Image credit: Susan Moran

Cultural Planning: Where Creative Vision Meets Strategy

We can help your community manage and strengthen the cultural assets that shape its sense of place, foster creativity and expand economic opportunity

We help cities, counties, and communities plan culturally to:

Identify, inventory, preserve and leverage existing cultural assets
Attract and retain artists, residents and businesses
Cultivate and amplify creative communities
Support and foster cultural equity
Activate cultural districts, waterfronts, or historic landmarks or neighborhoods
Attract cultural tourists
Improve quality of life for residents

Impact of Cultural Planning on Communities

In our work, culture is the fourth pillar of sustainability - equal to the economic, environmental and social realms of a city’s vitality. We assist municipalities, foundations, developers and public-private partnerships. Results are realized across more than one organization, facility or building. Beneficiaries are community stakeholders, residents and tourists. Cultural initiatives can have an impact on a broad scope of citywide objectives, including:

Cultural Tourism
Economic Development
Neighborhood Revitalization & Community Development
Capacity Building
Cultural Heritage & Historic Preservation
Arts Education
Early and Lifelong Learning
Smart Growth
Environmental Sustainability
Public Health & Safety

OUR CULTURAL PLANNING SERVICES

Public Engagement
Cultural Asset Inventory
Creative Placemaking
Making the Case for Cultural Initiatives
Public Art
City Branding
Arts & Cultural Policy
Waterfront/Downtown Activation
Partnerships/Alliances
Capital Funding Strategy and Development
Cultural Tourism and Marketing
Cultural and Historic Districts
Organizational Sustainability
Economic Development and Other Broad Civic Initiatives

“The Arts Council consulted with Lord Cultural Resources whose mission statement is ‘making the world a better place through culture’, and that starts from within their team. We’ve had the honor of working with a powerhouse team from Lord. They’ve impressed city officials, community leaders, and Rockford Region residents with their knowledge of Rockford’s history and their Rockford current events proficiency — I hear about regional wins from the Lord team before they hit our media’s websites.”

Mary McNamara Bernsten, Executive Director, Rockford Area Arts Council
“The activation of the community, the conversations that come out of the plan, has been one of the best results of the [Chicago] Cultural Plan.”

Eileen LaCario, Vice President, Broadway in Chicago
“The services of Lord Cultural Resources team has been just exemplary from start to finish: the conception of the project goals; the clear communication to both Board and Management of the planning process and their respective roles; the intelligence the team brought to the benchmarking and research work; the facilitation of the board and staff retreat dates; and the final drafting of the plan.”

Janice Price, CEO, Luminato, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“After more than one year of collaboration, we congratulate ourselves on the choice of Lord for the complex mission which supposes strong capacities of adaptation, dialogue and synthesis, requiring good knowledge, especially at the international level, of the cultural field and its frontiers.”

Christophe Dalstein, Director of Europa City, Immochan, Gonesse, Greater Paris, France
“I was surprised at how effectively you could listen to the various constituencies to learn their views, and then influence the Committee with facts, realities and comparative data from other communities attempting to incorporate cultural features into their mixed use developments.”

Maureen O. Hurley, Chair, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation Cultural Steering Committee, Buffalo, New York

Cultural Plans Impact

In Kingston, NY, our Arts and Culture Master Plan was cited as one of the inspirations for the nonprofit Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) to move to Kingston from its original location, purchasing a 40,000 square foot former cigar factory to restore it as a destination arts center. The project attracted support from New York’s governor, the Ulster County Executive, and a $1.5 million Restore NY grant from Empire State Development (ESD) as well as an ESD Capital Grant of $350,000 recommended by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council.

In Dallas, residents intuitively knew that resources and supports for arts have not always been shared broadly across the city and artistic domains. Increasing the economic sustainability of the entire sector and improving communications to audiences near and far will help us ensure that we are creating more opportunities for artists and cultural production across Dallas.

In Houston, we helped get cultural district designation for the Third Ward in Houston. One of the original three areas that Black residents were permitted to live in during segregation, the Third Ward has grown to become the city’s epicenter of Black creativity and culture. Our team led a planning process that included community and stakeholder engagement, cultural asset inventory, a cultural plan, marketing plan, and production of a video clip to support the application process. With its official designation as a Texas Commission on the Arts Cultural District, it is now eligible for state funding.

The Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan is creating a roadmap for a path forward to ensure a vibrant, equitable, and inclusive arts and culture landscape for all in the area. Over 3,240 have been engaged in the planning process, built around eight priorities, all in service of a vision where everyone in the community is valued and supported through arts and culture. As a result of the plan, in June 2024 Charlotte City Council approved a historic $11 million to fund arts and culture. In addition, Mecklenburg County approved $10 million, for a total of $21 million.