The Placemaking Round-Up
A biweekly newsletter with public space news, resources, and opportunities.
The Biweekly Bazaar
A curated dispatch on all things public markets plus the latest announcements from the Market Cities Program.
A biweekly newsletter with public space news, resources, and opportunities.
A curated dispatch on all things public markets plus the latest announcements from the Market Cities Program.
NEWS RELEASE
June 27, 2025 – Brooklyn, NY and Springfield, MA. Project for Public Spaces, in partnership with CultureHouse, announced today that it has selected two nonprofits to receive Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces to create indoor pop-up spaces that promote civic and social life in both urban and rural BIPOC and/or low-income communities. The two nonprofits are GrowHouse Design + Development Group to create a home base in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY and Springfield Cultural Partnership to transform a vacant storefront in Springfield, MA. Thanks to support from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, each organization will receive $60,000 in direct funding, as well as planning, implementation, and capacity building assistance from Project for Public Spaces and CultureHouse.
Many BIPOC and low-income communities across the United States lack access to dedicated civic spaces where community residents can come together to organize, engage in dialogue, and address local challenges. This deficiency in civic infrastructure hampers efforts to cultivate community leadership, strengthen social cohesion, confront systemic inequalities, and hold government officials accountable. To help bridge this critical gap, Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces will assist the two organizations over an 18-month period to identify locations for their pop-up indoor spaces that suit their goals, implement three months of programming, and learn to manage these spaces as well as promote long-term civic engagement.
“A really successful civic space is not only a place where the community can feel welcome. It’s where they can connect with each other, safely organize, and tackle local problems together. We are looking forward to building these vibrant pop-up civic spaces with grantees and their communities so they can strengthen their social ties to one another and advocate for change.”
—Elena Madison, Project for Public Spaces’ Director of Projects
“The power of pop-ups is that they meet people where they are—and show what’s possible when communities lead the way to create livable, joyful, and connected neighborhoods,” Afsar Yassai, CultureHouse’s Community Manager. “We’re excited to support these grantees through the pop-up process as they turn underused spaces into centers for civic connection ensuring that community ownership is prioritized as neighborhoods evolve.”
Here is more about each project:
GrowHouse Design + Development Group has served historically Black Brooklyn since 2017, working with Black youth, low- to moderate-income residents, and cultural leaders in Bed Stuy, Crown Heights, and Flatbush to reclaim and steward community assets amid ongoing gentrification and displacement. Through initiatives like public gatherings in shared spaces, GrowHouse fosters connection and cultural preservation. Through Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces, GrowHouse will receive funding and assistance to create a civic space in Bed Stuy as a home base for programming. This new hub will support civic engagement, intergenerational learning, land stewardship, and grassroots organizing to resist cultural erasure and strengthen community resilience.
“I’m beyond thrilled to partner with Project for Public Spaces to create a civic sanctuary for Black people and our allies amidst the changing demographics of Bed Stuy, and Brooklyn overall,” said Shanna Sabio, GrowHouse’s Co-Founder and Co-Director. “The current narratives around population loss cause many community members to carry deep, often unspoken experiences of land loss, grief, and yearning for safety. In the right space, we remember who we are, see our shared humanity more clearly, and chart a path forward where we all win. We need this now more than ever.”
The Springfield Cultural Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to civic engagement through the arts, serves the culturally diverse community of Springfield, MA, particularly Black and Latinx residents, by fostering connection, creativity, and action. With support from this Community Placemaking Grant, the Partnership will transform a vacant space that is street-level and faces Main Street at the Tower Square business center in Springfield, into a free, accessible space for artists and residents to gather, create art, and engage in civic programming. The project will demonstrate how the arts can drive public dialogue, community organizing, and local change.
"When we make space for creativity, community, and connection, we pave the way for possibility, joy, and the kind of inspiration that emerges when artists and neighbors come together to co-create a vibrant, connected future,” said Karen Finn, Springfield Cultural Partnership’s Executive Director. “By centering artists in civic life, we’re fostering inclusive, community-driven environments where residents can connect, lead, and take part in organizing around the issues that matter most. Equitable access to creative, cultural, and civic space is not just a benefit, it’s a powerful tool for transformation. The Springfield Cultural Partnership is honored to walk alongside the artists, youth, and community leaders shaping this vision with their care and brilliance.”
Starting in June, the Project for Public Spaces and CultureHouse teams will work with grantees to organize visioning sessions with their respective communities, before choosing a site for activation, conceptualizing an activation plan, designing, construction, and implementing programming. Pop-ups are expected to run for three months sometime between November 2025 and May 2026.
Additionally, Project for Public Spaces continually seeks additional partners and funders to expand its Community Placemaking Grants to bring transformative civic spaces to more communities. To learn more about partnership opportunities with Project for Public Spaces, click here. To see more about past and current community placemaking projects, click here.
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About Project for Public Spaces
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, Project for Public Spaces has spent the past five decades bringing some of the most successful public places in the world to life. Today, it remains committed to putting community participation at the center of everything it does, from placemaking partnerships with corporations and foundations to workshops, trainings, conferences, on-the-ground design and planning services, and more. The interdisciplinary team has helped over 3,500 communities in 52 countries create inclusive places that change society for the better. Project for Public Spaces is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Learn more at PPS.org.
About CultureHouse
CultureHouse is an urban design nonprofit that uses creative placemaking and community engagement to address global challenges at the local scale. It transforms underutilized places into vibrant community pop-ups, works with partners to implement tactical urbanist interventions, and runs people-first community engagement studies. The organization works with people to make communities happier and healthier, and more vibrant, sustainable, and equitable. As an organization dedicated to lasting change, they empower others to create public spaces in their own communities. Learn more at culturehouse.cc.
CONTACT
Anne Tan-Detchkov
Director of Communications & Marketing
Project for Public Spaces
atan@pps.org
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