Identifying, establishing and maintaining great public spaces can be overwhelming. This session will provide resources and examples of successful processes, toolkits, and resources that have been created in Indiana and Iowa around both formal and informal public spaces and gathering places.

Daniel Walker is the Senior Community Planning Extension Specialist for the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University and for the IllinoisIndiana Sea Grant program.

Daniel collaborates with Purdue Extension staff, researchers, community leaders, stakeholders, and interest groups within the Great Lakes Region through programs that combine researchbased tools with communityplanning processes. Daniel also cochairs the Purdue Land Use Team, which provides support to the state’s network of extension educators and citizen planners.

Daniel is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). Prior to joining Purdue Extension/IllinoisIndiana Sea Grant, he was a planner and project manager in Lafayette, Indiana’s Economic Development Department.

Learn more about Daniel's work: https://cdext.purdue.edu/signaturepr...

A Mississippi native, Jennifer Drinkwater is an associate professor with a joint appointment between the department of art and visual culture and Iowa State University extension and outreach. She has a B.A. in both studio art and anthropology from Tulane University and earned an M.F.A in painting from East Carolina University. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in juried and group shows, and she has had solo exhibitions in venues all over the United States. Her work has been featured in Surface Design Journal, New American Paintings and Studio Visit magazine. She explores how we bring artwork from the studio into the world, and accordingly, how this work can both build and shape community.

During the past few years, she has partnered with communities in Iowa and Mississippi in various community art projects, programming, and theatre productions. She helped to organize a communitywide steamroll printmaking event in Perry, Iowa, created installations in restored prairies in Nebraska, collaborated on public art projects in vacant sites on Iowa main streets, spearheaded a community knitbombing project, and painted two murals with middle school children on a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta.

Learn more about the What’s Good Project:
https://whatsgoodproject.com

This presentation was shared at the May 2324, 2022 Placemaking in Small and Rural Communities Online Conference. This conference was a cohosted by CEDIK at the University of Kentucky and USDA Rural Development.

Explore the online Rural America Placemaking Toolkit: www.ruralplacemaking.com

Learn more about CEDIK at the University of Kentucky: https://cedik.ca.uky.edu

Learn more about USDA Rural Development: https://www.rd.usda.gov/