Springfield Cultural Partnership Pop-Up Civic Space

‍Springfield Cultural Partnership plays a vital role in civic organizing in Springfield, MA, by leveraging the arts as a tool for community engagement, cross-sector collaboration, and civic participation. The nonprofit serves all ages and backgrounds, with a special focus on youth and Black and Latinx communities and artists, representative of the city’s cultural, racial, and socio-economic diversity. The Partnership needs an accessible space for community members to create art, connect with one another, and catalyze change. The Community Placemaking Grant awarded to Springfield Cultural Partnership will allow it to transform a vacant storefront with large window facades in downtown Springfield into a free space for artists to gather and participate in civic programming. This project hopes to illustrate how the arts are integral to civic life by fueling dialogue, inspiring action, and shaping its community’s future.

In May 2025, as part of Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces, Springfield Cultural Partnership was selected as one of two nonprofits to receive $60,000 each in direct funding, as well as planning, implementation, and capacity building assistance. For this grant cycle, Project for Public Spaces is partnering with CultureHouse to improve access to dedicated civic spaces where community residents can organize, engage in public dialogue, and work to address local issues. 

Starting in June 2025, Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking team will work with CultureHouse and grantees to organize visioning sessions with their respective communities, before choosing a site for activation, conceptualizing an activation plan, designing, construction, and programmatic implementation take place. Pop-ups are expected to run for three months between November 2025 and May 2026. 

Click here to learn more about Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces.

Check back to see this space transform!