ABSTRACT
This chapter relects on a few of its earlier practitioners—it is only slowly finding acceptance within the formal city planning profession. Creative environments are less intimidating, less judgmental, and often provoke a good degree of simple social enjoyment and a sense of satisfaction while addressing serious and complicated issues. Artists can bring skills to help those on the margins amplify their voice, especially important for individuals less skilled at verbal debate or reluctant to stand up in a community meeting. Artmaking involves repurposing raw materials to create value, beauty, and new meaning as well as to identify unique and different purposes for those materials. Conducting public engagement using routine settings and formats along with cut-and-paste solutions is sure to fulfill the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein. Creative and culturally attuned methods employed or led by artists can offer needed dimensions in city planning, listening to and appreciating the nuances in diverse cultural traditions of residents.
