Keynotes, Presentations and Panels

Metris team members speak widely on creative placemaking, artist spaces, cultural districts, and how to measure and communicate arts and culture’s impact on communities. They give talks at universities, conferences, and foundation convenings across the country (and virtually) and at venues as far flung as Ontario and Macau, China.

Gadwa Nicodemus has delivered keynote addresses to The Art of Placemaking, ArtsExposed, ArtsQuest, the California Association of Museums, Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, Centre County Historical Society (Bellefonte, PA), Commerce Lexington, Culture Connection (Louisiana’s State Arts Advocacy Day), Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago/City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, MassINC, Semaine Français d’Arnaudville, Square Feet 2013, and Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. Rachel Engh has spoken about Metris’ evaluation work at the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking’s Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing’s Creative Placemaking Summit 3, and for the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Evaluation as a Tool for Creative Placemaking” webinar.

Selected speaking venues also include the Artists and Neighborhood Change Conference, Brattleboro CoreArts, the California Legislature, Council of Michigan Foundations, Center/Architecture + Design, Chinese Creative Industries Forum, Creative Time Summit, Grantmakers in the Arts, Midwest Arts Conference, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Rutgers University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, and Western States Arts Federation.

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Webinars and Workshops

Metris Arts Consulting has facilitated panels, mobile workshops, and webinars on creative placemaking or city cultural policy for the American Planning Association and American Collegiate Schools of Planning national conferences; Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance cohort; NeighborWorks America’s Creative Community Development Convening; the Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s Community Revitalization Conference; and the Twin Cities Arts and Cultural Policy Study Group.

Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Cohort Webinar Series (2017)

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) engaged Metris Arts Consulting to develop, coordinate, and facilitate a series of six monthly webinars for a cohort of 14 organizations and their partners. The cohort received specialized technical assistance with the goal of increasing organizations’ abilities to lead successful creative placemaking projects that result in positive short- and long-term outcomes for their communities. Webinar topics, such as creative engagement strategies, communications & storytelling, artists as community organizers, and equity and creative placemaking, stemmed from challenges identified by cohort participants. Metris researched webinar topics and, in partnership with LISC, selected diverse panels of experts for each webinar. Metris then worked with panelists to develop content that would be relevant to the cohort. The webinars included panel presentations and ample question and answer periods, both of which Metris facilitated. Metris then assembled teaching tools and resources from the panelists and distributed them to the cohort after each webinar. Metris staff also served as an expert panelist for the webinar on evaluation, speaking about Adding It Up, Metris’ work with Pillsbury House + Theatre.