Smart Growth America launched the Culture and Community Network (CCN) to provide MPOs with tailored support, peer exchange, and a creative container to explore how arts and culture can strengthen planning practice. Two participants in the cohort used this opportunity to begin their journey of incorporating arts and culture into their planning processes.

When it comes to regional planning, integrating arts and culture into transportation and climate work is still a relatively new practice. For many metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), the question isn’t whether it matters, but rather where to begin, especially when staff capacity is stretched thin and prior arts and culture partnerships have been limited.

Two MPOs in this year’s CCN cohort, R1 Planning Council in Rockford, Illinois, and the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are great examples of organizations taking their first steps with leveraging arts and culture to inspire change. With the right support and inspiration, they are finding ways to connect planning with creativity, build new partnerships, and start embedding arts and culture into their regional work.

R1 Planning Council: Building a living toolkit for public art

In Rockford, the R1 Planning Council has been exploring how to help communities across their region better connect arts and culture with public space. Through participation in the Culture and Community Network — and through office hours with Smart Growth America staff — the idea emerged to create a regional public art toolkit.

Rather than a one-time report, R1 envisions a living toolkit, a resource co-created with communities and continuously refreshed with new examples, ideas, and partnerships. It could begin with a workshop series in partnership with the local arts council and expand to include case studies, best practices, and even interactive tools like ArcGIS story maps.

The concept builds on past arts and culture documentation in the Rockford area, such as a regional architecture booklet produced nearly two decades ago. Now, with guidance and inspiration from Smart Growth America, R1 is reimagining that idea for today: a digital platform to showcase public art, architecture, and cultural spaces across the region, while encouraging new conversations about the role of arts in public life.

By participating in the Culture and Community Network, R1 has gained access to peer examples, hands-on technical support, and the encouragement to begin embedding arts and culture more intentionally in its regional planning practice.

Grand Valley Metropolitan Council: Building external relationships for community leadership in climate and art

In Grand Rapids, GVMC has been exploring the intersections of climate resilience, youth leadership, and creative expression. With support from Smart Growth America’s coaching and peer exchange, GVMC began collaborating with student groups who are eager to play a role in shaping their community’s climate future.
Together, they’ve been brainstorming creative ways to engage the public on climate issues, from murals and transportation advertising to poetry slams connected to the region’s climate action plan. GVMC is also exploring opportunities to connect with the City of Grand Rapids’ artist-in-residence program, opening the door to collaboration between local artists, young people, and the MPO’s environmental team.
Like many MPOs, GVMC has limited staff capacity to launch new initiatives. But their participation in the Culture and Community Network has helped build momentum and direction.

“I love the case studies and the other examples from other MPOs, because I feel like it’s hard to just start. But if you use other ideas as a springboard, it helps so much to get those creative juices flowing to see what others are doing.” -Andrea Faber, Transportation Planner

Even in the early stages, GVMC is demonstrating how MPOs can establish new relationships with communities and groups outside the agency and bring new voices, especially youth, into planning, using creativity as a bridge between climate policy and public engagement.

This combination of structured support and peer exchange is helping MPOs build the foundation they need to bring arts and culture into planning, even with limited time and resources.

Looking ahead

The journeys of R1 and GVMC show that when MPOs have the right space and support, they can begin to weave arts and culture into transportation and climate planning in ways that strengthen community connection and expand public trust.

For Smart Growth America, the Culture and Community Network demonstrates that with the right conditions, MPOs of any size or stage can take meaningful steps toward more creative, equitable, and resilient planning.