ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether cultural planning has shown itself catalytic in local policy-setting and organizing the sector to apply its capacities to address a range of community needs. People who call themselves cultural planners range from former executives at nonprofit arts organizations or local arts agencies, to community arts activists, to city planners or strategic planners with an interest in the arts. During the Great Recession of 2007–2009, some desperate-for-work architecture firms competed, sometimes successfully, for cultural planning contracts, bringing a built-environment emphasis. The greatest variation between expectation and outcome in the 2017 survey was in finding new financial resources for the arts and cultural work, where 90% rated this an important goal against 46% who reported it as an actual outcome. In 2016, forward-thinking and civically minded leadership in Des Moines launched a project to broaden the impact of the cultural sector in a rapidly growing and diversifying metropolitan area.
