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Blacksburg, VA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: To beautify a busy corridor in Blacksburg, the project installed a mural paying tribute to the area's natural environment and history. Volunteers worked to install the artwork -- which depicts a flurry of butterflies -- along a busy pedestrian streetscape.
Chelsea, MA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: With the addition of public art, a block of Division Street became a welcoming, safe passageway through downtown Chelsea for pedestrians and cyclists. Community members created 25 pieces of art to adorn the street. Artists painted three full-scale murals, including one created alongside students from a local school, as well as several mini murals. Local older adults also installed art panels. To improve mobility, the City added new sidewalks and repaved the roadway. This project spurred local artists and creatives to form a network and increased support for public art among local property owners. Project organizers say its success represents an important first step to link the heart of downtown with Chelsea's waterfront.
Hendersonville, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: Herdersonville has two discrete downtown districts and recently created a safe pedestrian pathway to connect them. Friends of Downtown Hendersonville's initiative beautified the path and dubbed it the Downtown Art Route. First, the organization held an art contest. Then volunteers painted three winning designs onto the path's pavement. The Hendo Bee Line mural depicts pollinator flowers, while another mural features five hands spelling the word Hendo in American Sign Language. A third stretch of sidewalk showcases artwork depicting bears in a mountain landscape. Since the project completed, organizers are looking for locations to install more public art in the future.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Lancaster, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public safety interventions
Description: The Clean, Green and Safe project will make it safer for older residents to walk to the Marin Senior Center by adding shade trees, plants, benches, trash receptacles and public safety cameras along the route and outside the center.
Quarryville, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: The Borough of Quarryville set out to beautify a blank wall at a public park. To prepare the wall, Borough staff power washed it and scrubbed it down. A local business donated painting supplies. Then a local artist -- helped by volunteers from the community -- painted the mural, which depicts children interacting with nature. The mural's artist intended the artwork to act as a visual scavenger hunt, with a variety of animals, insects, birds and reptiles hidden in its imagery. The mural's success sparked other works of public art throughout town, including installations along the local rail trail.
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