Residencies, Roles, and Relationality: Implementing Relational Planning Approaches via Artist in Residency Programs

Problem, research strategy, and findings In this study I explored whether collaborations between artists and transportation agencies can offer public agencies a means to humanize planning bureaucracies. I examined two cases in which transportation agencies embedded artists into their departments to introduce innovative approaches to complex social problems. Drawing on 16 in-depth interviews with the program planners, artists, and administrators, as well as primary program documents, I found that embedded artists fostered a relational approach to planning through devising projects that centered people, solicited embodied knowledge, and forged new relationships. I also found this relational approach sat in tension with agencies’ need for legible documentation, projects were challenging to transfer beyond the residency, and planners struggled with the vulnerability it demanded. I argue these results illustrate a productive tension between human-centric approaches and agencies’ commitment to institutional accountability.Takeaway for practice Artist residencies can provide agencies new avenues to foster relational approaches to planning; however, to do so, agencies must prepare for the tensions that these approaches introduce. I posit that agencies should explore expanding the professional composition of planning agencies to include artists with the dedicated purpose of facilitating relational planning to increase trust within agencies.