Research Gate.  
2. Markusen, Ann. “Fuzzy Concepts, Proxy Data: Why Indicators Would Not Track Creative Placemaking Success.” International Journal of Urban Sciences 17, no. 3 (2013): 291–303.

Creative Placemaking was a term first coined by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus in a white paper, or a deeply researched report on a new idea/initiative, for the National Endowment for the Arts. The paper, written in 2010, defines creative placemaking as occurring when partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically shape the social and physical characteristics of a neighborhood region around arts and cultural activities. Instead of creating “arts districts” they imagine creative placemaking as a “decentralized portfolio of spaces acting as creative crucibles” in which arts and culture mesh with private sector businesses, mixed-income housing, and revitalization of vacant and underused lots. ¹  One goal of this is community investment. Instead of residents traveling outside the neighborhood to spend their disposable income, they invest in local arts and entertainment which in turn can have positive impacts such as generating local property and sales tax dollars that can be reinvested in the community. ²  Because creative placemaking can be defined so broadly, Nicodemus describes creative placemaking as a “fuzzy concept,” or a set of ideas that mean different things to different people. ³  Given that creative placemaking is defined quite broadly, I have chosen to focus on murals, street art, and graffiti, as placemaking examples to examine how both neighborhoods use the three to enact community change.  

Murals in the community are a great example of using art-based solutions to enhance public spaces, as they are displayed in public for those who pass by to view. Not only are these murals helpful in “beautifying” an area, but they are also just as functional as they are works of art. According to The Journal of the American Planning Association, public art, specifically, murals, in open and accessible spaces offer cultural and artistic experiences outside of museum spaces. Murals can also be a powerful tool for transforming how people feel about an area by creating community dialogue and evoking intellectual ideas. ⁴  In the Creative Enterprise Zone especially, which provides mural tours by chartered bus, locals and visitors can experience free access to the history and interpretation of the works of art. One could even print out a map on the CEZ’s website and lead themselves on a self-guided tour. In the Frogtown Neighborhood, a movable panel was made by artist Thomasina Topbear, which has been relocated three times to different parts of the neighborhood since its creation. Besides being created in public spaces, artists and community organizers are taking the next step to ensure accessibility.  

However, strategic changes of a neighborhood identity, such as new murals, infrastructure revitalization, and increased green spaces through creative placemaking beg the question: whose interests are being served by these projects? The Journal of the American Planning Association additionally states that little research has been done on the impact of creative placemaking on BIPOC communities. With the rise in public art and other placemaking factors, critics suggest that without carefully constructed placemaking that considers the systematic abandonment of urban areas in the 1920s, along with considering systematic inequalities in the housing system, BIPOC communities could be at the highest risk for displacement. ⁵  While the white paper noted that one of the most pressing challenges is avoiding gentrification and displacement, scholars are aware that this could be a plausible outcome. ⁶  Roberto Bedoya, the Cultural Manager for the City of Oakland, has expressed skepticism towards creative placemaking, noting that in order to have successful creative placemaking practices, one must first examine the politics of belonging and dis-belonging when manifesting a neighborhood, or community identity. He wrote in 2013 that “a troubling tenor of Creative Placemaking discourse is the avoidance of addressing social and racial injustices at work in society and how they intersect with Creative Placemaking projects.” Additionally, creative placemaking could support the politics of dis-belonging through acts of gentrification, racism, and real estate speculation, all in the name of neighborhood revitalization. ⁷  More recently, Bedoya has credited the organization ArtPlace, one of the main placemaking initiatives in the country, with doing research over the past 10 years to come up with ways to enrich placemaking strategies. ⁸  Bedoya, instead of solely using the term “creative placemaking,” acknowledges that there are a variety of lenses to achieve placemaking outcomes. 

Among these various lenses, the terms “place-knowing,” and “place-keeping” have recently emerged as compliments or critiques of “creative place-making." Both of these new terms have been made popular by Bedoya, who acknowledges that there are a variety of ways to achieve placemaking outcomes. In an interview, Bedoya states that “place-knowing” became part of his vocabulary while working with Indigenous urban planners, who use the term to capture the intersections of sacred sites and one's cultural worldview and examine the way that contributes to knowing one's place in the world. ⁹  On the other hand, creative placekeeping, involves a mixture of community development sectors working closely alongside residents in order to ensure their needs and goals are met while local assets and culture are protected. ¹⁰  Creative placekeeping is focused on the integration of art with social services, community-engaged art programming, public policy advocacy, and community-informed campaigns. ¹¹  When it comes to placemaking, placekeeping, and placeknowing, there is not a confirmed “best practice” or lens for community. However, they appear quite different in practice, as I will present in my research.   

