This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. From Sandy Duncan to Serena Williams, this engaging speaker helps us examine where and how we identify artists in our communities and how we can foster community development that drives our creativity as well as our local economies.

Jamie Bennett is Executive Director of ArtPlace America, the first major public-private partnership to position art and culture as the core components of community planning and development, a practice called “creative place making.” ArtPlace cultivates programs that engage the arts in an effort to shape the social, physical, and economic future of given communities. To date, they have invested $56.8 million through 189 grants in communities of all sizes across the United States. Prior to ArtPlace, Jamie was Chief of Staff and Director of Public Affairs at the National Endowment for the Arts, Chief of Staff at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs during Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, and has held leadership positions at the Agnes Gund Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, Art21, HERE Arts Center, Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, and Studio in a School