Erik Takeshita

October 4, 2021

Erik Takeshita was a Senior Fellow to ArtPlace America, supported by the Bush Foundation, from 2019-2020. His thought partnership came from more than twenty years of culturally rooted community development experience. Erik joined the Bush Foundation as Community Creativity Portfolio Director in August of 2015. From 2008 to 2015 he led a breadth of work at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), including launching a nationwide Creative Placemaking initiative. He was previously a senior policy aide to the mayor of Minneapolis, where he advised the framework for a 10-year Plan for Arts and Culture, and led an art center in Honolulu, Hawai’i, helping to revitalize the city’s downtown. He serves on numerous boards and commissions, and is nationally recognized for managing high-impact initiatives that express a community’s unique culture through the arts. Erik holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School—an opportunity he pursued through a 2005 Bush Leadership Fellowship

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Public Art for Racial Justice Education

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Public Art for Racial education is an organization that believes that public art has an important role in racial justice awareness. They commission and engage artists to create public art in and for each of their communities. Through public art and accompanying public programs, PARJE believes we can better understand our true history, and it can help us to appreciate the rich diversity of our human family and challenge us to be engaged in contemporary racial justice issues.

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La CASA (Center for Arts, Self-determination, and Activism) is a transformative $33 million initiative by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) in Boston's South End.This four-story facility will consolidate IBA's diverse programs—including affordable housing, education, financial empowerment, and arts—under one roof, enhancing access and community outreach.Supported by a $20 million New Markets Tax Credits allocation and $12 million in tax-exempt bond financing led by TD Bank, La CASA exemplifies a strategic partnership aimed at fostering socio-economic mobility.Upon its anticipated completion in 2026, La CASA is projected to serve over 2,500 individuals annually through resident services and youth development, with an additional 5,000 benefiting from its arts programming, reinforcing its role as a beacon for Latino culture and community empowerment in Boston.

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Art Against Racism

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Art Against Racism is a virtual arts exhibition which aims to lift up the tremendous array of creative works made in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In doing so, project organizers hope that the exhibition will serve as an archive of the national artistic response to this historic moment.
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