People Behind the Plans: Julie Burros

Julie Burros sees arts and culture not only as an end in itself
but also as a way planners can solve intractable problems.
Throughout her career, she's helped governments leverage
experimental, artist-designed projects: there was taiko drumming
with seniors through a dangerous Boston intersection and
outfitting a City of Boston FleetHub vehicle with comments from a
public meeting.


“Artists can really think of things that aren’t in the typical
planner’s toolbox and help push planners to be more innovative
...”
—Julie Burros, principal cultural planner, Metris Arts Consulting


The principal cultural planner at Metris Arts Consulting speaks
with People Behind the Plans host Courtney Kashima, AICP, about
all things cultural planning, and they use Julie's "Cultural
Planning Manifesto" as a jumping-off point for their
conversation. She covers the breadth of what goes into a cultural
plan, including arts education, support for individual artists,
and health of the economy and job creation. The document
discusses the physical look and character of a city, of course,
but it also addresses how to make art part of the infrastructure
in the public realm, as well as how to incorporate arts and
culture in affordable housing, climate change, transportation,
and other areas. She discusses her experiences working in
Chicago, Boston, and Easton, Pennsylvania, with her stints in
Chicago and Boston seeing her create and implement those cities'
cultural plans. Julie and Courtney delve deeper into the idea of
culture as infrastructure — in other words, a basic human need.
She argues that cultural planning is a way to investigate issues
of deep, systemic inequities and give people hope.