Six communities in Southeast Tennessee will receive resources and earmarked funding to institutionalize arts and cultural development strategies.

In an unprecedented partnership, the Tennessee Arts Commission, Southeast Tennessee Development, Thrive Regional Partnership, and the Lyndhurst Foundation have aligned missions to form the Tennessee Placemaking Partnership. The pilot project is designed to support local communities as they scale up strategies that leverage local arts and cultural assets for economic vibrancy and growth throughout the greater Chattanooga region.

Due to the leadership of the Tennessee Arts Commission, Tennessee communities that have completed the first or second round of Thrive Regional Partnership’s Thriving Communities accelerator program are eligible to receive consulting, resources, and earmarked funding consideration from the pilot project. Participating communities include: Athens, Cleveland, Decatur, Ducktown, South Pittsburg, and Whitwell who convened earlier this week at a project launch meeting in Collegedale, Tennessee. 

“We are excited to work with these partners on a regional pilot project that will assist a cohort of six primarily rural Southeast Tennessee cities and towns with developing community-wide strategies rooted in design thinking and creative placemaking,” said Anne Pope, Executive Director of the Tennessee Arts Commission. “Investments made by the Tennessee Arts Commission in the cohort communities will be matched by the Lyndhurst Foundation. Once this project has concluded, our plan is to determine how lessons learned in this pilot can be applied in other regions of the state.”

Leveraging statewide and regional resources, the Tennessee Placemaking Partnership will:

• Integrate arts and cultural development strategies into city planning processes of each community

• Foster a culture of experimentation for creative placemaking and community engagement

• Champion community engagement around local cultural plans

• Build beneficial relationships between arts and cultural organizations and communities across the region

• Identify long-term community goals and how they can be achieved through arts and cultural strategies

• Connect communities to other state-wide programs and potential resources. 

The Tennessee Placemaking Project is a collaborative pilot project by Thrive Regional Partnership, Tennessee Arts Commission, Southeast Tennessee Development, and the Lyndhurst Foundation. The project is designed to support local communities as they scale up strategies that leverage local arts and cultural assets for economic vibrancy and growth throughout the greater Chattanooga region.