Overall, I aim to differentiate the Creative Enterprise Zone as mostly implementing creative placemaking practices, as opposed to the Frogtown Neighborhood, which implements more placekeeping practices based on my research. The main difference between the two is who the placemaking projects serve, what the history and make-up of the neighborhood is, and where the neighborhood is planning on going in terms of a collective vision for the future. 

Works Cited

1. Markusen, Ann, and Anne Gadwa. Rep. Creative Placemaking. Markusen Economic Research Services and Metris Arts Consulting, 2010. 
2. See note 1 above.
3. Nicodemus, Anne Gadwa. “Fuzzy Vibrancy: Creative Placemaking as Ascendant US Cultural Policy.” Cultural trends 22, no. 3-4 (2013): 213–222. 
4. Furtado, Lara Sucupira, and Jessica Morgan Payne. “Inclusive Creative Placemaking Through Participatory Mural Design in Springfield (MA).” Journal of the American Planning Association ahead-of-print, no. ahead-of-print (2022): 1–14. 
5. See note 4 above.
6. See notes 1 and 2 above.
7. Bedoya, Roberto. “Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-belonging,” Grantmakers in the Arts, February 2013.  https://www.giarts.org/article/placemaking-and-politics-belonging-and-dis-belonging  
8. Bedoya, Roberto. “Get into it: Artplace’s Research Activities,” Grantmakers in the Arts (blog), December 16, 2021.  https://www.giarts.org/blog/roberto-bedoya/get-it-artplaces-research-activities  
9. Bedoya, Roberto, and Tom DeCaigny. “Belonging Is a Sticky Word.” San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art: Open Space, no. 16, February 22, 2021. 
10. Yu, Betty, Dave Lowenstein, and Roberto Bedoya. “Creative Placekeeping Citizen Artist Salon.” March 8, 2016. Online.  https://actionnetwork.org/forms/watch-the-creative-placekeeping-citizen-artist-salon  
11. Jackson, Maria Rosario, and Citlalli Chávez. Rep. BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: Approaching Community Health Through Heritage and Culture in Boyle Heights. Alliance for California Traditional Arts and The California Endowment, 2017. 

Click the buttons to dive into the background of the Creative Enterprise Zone and Frogtown

Click the button to read, watch, and listen to the stories of artists and employees in the Creative Enterprise Zone.

Click the button to read and listen to the stories of artists, community organizers, and a resident of Frogtown.

I created two surveys titled “Street Art in Frogtown-5 Minute Survey” and “Street Art in the Creative Enterprise Zone-5 Minute Survey.” These surveys were sent out via e-mail to all the businesses I could find in both areas and posted on the Frogtown Neighborhood Facebook page. The surveys were both open for around two weeks, and in total 47 people participated. This was a unique opportunity for me to gauge the general public’s feelings on street art in a relatively accessible way. The only requirement to take the survey was the individual must be over the age of 18 and have either lived or worked in the neighborhood of the survey they took.  

Both surveys had 12 identical questions to collect some demographic data, such as the respondents’ role is in the neighborhood and their opinions on street art in the area. All the questions were multiple choice except for demographic information like racial and gender identity and zip code and a question about how the participant would describe street art in a few words. The Creative Enterprise Zone had the most participants, with 34 individuals agreeing to participate in the study. Though not all the questions were mandatory, 30 participants completed the survey. In contrast, 13 individuals agreed to participate in the Frogtown survey, but only six participants finished the survey. Those who participated in the Creative Enterprise Zone survey were the most engaged with the survey, not only because more people responded, but also because most of them completed the survey. Given the low number of respondents in Frogtown, racial and gender identity demographics are not useful to compare to those of the Creative Enterprise Zone. 

When looking at the make-up of those who answered my survey, racial and gender identity disclosed, the CEZ was far more geographically diverse than the participants in Frogtown. With only 9% of the CEZ respondents identifying themselves as “residents,”, one reason for this could be most people who work in this area commute. On the other hand, 30% of the respondents in Frogtown identified themselves as “residents.” However, in both areas over 90% of surveyed respondents said they could visualize an example of street art (graffiti, murals, tagging, etc...). One respondent both Frogtown and the CEZ said they could not visualize an example. This is meaningful because even though there are significantly fewer murals and street art in Frogtown, and a designated mural festival in the Creative Enterprise Zone where murals are publicly advertised, one could hypothesize that it doesn’t mean that the street art there is any less memorable.  

