Does this pony in a cow costume make you smile? View more photos.

ANN ARBOR, Michigan – Building great communities is more about putting smiles on people’s faces than it is fixing potholes. Yes, pothole repair is important, but seeing a child laugh at a pony dressed up as a cow in a downtown parade or eating a formal dinner on a bridge with friends can be ever-lasting memories.

This was the message by placemaking expert Peter Kageyama in an education session on citizen engagement Friday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the Michigan Municipal League headquarters in Ann Arbor. Kageyama spoke to about 20 southeast Michigan community leaders as part of a series of training weeks being offered by the League. He explained that the key to creating vibrant communities is finding what people love about their city and town and then building upon that.

He gave examples of a farming community that has a parade of cows and a river-community that turns a pedestrian foot-bridge into an elegant dinner to raise funds for the local chamber of commerce. The training week concept is a new service the League is providing to bring our vast array of education offerings to various parts of the state. League members and non-members can register for a whole week of trainings or pick and choose the topics that interest them. The first training week was this week and the next training week is Feb. 14-15 in Frankenmuth. Go here for details.

All the education sessions are excellent, but hearing Kageyama, of Florida, is a special treat in such a small setting. He often speaks around the world to large groups. If you missed him Friday he’s speaking again during training weeks in Kalamazoo, March 13-15; Lansing, April 24-26; and Mackinaw City, May 15-17; and Muskegon, June 5-7. Other topics planned at the training week sessions include the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) parliamentary procedure, municipal finance, service consolidation and shared services, and engaging your citizen change makers. You can register for the sesions here.

View additional photos from the training week in Ann Arbor here and here.

Matt Bach is the League's director of media relations. He can be reached at (734) 669-6317 and mbach@mml.org.

Peter Kageyama talks about citizen engagement at a Michigan Municipal League training session Friday, January 18, 2013. View more photos.

Registration is now open for a one-day conference which will explore issues surrounding older adults and what communities can do to prepare for this growing population.

The conference, a collaboration with AARP-Michigan, the Leagueand other organizations will be held on Feburary 28th from 9 am to 4 pm at Palmer Commons, located on the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus.

Speakers already confirmed for the event include Nancy LeaMond, AARP Executive Vice President who will discuss the partnership between AARP and the World Health Organization in promoting the Age Friendly Communities program in Michigan. Other speakers will include renowned walkability expert Dan Burden and Laurie Volk, who will discuss market research related to why it is in a community's best interest to retain and attract boomers and older adults.

Also, Rodney Harrell, AARP Senior Strategic Policy Advisor will address how housing and transportation can support active living at any age.  Other speakers are still being added.

The conference reflects the need, as noted through the League's Center for 21st Century Communities, to create communities for the next 50 years that are geared both toward young adults and and an ever growing population of empty nest boomers who both want the same things in the places they live. 

Registration is now available. For further information contact Karen Kafantaris at AARP, kkafantaris@aarp.org

Arnold Weinfeld is Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Michigan Muncipal League. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 or by e-mail. 

The Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs has announced over $5.6 million in grants to 312 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, educational institutions and municipalities in 47 counties throughout the state. The Council received 600 applications requesting over $8.2 million in funding.

The funds come from a state appropriation of $6.15 million recommended by Governor Snyder and approved by the legislature. The funding represented the first increase in in nearly 4 years. A complete listing of the grant awardees can be found here. 

Arts and culture are essential components of thriving, vibrant communities as recognized by the MML Center for 21st Century Communities. A healthy creative sector attracts and retains residents and businesses, and produces economic benefits including jobs, a stronger tax base, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, and tourism.

Arnold Weinfeld is Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 or by e-mail.

Many policymakers and arts advocacy groups have argued that the creative sector impacts the economy. One of the Center for 21st Century Communities' "8 Assets" that make communities better places to live is Cultural Economic Development, which hinges on the argument that artists, creative industries and professionals, museums, festivals, and other facets of the creative sector make communities attractive and generate a positive impact on the economy.

However, in my time interviewing artists and arts organizations as a journalist, one of the biggest needs they frequently identify is the need for more hard data and better sources of proof.

It is not like there is no such data out there. The Bureau of Economic Analysis previously reported some estimates every five years with the benchmark Input-Output Table. Some agencies in communities that identify as "art towns,' like Ann Arbor, have some data on art's impact on the local level (Ann Arbor Arts Alliance's master plan for Washtenaw County is a great example).

Without more macroeconomic data, however, the degree to which the creative sector impacts the economy and other aspects of life has always been a bit hazy and open-ended.

The creative sector might be pleased to hear, for the first time ever, the BEA and the National Endowment for the Arts are partnering to "identify and calculate the arts and culture sector's contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," according to a press release sent after the NEA's announcement last week at a public session of the National Council on the Arts.

"Before this, you could look at pieces of the puzzle, now you can see the whole puzzle," says NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "Our partnership with BEA gives the arts the same level of precise, national data on GDP as other sectors like manufacturing, construction, and services. I think economists and policymakers will take notice," he was quoted in the press release.

The partnership will develop an "Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account," which will conduct an impact analysis of "how the arts affect various domains of human life, such as economy, human development, science and technology, and education," reads the press release. It promises to produce data on things like how many people work at museums, how much revenue is generated by architectural firms, how musicians are compensated, and other measures of the creative sector. Preliminary estimates will be release in 2013. In 2014, the BEA will publish findings in The Survey of Current Business.