The 2021 Winter Buzz Breakfast series, hosted by Leadership Asheville and the Asheville Area Arts Council, focused on Equity in Creative Placemaking. This approach uses arts strategies to involve those that live, work, and play in a community and give them a voice in the urban design process. This four-part series included presentations from national recognized experts followed by Q&A moderated by Darin Waters, Special Assistant to the Chancellor at UNC Asheville and Executive Producer of the Waters & Harvey Show, and Aisha Adams, Founder and Executive Producer of The Asheville View.
The series began January 27 with a look at the removal of Confederate Monuments with special guest Mitch Landrieu, former Mayor of New Orleans, and author of In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. The second event February 18, featured Paul Farber, the Director of Monument Lab, and Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Public Art & Space at the University of Pennsylvania. This discussion looked at what should be considered when selecting public art and monuments.
The third event on March 18 featured Maria R. Jackson, Institute Professor at the Studio for Creativity, Place and Equitable Communities at Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Maria is a national leader in the Equitable Creative Placemaking movement. The final event on April 15 concluded with a panel of local experts and focused on local public art initiatives and explored what Equitable Creative Placemaking could look like for our community. Panelist include:
- Katie Cornell, Executive Director, Asheville Area Arts Council,
- Stephanie Monson Dahl, Strategic Development Program Director, City of Asheville
- Sekou Coleman, Executive Director, Asheville Writers in the Schools & Community
We wish to thank our Presenting Sponsor for the 2021 Winter Buzz Breakfast series – The Van Winkle Law Firm. Additional funding for this series was provided by Explore Asheville and the North Carolina Arts Council.