Although street art was identifiable in both areas, opinions differed on how street art was viewed. In my survey, I asked participants to drag a slider on where they felt on a scale from 0-100 about street art with 0 being “negatively” and 100 being “positively.”  Respondents from Frogtown reported a minimum score of 22, a maximum of 100, and an average of about 69. When they rated how they believe others who live, work, or visit Frogtown, the minimum score was 10, the maximum was 100, and the mean was about 64. This means that in general, Frogtown respondents felt that they thought of street art more highly than others who might take this survey. The Creative Enterprise Zone survey-takers, in contrast, viewed street art much more favorably when it came to individual perceptions and other perspectives. Individuals who answered this survey had a maximum score of 100, minimum of 0, and an average score of about 87. When they rated how others who live, work, or visit Frogtown, the maximum score was 100, minimum score was 0, and the average score was about 80. Therefore, it is fair to say that most survey takers in both areas felt like they themselves had better perceptions of street art than others. Overall, the Creative Enterprise Zone had a more positive perception of street art than of Frogtown.    

Besides having the chance to rate perceptions of street art on a scale of 0-100, I gave respondents a chance to describe street art in their area in a few short words. When examining the CEZ results, the words “colorful” and “vibrant” were the most used as they were both used 8 times in the 30+ responses. Frogtown responses were made with much less detail. However, street art being important for social justice activism was mentioned, because of the street art made in the neighborhood after the murder of George Floyd. To display my data, I compiled 25 words used in both surveys, noted the frequency, and put the list into a data visualizer. The result is a cloud of words that are bigger the higher the frequency. For example, “vibrant” and “colorful” are the largest words because they were used the most. On the other hand, “positive vibe” and “love” only had one response.  

This survey was an easy way to engage the public in my research as well as gather data from those who might not think about street art often. The overall results from the survey gathered perceptions of street art as well as words used to describe the impact of street art. With 90% of total respondents viewing street art, it can be inferred that street art is prevalent in both neighborhoods. However, one neighborhood’s respondents both views and feels other view street art more negatively in one area than the other. Taking the time to gauge perspectives has been crucial to my research, as it has provided opinions from those who actively occupy the areas.  

My research findings have concluded that through street art, both the Creative Enterprise Zone and Frogtown neighborhoods employ different techniques to shape identities, support economic growth, and strengthen communities. Both neighborhoods have struggled with displacement and gentrification as a result of the green line. The Creative Enterprise Zone, specifically, has used street art to address the displacement of creatives, amplifying the voices of BIPOC, non-binary, women artists through the Chroma Zone mural festival, and bring life to a once industrial area. The Frogtown neighborhood has used street art to advocate for development without displacement, bring healing to the community after the murder of George Floyd, and highlight the voices of community members through murals that are reflective of those who live there and evolve with the community. Creative Placemaking and Creative Placekeeping have been terms that embody the role that this art serves in both neighborhoods, with the Creative Enterprise Zone displaying Creative Placemaking practices, and Frogtown utilizing Creative Placekeeping techniques. The juxtaposition of these two examples shows how different techniques can foster community development while considering the unique characteristics of the neighborhoods.  

Defining the term “street art” from a community member's lens has also been a finding in my research. Based on my interviews and surveys, “street art” can be synonymous with “community art” if done in a way that encapsulates the needs of the neighborhood. Doon Mars’ “Frogtown Mural” and Reggie LeFlore’s Chroma Zone mural, “The Afrocentric Spectrum” are two examples of this as both artists had in mind how the mural would interact with the community. The practice of tagging was both critiqued and praised in my research. Artist intention and interaction with community concerns and businesses have separated tagging into two categories: street art and graffiti, with the more “artfully done” tagging being defined as street art.  

Street art has an impact on community members as my survey found that 90% of respondents who work and live in the neighborhoods could visualize some form of street art. Through street art, mural making, and tagging, those in a community can see the collective visions of the artists and community organizers behind these forms of public art. Even further, providing an opportunity to take part in opportunities such as community mural making and attending the Chroma Zone mural festival can connect the community members with the artists and presents the opportunity for dialogue.  

