Inspired by nature: Creative placemaking master plan
Town of Superior, Colorado
The Town of Superior, Colorado turned to Happy Cities to lead the creation of a strategy to unify the community through investment in art, public space design and programming. Inspired by Nature: Superior’s Creative Placemaking Master Plan provides arts and culture-based paths to elevate the town’s identity while celebrating its existing values and assets.
Our approach to creating a made-in-Superior Creative Placemaking Master Plan focused on deep community engagement that was inclusive, compelling and fun. We leveraged a series of public events, stakeholder digital engagement, targeted interviews, walking tours and a wellbeing workshop for key actors in the process.
Once equipped with foundational knowledge and public input, we applied the Happy Cities toolkit to harness the power of arts, culture and public space to boost happiness and wellbeing in Superior. Inspired by Nature: Superior’s Creative Placemaking Master Plan embodies months of compelling conversations, widespread public engagement, detailed research, on-site analysis, creative brainstorming and close collaboration. It serves as a context-sensitive, evidence-based five-year guide to elevating Superior’s identity, supporting positive change, celebrating cherished assets and more.
Our research- and engagement-driven process resulted in a toolkit featuring creative placemaking ideas including events and programming, a walkable art path, a strategy for implementing public art across the town, and various ways to elevate the town’s creative capital.
“Thank you for the work you and your team has done. It’s been remarkable, the way you’ve engaged the community,…town staff, the committee itself, really just fantastic.”
– Superior Trustee Kevin Ryan
Superior open house
Superior open house
Hands-on engagement
Engagement at local festival
Project art
Superior spectacular event
