PlacemakingUS is a national network connecting people who care about creating more inclusive, vibrant, and people-centered places. Through gatherings, workshops, peer learning, and collaborative projects, the organization brings together placemakers from across disciplines and communities to share ideas, tools, and experiences. Rather than promoting a single approach to placemaking, PlacemakingUS helps build relationships among the people doing the work—supporting a growing community committed to shaping public spaces with, rather than simply for, the people who use them.

Third Place Makers is a placemaking platform founded by Ivy Lupco that explores and advances the people, ideas, and strategies behind vibrant communities and meaningful places. Through its consulting practice and conversations with place-management professionals, it connects ideas with action across placemaking, community engagement, activation, partnerships, and public-realm strategy.

Ivy Lupco is the founder and principal consultant of Third Place Makers, a Tampa-based placemaking practice focused on creating places where people feel connected and belong. Her work spans public-space activation, community engagement, public art, events, and inclusive urban experiences. She also hosts Third Place Makers Talk a podcast exploring the people, projects, and ideas shaping places and communities across the country.

One of Canberra's most loved pieces of public art, Big Swoop is a larger than life sculpture of an Australian magpie pecking a chip.

The cheeky sculpture sits in the city's Petrie Plaza and is a nod to Canberra's unique urban wildlife. It was created by Canberra resident and artist Yanni Pounartzis and unveiled in 2022.

Sitting at 2.4 metres high and 3.5 metres long, Big Swoop is Canberra's contribution to Australia's list of "big things".

Kristi Clark is City Place Manager with Canberra’s City Renewal Authority, where she works to make the city centre more active, welcoming, and connected. Drawing on a background in events, performance, and community engagement, her work includes placemaking, programming, public-space activation, and supporting the businesses and communities that bring central Canberra to life

Trauma Informed Placemaking offers an introduction to understanding trauma and healing in place. It offers insights that researchers and practitioners can apply to their place-based practice, learning from a global cohort of place leaders and communities.

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.

Cara Courage is a researcher, writer, curator, and practitioner whose work explores placemaking, public space, arts and culture, and community participation. A leading voice in the international placemaking field, she has written and edited extensively on how creative practice and citizen-led approaches can shape more inclusive, connected, and meaningful places.

Bright Brothers Strategy Group is a people-first, data-driven consultancy that works with cities, districts and DMOs on strategic planning, marketing, and placemaking.
From connecting with your constituents and target audiences, to mapping out customer journeys and strategic touchpoints that drive tangible results, to human-centered placemaking initiatives, Bright Brothers Strategy Group is on the cutting edge of the intersectionality between urban planning, vibrant places and economic impact. We've worked with dozens of downtowns and districts around the country, and understand that every community starts with one thing: people.

Josh Yeager is a founder and principal at Bright Brothers Strategy Group and has been an active champion of the Urban District Place Management world and a vocal advocate for great places and great people.

Josh has been a guest and a guest host on Sidewalk Ballet and brings a depth and breadth of experience in making great places.

Victoria Derr, Louise Chawla, and Mara Mintzer offer a practical guide to involving children and young people in urban planning and design. Drawing on international examples, the book combines principles, case studies, and methods for meaningful, ethical, and inclusive youth participation.

Mara Mintzer helped found Growing Up Boulder (GUB) in 2009. A passionate advocate for child-friendly cities, Mara presents and writes internationally on the topic of engaging young people in inclusive community planning and development. Her expertise in engaging children and youth in meaningful ways to shape their own cities is requested by government and community organizations around the world.

Growing Up Boulder brings children and young people directly into the planning and design of their communities. Founded in 2009, the nonprofit works with schools, government, designers, and families to ensure young residents have a meaningful voice in decisions about the places where they live.

With roots in Toronto, Canada, Rajesh is a writer, facilitator, and community-centered design practitioner at 3×3 Design. His work sits at the nexus of inclusive design and urban placemaking to translate community insights and aspirations into strategy development, the built environment, and narrative change. Rajesh has had his work and writing featured in AZURE and Afternoon Magazine, and holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Toronto.

Nichole Aquinois an UX Designer and Researcher with a decade of experience working at the intersection of design, technology, and social impact. She has shaped design and strategy for EdTech and CivicTech products, previously working at Newsela, The Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, and Blue Ridge Labs. She loves solving complex problems creatively and collaboratively, creating meaningful user experiences both on- and offline.

Ayana Smith is a native New Yorker and experienced youth organizer whose current practice focuses on implementing participatory creative placekeeping projects as a tool to increase public safety in and around public housing developments. Prior to her current position, she held leadership positions at Teens Take Charge and Student Voice and has served as a youth advisor for several organizations such as Race Forward. Her work has been featured in publications such as the New York Daily News and presented at conferences such as Grantmakers for Education through the National Public Education Support Fund.

Jay Pitter is an award-winning placemaker and author whose work explores belonging, cultural memory, equity, and public joy. Through planning, policy, teaching, and storytelling, she advances the idea that joyful public space is not a luxury, but essential urban infrastructure and a human right.

In Sunamganj, Bangladesh, communities work with government engineers to build and dismantle portions of a submersible embankment each year—protecting rice crops before harvest while allowing seasonal flooding afterward. The project combines local knowledge, ecological adaptation, and community participation in an unusual model of co-produced infrastructure.

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.

Iffat Baki Bushra is an urban and transportation planner whose work explores infrastructure, mobility, and community participation. She joined Sidewalk Ballet to share her research on a remarkable submersible embankment in Sunamganj, Bangladesh, where local knowledge and community participation are integral to adapting infrastructure to the rhythms of the landscape.