Place as creative partner: placemaking with a university arboretum

ABSTRACT

Conventional educational research often sidelines the role of physical environments, viewing them merely as settings. This study challenges this notion by exploring the symbiotic relationship between a university theater group and an arboretum. Through empirical ethnographic analysis, we investigate creativity and placemaking, emphasizing collaborative dynamics between human and non-human elements. Our findings reveal how imaginative engagement and literacy practices forge new connections with the environment, enriching sensemaking. This highlights the potential of integrating literary practices with environmental interaction. By reconceptualizing place as both a creative partner and a learning facilitator, we advance placemaking theories and refine methodologies for research in place-based and more-than-human learning.

Acknowledgments

This work is dedicated to and in loving memory of Kate Mendeloff, founding director of Shakespeare in the Arb.

Disclosure statement

The study was conducted and data collected without any outside funding sources and no direct financial benefit was gained by the researchers or university at which the data collection was based.