Denmead has spent his career facilitating and researching highly collaborative nationally recognized community-based arts programs for youth, and his current research examines youth and the political economy of creative cities. He is the founder of New Urban Arts, a youth arts collective for high school students and artists based in Providence, Rhode Island. His publications can be read in Visual Arts Research, Art Education, Journal of Arts and Communities, International Journal of Education through Art, and the International Journal of Education and the Arts.