Date of Award

5-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Executive Leadership

First Supervisor

Linda Hickmon Evans, Ph.D

Second Supervisor

Najah Salaam Jennings-Bey, Ed.D

Abstract

The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to identify the effects of creative placemaking interventions on the stakeholders of the SALT District in Syracuse, New York, and to explore how creative placemaking may help to revitalize other economically and socially blighted communities. Using the PolicyLink research and documentation framework to facilitate discovery, the researcher sought to understand the effects of creative placemaking on the people of the Near Westside. The participant sample included 12 stakeholders and their perceptions of creative placemaking in their community of Syracuse, New York. In addition to renovating warehouses and creating resident workspace for artists, the inquiry revealed that the initiative has created access to people and services, and it has created income-producing assets. Consistent with other research on the benefits of the arts, agency, self-efficacy, and empowerment emerged as a significant finding in the data. Arts participation and engagement, and representative leadership emerged while crime, as a result of the creative placemaking decreased. All 12 participants felt the initiative constructively impacted the area in some way. However, all of the participants thought it fell short of its promise. This research considered the impact of creative placemaking strategies on stakeholders of the Near Westside of Syracuse, through the lens of that community’s 50-year battle with systemic, perpetual poverty and scarcity. One recommendation for future research on creative placemaking in impoverished communities is to consider positioning similar studies with an eye toward urban thriving and elevating diversity as a value within the practice.

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS