The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide

The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.

Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.

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Creative Placemaking

Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa’s landmark 2010 report helped define creative placemaking: using arts and culture as active tools in shaping communities. Drawing on projects across the country, it examines how cross-sector partnerships can animate places, strengthen local economies, and build community identity.

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The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking

This Handbook is the first to explore the emergent field of ‘placemaking’ in terms of the recent research, teaching and learning, and practice agenda for the next few years. Offering valuable theoretical and practical insights from the leading scholars and practitioners in the field, it provides cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on the placemaking sector.

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Placemaking Jax

PlacemakingJax is a Jacksonville-based initiative that uses arts, culture, and creative placemaking to bring people together and strengthen the city’s neighborhoods and public spaces. Through public art, events, activations, and community partnerships, the program creates opportunities for residents to experience Jacksonville in new ways while supporting local artists and a more vibrant public realm.

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Kady Yellow

Kady Yellow is a creative placemaking practitioner and Vice President of Placemaking and Activations at Downtown Vision in Jacksonville. Through PlacemakingJax and a career spanning public art, Pop-Up Civics, and community-led activation, she works to give people a meaningful role in shaping the places they call home. Also, someone wrote a song about her.