VIDEO: Brookland-Edgewood, DC Creative Placemaking Case Study

The Kresge Foundation, an organization that funds community development projects, including this case, defines Creative Placemaking as “the deliberate integration of arts and culture into comprehensive community development, can serve as a critical catalyst in forming equitable living and working solutions for all the social, economic, and racial constituencies of a neighborhood” (1).

The Brookland-Edgewood Case in Washington, D.C. is an example of a successful Creative Placemaking project. Dance Place is a nonprofit organization established in 1980 comprised of a community of artists, audiences, and students. In 1986, they bought an empty warehouse in the neighborhood and became one of the only cultural institutions on 8th Street. Their Creative Placemaking efforts were implicit until they were awarded a grant for the Arts Park development from the Kresge Foundation (The Kresge Foundation, “Creative Placemaking Case Study: Brookland-Edgewood” 13). Today, Dance Place offers performances, commissions, and inclusive training and educational programs regardless of participants’ ability to pay.

Brookland and Edgewood are adjacent cities separated by the Metropolitan Branch rail line. The Brookland-Edgewood neighborhood has low-income levels and high crime rates, more so for Edgewood than for Brookland. They have a population of 19,050, 82% of which are African American. The median income is $56,000. 15.7% live in poverty (The Kresge Foundation, “Brookland-Edgewood, DC Creative Placemaking Case Study”). As the community was going through economic development, real estate values drove up, raising concerns that community members would be driven out of their neighborhood. Starting in 2005, the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development partnered with Artspace Projects to create a project that now is the Artspace Lofts building and Dance Place to provide living and working space for artists (The Kresge Foundation, “Creative Placemaking Case Study: Brookland-Edgewood” 4). Over the next decade, other stakeholders participated in multiple community development projects in the neighborhood.

Google Maps. 2017. 8th St NE Brookland-Edgewood Neighborhood. Google Maps, [online].

In 2016, Dance Place finalized their Arts Campus with the 8th Street Arts Park, located in the asphalt alley between their building and the Brookland Artspace Lofts. Their campus now includes “three training and rehearsal studies, a 144-seat theater, two offices, a children’s center, the 8th St Arts Park and housing for artists and interns” (Dance Place, “Missions, Values, and History). The Art on 8th free outdoor programming, which includes affordable and free performances, workshops, and recreation, takes place on the Arts Park.

The four main players in the Brookland-Edgewood Creative Placemaking case are the District of Columbia Office of Planning (DCOP); Dance Place; Bozzuto Development, Inc; and the Brookland-Edgewood residents. Dance Place is only one stakeholder in the broader mass of Creative Placemaking projects in the 8th St Arts Corridor, which is at the intersection of three neighborhoods: Brookland, Edgewood, and the Catholic University of America (CUA) campus. Dance Place, Arts Walk, and Monroe Street Markets has revitalized the community and brought visitors through their creative solutions.