About me
Ryan Smolar (he/him) is the initiator of the PlacemakingUS network and the place management leader of a national historic district where he helps on local arts, culture, health and small business projects. Through his national experience and local involvement, Smolar brings a robust toolkit of solutions and a rolodex of national placemaking examples to assist community-driven placemaking efforts. Smolar is most passionate about placemaking with health and environmental awareness through local food and he is involved in many fronts with work that repairs the United States' legacy of exclusion for marginalized and underserved communities. His work has been funded by the Center for Disease Control, National Endowment for the Arts, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the California Endowment and many clients including municipalities, place management organizations and place-based institutions like arts commissions, libraries, business councils, schools and colleges and neighborhood and visitor associations. Smolar's highest goal is to share information and connect the placemaker in all of us to make good on his favorite Jane Jacobs quote: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