The implications surrounding my research include what can be done to further the voice of residents through street art, and who should be the artists involved in doing placekeeping and placemaking work? When it comes to furthering the voice of artists that create work, I didn’t want to not include those who do unsanctioned art. After all, much of the art done after the murder of George Floyd was not done with consent from the building owner. To address this question, I was able to ask Roberto Bedoya, who helped popularize the term creative peacekeeping, and wrote the first popular critique of creative placemaking via a Grantmakers in the Arts webinar. Grantmakers in the Arts is a mixture of both private and public arts and cultural funders that provides professional development for Grantmakers through workshops, webinars, publications, and conferences along with published research. ¹  The webinar I attended was titled “Grounding Cultural Policy & Racial Equity in the Public Sector.” During the webinar, Bedoya touched on his appreciation for the street art in Minneapolis specifically after the murder of George Floyd. As a cultural policy maker, I posed the question of how government should react and support public art, specifically murals, when they are non-sanctioned. Bedoya replied: 

It's a good question. You know my struggle is that I validate DIY forms of cultural expressions. It could be an underground rock and roll club, it could be a mural, and, in some ways, I just am mindful of that spirit. Now, where I say to have government, “get out of the way” is that sometimes I'll tell the permit department, “Just hold off man. Can you just relax?” You know, and then we'll just slow it down. Now that's kind of me sort of not asserting my power to maybe shut it down, but I also need to be mindful like, you know...I got some new money for a neighborhood murals program, which I’m really eager to launch. In some ways that becomes very neighborhood-centric, and it allows me to do murals on facades that are not necessarily public buildings. So, it's like the neighborhood grocery store wants to do a mural, they could come to me, and they can seek some resources. I was being a little bit of a joking about “getting out of the way,” but really, sometimes I need to understand the governance that's already in place in a locale and assert that into the government context that this neighborhood watch group has already figured out how to deal with graffiti...or whatever it may be, and they already have kind of a way in which they want to move and address this problem. And sometimes I need to say to my colleagues in city hall, “Let's not get in the way. It's working,” so you know that's the only thing. ² 

From a governance perspective, “holding off” on eliminating unsanctioned street art and providing more opportunities for initiatives, such as creative neighborhood mural initiatives could be the key for advancing street art. When thinking about the community-development aspect of a mural initiative, street art presents the opportunity to build a relationship between the “tagger” and the business. However, this could present challenges such as allowing the city to pick and choose what unsanctioned work they find worthy of not being removed and imposing limitations on an artist that could be given by a business owner if they were participating in a neighborhood mural program. This could silence the voices of community members by putting limitations on the messages they can express through street art.  

Thinking about the artist's role in Creative Placemaking and Creative Placekeeping also presents conflicting ideas, especially when thinking about the locality of the artist. Highlighting the artists already existing in the neighborhood could be more effective in Creative Placemaking and Peacekeeping as artists are familiar with neighborhood needs and compensation for the work can help grow and support neighborhood wealth. On the other hand, it is limiting for artists to only do Placemaking and Placekeeping work in their neighborhoods. Artist residencies could be a possible approach to flexible and site-specific creative placemaking. Perhaps if an artist took time to live and work in the area of the placemaking project they would be able to greater understand the needs of the area while bringing in their own perspectives.  

In conclusion, conducting my research has allowed me to do a case-study approach on both Placemaking and Placekeeping in the Creative Enterprise Zone and Frogtown Neighborhoods. Through conducting a series of interviews, I was able to connect first-hand with some of the artists, residents, and business owners that have shaped my perceptions on how street art plays a vital role in these neighborhoods.  

Works Cited

1. “About Us.” Grantmakers in the Arts. Accessed August 29, 2022.  https://www.giarts.org/about-us . 
2. Bedoya, Roberto. “Grounding Cultural Policy & Racial Equity in the Public Sector,” Grantmakers in the Arts, June 8, 2022.  Grounding Cultural Policy & Racial Equity in the Public Sector  

“About the CEZ.” Creative Enterprise Zone, 2022. https://www.creativeenterprisezone.org/our-story. 

“About the Festival.” Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.chromazone.net/about-the-festival. 

“About Us.” Grantmakers in the Arts. Accessed August 29, 2022. https://www.giarts.org/about-us. 

Bedoya, Roberto, and Tom DeCaigny. “Belonging Is a Sticky Word.” San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art: Open Spaceno. 16, February 22, 2021. 

“Cey Adams.” Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.chromazone.net/cey-adams. 

CURA Twin Cities Gentrification Project. “Frogtown/Thomas-Dale.” Frogtown/Thomas-Dale | CURA Twin Cities Gentrification Project, 2022. https://gentrification.umn.edu/frogtownthomas-dale. 

“District 7: Thomas-Dale or Frogtown.” Frog Town or Thomas Dale. Ramsey County Historical Society, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20080411064558/http://www.rchs.com/neighborhoods/frogtown.htm. 

Frogtown Neighborhood Association. Accessed August 26, 2022. http://www.frogtownmn.org/. 

“Frogtown/Thomas-Dale.” Minnesota Compass. Minnesota Compass. Accessed August 26, 2022. https://www.mncompass.org/profiles/city/st-paul/frogtown-thomas-dale. 

