Tennessee Creative Placemaking’s National Reach
From Shannon Ford, Director of Community Arts Development—
Last month, I had the honor of participating in a roundtable discussion about creative placemaking at the Capital Ideas conference hosted by Smart Growth America’s Transportation for America program, an alliance of community leaders and policy makers dedicated to public investment in smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions. At this conference, California Arts Council Program Officer Shelly Gilbride, Smart Growth America Director of Arts and Culture Ben Stone, and I discussed how the arts and artists can be incorporated into transportation planning. Much of the discussion focused not only on how effectively the arts drive authentic community revitalization efforts, but also how instrumental artists can be in uniting and catalyzing community actors. (Visit Transportation for America’s The Scenic Route for an excellent guide to incorporating creative placemaking into transportation projects.)
In preparing for the discussion, I was fortunate to have all final evaluations from the Commission’s funded fiscal year 2016 Creative Placemaking projects as source material. While transportation planning was not the main purpose of these projects, many did employ aspects of asset mapping, destination development and wayfinding, in addition to promoting walkable and bikeable environments. Overwhelmingly, the projects were the products of grass-roots civic engagement, empowering a wide variety of stakeholders to participate in their communities’ revitalization efforts. Overall, the Commission’s investment of $75,000 in 12 projects across the state benefitted over 38,000 individuals, including 9,344 youth and 173 artists. Also impressive was the dollars and hours contributed to these projects, with awardees matching their grants with $79,490 in cash and volunteer time valued at $82,069.
Applications for fiscal 2018 are now open. Click here to read the guidelines and apply. The deadline to apply is January 23, 2017.
-
- Urban Housing Solutions: “To Love a City” mural. Neighborhood school children collaborated with community members and TSU art students. Together they designed and created of a 400’ by 5’ mural to build community trust and empower members to improve their community.
-
- Glass House Collective: A pop-up neighborhood installation as part of the funded project—designed to ignite the spark that will bring about positive community change and make Glass Street safer, cleaner and more inviting.
-
- Macon County Arts Council: Winding Stairs park entrance. As the public park develops around this natural landmark, art as also been integrated into the park design through a logo, signage, paintings, a sculpture and a mural.
-
- Blues City Cultural Center, Inc.: “This is Orange Mound” was a six-week summer intergenerational arts project designed to bring elders and youth together for common purpose and understanding. The program mapped the neighborhood’s cultural, economic, and historical assets interactively through dialog and dramatic interpretations of community events.
-
- East Tennessee Quality Growth, Inc.: Chilhowee Park mural. The project reconnects the community to the public space and establishes the park as an asset that will drive private investment.
-
- MainStreet Dayton: Front Page News production of the Scopes Trial. The project is part of an ongoing effort to repurpose the Rhea County Courthouse as an Arts and History Center. Technical support and equipment was provided to expand the The Scopes Festival’s programming and the production.
-
- Playback Memphis: Two performers and an officer who where part of “Performing the Peace.” The project expanded the program connecting ex-offenders and Memphis police officers.
-
- Smith County Chamber of Commerce: Carthage Junction Depot remodel project. The structure is being transformed into a multipurpose space that will include a place for local artists to display their work.
-
- Town of Decatur: Downtown Summer Nights summer concert series. Funding helped leverage support from local business owners.
-
- City of Dresden: Community-driven mural painted by young artists to enhance the Dresden City Park. The project also featured local artists at the farmers market to enhance the quality of community life and build support for local art.
-
- Campbell County Historical Society: Cast and crew from “Dispatch” series. The historic former LaFollette post office facility is being repurposed as an arts and culture center, exhibit space and performance venue.
