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Middlebury, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: To make Middlebury's downtown more vibrant, Find Your Wings launched a public art initiative to increase community engagement. The organization engaged local artists who worked with residents to create eight sets of wings. To include as many community members as possible, they distributed art kits to homebound residents, schools and senior living facilities, who sent their creations back to the artists. Each set of wings is unique -- one consists of painted plywood feathers, another parrots a monarch butterfly's wings, while a third turns random household objects into musical instruments for passersby to strike. Installed throughout downtown, the installations invite pedestrians to pose and snap selfies. Project organizers say the placemaking effort is meant to foster a sense of belonging and boost the local economy.
Rock Springs, WY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: Part of a multiyear effort to bring public art to downtown Rock Springs, this project added a new mural paying tribute to the area's mining and railroad history. The artwork then spurred redevelopment of an adjacent vacant lot, which is now a pocket park with seating, shade structures and landscaping. To help visitors learn about local history, Rock Springs Renewal Fund added interpretive signage for the mural, and for others installed nearby. Ultimately, the project's success inspired the City of Rock Springs to commission three additional murals for the pocket park. Today, the City hosts mural walks through the central business district.
Wilmington, DE
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: During the planning stages for a mural at the 4th Rodney Park, Pastor Lottie Lee-Davis -- a community leader and the project's main partner -- was killed in a car crash. The original goal for the mural was to depict positive imagery for neighborhood children to look up to as they played. After Pastor Lottie's death, organizers used the mural to honor the woman who was a beloved leader and advocate for the 4th Street corridor's residents. Local artists Crae Washington and JaQuanne LeRoy Daniels made Lee-Davis the central figure in the mural, surrounding her with bold colors and words representing career aspirations of the area's children and teens. Since the mural's installation other improvements have come to the park, including new greenery and a bike repair station. Cornerstone West has also worked to implement public art and beautification projects at other nearby parks, including Judy Johnson Park, Cool Spring Park and Tilton Park.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Monroeville, AL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Organizers with Monroeville's Main Street initiative hoped to draw residents to the city's historic downtown district. To give people a reason to gather outdoors, they added wheelchair-accessible game tables and seating in several locations, including the grounds of the Monroe County Museum, two parks, the local YMCA and a senior center. The organization also purchased checkers and chess game pieces, which are available to visitors to check out. Part of a larger campaign to decrease littering and encourage community pride, organizers also installed trash cans downtown. And to increase facetime with constituents, the newly elected mayor also called on residents to challenge him to a game of chess or checkers. Organizers say the placemaking project is meant to unite the community by giving people a place to connect with each other.
Monroeville, AL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project created Story Trail panels to share books along a path leading from the downtown square to Monroe County Public Library.
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