“Graffiti.” Graffiti | Public Works. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://sfpublicworks.org/graffiti. 

Gronfor, Carol, Ada Moreno, and Sadman Rahman. “Analysis of Placemaking in the Creative Enterprise Zone,” 2019. 

Jackson, Maria Rosario, and Citlalli Chávez. Rep. BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES: Approaching Community Health Through Heritage and Culture in Boyle Heights. Alliance for California Traditional Arts and The California Endowment, 2017. 

LeFlore, Reggie. “About.” RAL86. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://ral86.com/about/. 

Lynch, La Risa R. “In Metcalfe Park, Organizers Use Murals to Build Community -- and Slow Traffic.” Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 14, 2021. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2021/07/14/traffic-calming-murals-among-many-art-projects-coming-metcalfe-park/7841401002/. 

Makela, JoAnne M. “Creative Enterprise: The Uneasy Marriage between Art and Commerce in Saint Anthony Park, Minnesota,” 2013. 

Markusen, Ann, and Anne Gadwa. Rep. Creative Placemaking. Markusen Economic Research Services and Metris Arts Consulting, 2010. 

McClure, Jane. “Tour: Frogtown: Why Call It Frogtown?” Saint Paul Historical, 2022. https://saintpaulhistorical.com/tours/show/17. 

Most, Becca. “Mural Workshop, Events at Victoria Theater Arts Center in St. Paul's Frogtown This Weekend and Next.” Twin Cities. Twin Cities, September 19, 2020. https://www.twincities.com/2020/09/17/mural-workshop-events-at-victoria-theater-arts-center-in-st-pauls-frogtown-this-weekend-and-next/. 

O’Loughlin, Margie. “Creating Green Space in Heart of City: Frogtown Green Pulls Together Students, Elderly and Recent Immigrants, Middle Class, Landlords, Tenants, Motorcycle Club Members, Urban Missionaries, and More to Garden and Plant Trees in the Neighborhood.” Midway Como Frogtown Monitor. Midway Como Frogtown Monitor, June 9, 2021. https://www.monitorsaintpaul.com/stories/creating-green-space-in-heart-of-city,2989. 

“Projects.” @MycDazzle. Accessed August 27, 2022. http://www.mycdazzle.com/projects#/frogtown-community-center-mural/. 

“Reggie LeFlore.” Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.chromazone.net/reggie-leflore. 

“Rodrigo Oñate.” Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.chromazone.net/rodrigo-onate. 

Treacy, Ann. “Frogtown Community Mural Hosts POP UP Community Art through Aug 20 – but Needs Funding.” Mostly Minnesota, August 16, 2020. https://mostlyminnesota.com/2020/08/16/frogtown-community-mural-hosts-pop-up-community-art-through-aug-20-but-needs-funding/. 

Victoria Theater Arts Center. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.victoriatheater.org/. 

“What Is Creative Placekeeping?” Bricks of Inheritance. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.bricksofinheritance.org/what-is-creative-placekeeping. 

Wright, Brittany. “How a St. Paul Artist Fights Gentrification through His Art.” Insight News, March 15, 2019. https://www.insightnews.com/aesthetics/how-a-st-paul-artist-fights-gentrification-through-his-art/article_458b90d4-474c-11e9-ba4e-f7be4b6347de.html. 

Relevant Literature

Duconseille, François, and Raymond Saner. “Creative Placemaking for Inclusive Urban Landscapes.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 50, no. 3 (2020): 137–154. 

Frenette, Alexandre. “The Rise of Creative Placemaking: Cross-Sector Collaboration as Cultural Policy in the United States.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 47, no. 5 (2017): 333–345. 

Yeo, Rebecca. “Murals as a Tool for Action Research.” In Murals and Tourism, 1:273–285. 1st ed. Routledge, 2017. 

Nicodemus, Anne Gadwa. “Fuzzy Vibrancy: Creative Placemaking as Ascendant US Cultural Policy.” Cultural trends 22, no. 3-4 (2013): 213–222. 

Price, Cassandra. “Community Murals: Strength for the Struggle.” Journal of Poverty 18, no. 1 (2014): 103–107. 

Redaelli, Eleonora. “Creative Placemaking and Theories of Art: Analyzing a Place-Based NEA Policy in Portland, OR.” Cities 72 (2018): 403–410. 

Shirey, Heather, David Todd Lawrence, and Paul Lorah. “The Urban Art Mapping Project: Mapping Art, Narrative and Community in St. Paul, Minnesota.” In Art and Gentrification in the Changing Neoliberal Landscape, 127–139, 2021.