Place-making is a process of creating and/or transforming public spaces with the focus on people, their needs and desires, aspirations, and visions about common public spaces. It is a process in which different stakeholders collaborate together with a goal of re-imagining and reinventing public spaces which will be opened and accessible to a wider community.
Creative place-making is place-making which involves community members, artists, arts and cultural organizations and other stakeholders (that you find important in this process) with focus on creative cultural and artistic ways of transforming public space.

Of course there are different interpretations of the definitions but they all agree that creative place-making involves arts and culture.

This toolbox is helping you to learn how to conduct place transformation that has to do with cultural heritage. But what is cultural heritage to youth?

Cultural Heritage Education

Cultural heritage is the result of human activity and interaction with the environment. Cultural heritage can be tangible, intangible or digital. Cultural heritage is renewed, preserved and passed onto future generations; It is about changing values, beliefs, knowledge, skills and traditions.

Cultural heritage education is a goal-oriented activity that supports the growth and development of people by strengthening their cultural competences and ensuring their inclusion. The aim is to provide everyone with cultural literacy: the knowledge, skills and abilities to identify, define, evaluate, manage and protect cultural heritage and to create new cultural heritage.

The multi-disciplinary exploration of one’s own cultural heritage and the cultural phenomena of humanity as a whole, together with others, broadens an understanding of cultural diversity and strengthens intercultural dialogue. Cultural heritage education strengthens the ability of children and young people to understand the importance of culture for individuals, communities and societies: for overall well-being, sustainability and democracy. It also strengthens the ability to identify silent and difficult cultural heritage and the use of cultural heritage to promote political or other interests.

Cultural heritage education teaches culturally sustainable development and overall sustainability skills. It strengthens the ability to openly and critically evaluate past solutions and the cultural ideals, values and societal developments that underpin them.

Tip: A great tool for starting a discussion on cultural heritage with youth is the Spinner of living heritage: https://www.aineetonkulttuuriperinto.fi/assets/Spinner_EN.pdf

About the Toolbox for creative
place-making for cultural heritage
with youth

The toolbox “Creative Place-making for Cultural Heritage with Youth” consist of five steps:

1. WITH WHOM: Stakeholder mapping and analysis
2. WHERE & WHY: Space evaluation & current situation
3. WHAT COULD BE: Visioning desired change & Design
4. CHANGE: Short term and/or long term spatial Interventions
5. CELEBRATION

The first two steps of the process for Creative Place-making for Cultural Heritage with Youth concern the identification of the software-hardware-orgware[1] interaction triangle.his activity plan consist of questions you need to ask yourselves when implementing the intervention

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING TOOLBOX – PDF

(english)