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.
EPA announces up to $14 million for brownfields job training program
On July 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $14 million through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Brownfields Job Training Grants Program. This program helps communities impacted by brownfield sites—blighted, contaminated properties—build local workforces to support site cleanup and redevelopment.
Presidential historians’ message: ‘Lead with empathy, optimism, resiliency’
Doris Kearns Goodwin: In today’s divisive political landscape, empathy can feel hard to come by, which makes it that much more important to public service.
The arts fuel economic growth in counties of all sizes
A county doesn’t have to be Los Angeles or New York to see the economic benefits from the arts.
Extreme sports attract crowds, help boost county tourism
Athletic events draw participants and spectators to counties featuring unique geographies that inspire feats of strength, endurance and creativity.
U.S. House passes rescissions package
On June 12, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Rescissions Act of 2025 (H.R. 4) in a narrow 214-212 vote. The legislation would cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved federal funding, marking the Trump Administration’s first formal attempt to codify funding cuts proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Robert's Rules 102: Advancing Your Meeting Mastery for Effective Governance
Learn to minimize disruptions, establish proper procedures and apply Robert's Rules to real-life parliamentary examples.
New BRECC Toolkit: Coal Communities’ Pathways for Economic Diversification
Join the BRECC National Network to learn how coal counties are diversifying their economies through increasing housing supply, providing innovative workforce development opportunities and revitalizing downtowns.
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