In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.

In turn, these creative locales foster entrepreneurs and cultural industries that generate new jobs and income, spin off new products and services, and attract and retain unrelated businesses and skilled workers. Together, creative placemaking’s livability and economic development outcomes have the potential to radically change the future of American towns and cities.

Join Dr. Ann Markusen, Principal, Markusen Economic Research Services as she presents “Creative Placemaking,” a discussion of arts and cultural organizations, cultural industries, and creative placemaking and an exploration of the intersection between culture and urban/regional development.

Ann Markusen is Director of the Arts Economy Initiative and the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Markusen's arts studies include California's Arts and Cultural Ecology (The James Irvine Foundation, 2011),Creative Placemaking (National Endowment for the Arts, 2010), Native Artists: Careers, Resources, Space, Gifts (McKnight Foundation, 2009), Crossover: How Artists Build Careers across Commercial, Non-profit and Community Work (Hewlett, Irvine, and Leveraging Investments in Creativity, 2006), Artists' Centers (The McKnight Foundation, 2006), and The Artistic Dividend (Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2003).

Markusen holds a Foreign Service Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University. PRIE’s website:http://www.hhh.umn.edu/projects/prie

The Christie Lecture provides support for the University's mission of providing our community with opportunities for academic, personal, social, and cultural growth.  along these lines, Millersville University strives to provide scholastic, cultural and artistic opportunies to our campus and regional community.

The Robert A. Christie Lectureship in Economics was established in 1980 in memory of Dr. Robert A. Christie.

Dr. Christie was an active individual in higher education and was appointed president of Millersville in 1965. Promoting liberal arts throughout his presidency, Christie oversaw the development of the east campus and other locations. He resigned under pressure from the Board of Trustees in 1968. In 1970, he and his family were killed in a plane crash off the coast of British Honduras in South America.