Across the country, “Creative Placekeeping” has come into usage as a counter to Placemaking. Placekeeping as the active care and maintenance of a place and its social fabric by the people who live and work there. It is not just preserving buildings but keeping the cultural memories associated with a locale alive, while supporting the ability of local people to maintain their way of life as they choose.
In November, 2015, the USDAC called on all artists and creative activists to use our gifts for compassion and justice, sharing images, performances, experiences, writings, and other works of art that raise awareness, build connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire us to welcome those who are forced from homes that are no longer safe.
The statement was adopted at a time that more than four million Syrians have been driven from their homes, becoming refugees, while many U.S. governors issued statements rejecting Syrian refugees within their borders and polls showed that many Americans opposed accepting them.
