Bloomfield announces partnership with Center for Creative Placemaking

By: Andrew Mees, Director of College and Athletics Communications      communications@bloomfield.edu

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – One of the most diverse colleges in the nation is helping to bring the newest form of artistic expression to communities throughout the state of New Jersey.

Bloomfield College, a four-year, private Liberal Arts institution and the Center for Creative Placemaking, Inc. have joined forces to establish the new Center for Creative Placemaking (CCP) within the College, the organizations announced in a joint statement today.  The Center is the lone organization in the field to be officially aligned with a higher education institution in the Garden State.

Creative Placemaking is a holistic approach to the design of systems and spaces utilizing a community’s assets.  In partnership with community stakeholders, artists and cultural workers plan and create vibrant spaces that enable intercultural dialogue, sustainable living and innovation resulting in engaging experiences of place.

The Center for Creative Placemaking at Bloomfield College will help further strengthen the college’s steadfast commitment to the arts and community development, with the institution’s state-of-the-art, LEED-certified 84,000-square-foot Residence Hall (to be completed in July, 2014) in historic Bloomfield Center set to offer retail space for community businesses that will be open to the public.  The Center will be housed on the College’s grounds, and serve as a hub of knowledge and information designed to advance the growing creative medium.

 “The Bloomfield College community is highly committed to our ‘public mission’; that is, to providing a quality education which we extend to include contributions to positive societal gains,” Vice President for Academic Affairs Marion Terenzio said.  “Our approaches to education, our respect for diverse points of view, and our deep understanding of the value of diverse partnerships that extend the scope of our work result in such exceptional outcomes as our alliance with CCP, Inc. This joining of expertise and resources to create sustainable and vibrant settings in which people and communities thrive provides a rich new dimension to our mission.”

Utilizing the institution’s educational and technological resources, the Center will prepare others to employ the applied practice of Creative Placemaking.  Programs will include continuing education course offerings in conjunction with the College, as well as informational seminars, conferences and forums on the discipline.  The Center will also be a lead organization in research studies that will be conducted on current and future projects throughout the state of New Jersey with community initiatives set to begin in surrounding Essex County, N.J.

“A dynamic new initiative to advance the emerging field of Creative Placemaking, The Center is positioned to employ academic rigor toward purposefully engaging others to better incorporate the arts and culture in community, social and economic development endeavors,” Center President Suzanne Ishee said.  “The cross-sector expertise and rich experience of the CCP team, combined with the purpose-directed administration, profession-centric student population and distinguished faculty of Bloomfield College affords The Center the ability to provide pointed practical analysis and prescriptions for creating vibrant, sustainable communities.”

To learn more about The Center for Creative Placemaking, visit centerforcreativeplacemaking.com

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