Creative Counties Placemaking Initiative
Integrating arts into solutions to local challenges
Developed in partnership with Americans for the Arts and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Counties Placemaking Initiative equips county leaders with tools and resources to identify and strengthen ways to integrate the arts into solutions to local challenges.
Creative Placemaking Toolkit for Counties
Webinars
NACo's webinars are free to everyone and recorded for viewing after the live event. Recent webinars have included:
- Building Arts-Driven Community and Economic Development Solutions for Your County
- Leveraging New Tools & Resources to Build the Arts in Your County
- Telling Your Community Story: Strengthening Economies through Place Branding
Check out all of NACo's upcoming and past Creative Counties webinars here.
Resource Hubs
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 6
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 5
- Social Impact Explorer
- 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies
- Animating Democracy
- Local Arts Agency Dashboard
Reports
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 National Statistical Report
- Business Support for the Arts 2021: Art for Everyone's Sake
- Community-Based Arts Organizations: A New Center of Gravity
- Building Worlds Together: The Many Functions and Forms of Arts and Community Development
- Programs Supporting Art in the Public Realm: A National Field Scan
- Artists & Communities: Conversations on Passion, Practice, and Engagement
- Animating Democracy--Aesthetic Perspectives
- Animating Democracy--Diving into Racial Equity
- Creative City Report
- Local Arts Agency Partnerships: Types, Components, and Impacts
Fact Sheets
Dive Deep
Explore All Arts & Culture Resources
Explore all of NACo's resources on arts and culture, including latest news and resources, related committees and featured initiatives.
Congress introduces Bipartisan HOME Reform Act
On October 21, 2025, Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO.) introduced the HOME Reform Act, which would make substantial changes to the eligible uses and exemptions applying to the Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program.
Bridging the digital divide in Telfair County, Ga.
In rural Georgia, Telfair County is taking meaningful steps toward expanding broadband access as a strategic lever for economic mobility.
Missouri association building to make horror film debut
The Missouri Association of Counties found a new building to house its offices, complete with meeting space and an embalming room, thanks to its past as a funeral home.
County leadership guides shared prosperity
There’s no chicken-or-egg debate: Economic mobility is not just a byproduct of growth — it is the result of intentional county governance.
Chamber of commerce program helps keep workers on the job
Employers are thriving in Audrain County, Mo. because their workers are thriving, thanks to the local chamber of commerce's programming to help meet employees' needs.
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