The Department of Landscape Architecture and the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK) developed and launched “SPARK! Extension Creative Placemaking Toolkit” which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the project titled “To Support Integration of Creative Placemaking into Cooperative Extension Programming: a Knowledge Building Project.” The toolkit aims to disseminate successful creative placemaking program activities to enhance the Cooperative Extension Service's capacity to support community investments that strengthen livability through creative placemaking. Jayoung Koo, associate extension professor, and Melissa Bond, arts extension program leader, have led the UK project team while partnering with the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) to expand Kentucky's extension fine arts and placemaking programming practices across the country. Experiences and work conducted by arts extension agents as well as CEDIK’s research director, program managers, and staff are presented in the toolkit. 

The final toolkit was presented during a session at the State Extension conference in December 2021. The toolkit includes 13 activities based on evidence from Kentucky Arts Extension programming, UK Landscape Architecture community design projects, and CEDIK’s community engagement activities. The toolkit is intended for Cooperative Extension personnel nationwide to utilize whether through direct programming or collaborations with allied partners. The final toolkit was distributed to all 120 Kentucky counties and NACDEP members in March 2021. An electronic version of the toolkit is available at CEDIK ( http://cedik.ca.uky.edu/spark) and the National Registry of Cooperative Extension Programs & Assets through eXtension.org (https://registry.extension.org/tables/210738947796171) websites.