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Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging (2018) Print
2018 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public art installations
└ Public art installations
To bring vibrancy to Pittsburgh's Beechview neighborhood, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging engaged residents in a public art project. The result was Color Beechview. With the guidance of a local artist, community members wore LED lights on bodies, which they used to create light paintings through long-exposure technology. The resulting digital art depicts the silhouettes of Beechview residents, including children and older adults. SWPPA then displayed the art throughout the neighborhood, including on the sidewalk pavement in front of the senior center, on the side of light rail cars and along neighborhood fences. Organizers say key goals of the project were combatting social isolation and creating intergenerational connections. We encouraged people who didn't know one another to reach across generations and across ethnicities to connect, Lively Pittsburgh's Ted Cmarada said.
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Wilmington, DE
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: The project will employ and train 10 residents to conserve and maintain 30 works of public art, most of which are currently in disrepair. In the process, the program will promote interest in the arts in the local community.
Baltimore, MD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: This project will create a large-scale mosaic mural. The project will involve community members in workshops, fostering artistic engagement and beautification in Baltimore's Park Heights neighborhood.
Bismarck, ND
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: This project will host community paint parties, where residents will create a mural inside a pedestrian tunnel along the local trail system. The tunnel is currently uninviting and feels unsafe, in part due to vandalism.
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Pittsburgh, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: This project will train people how to advocate for their neighborhoods to receive traffic calming improvements to protect cyclists and pedestrians, as well as people with disabilities and older adults.
Pittsburgh, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Micromobility enhancements/management
Description: This project will provide seven accessible bikes specifically suited for older residents and people with disabilities, which will be available for rent in Pittsburgh's Southside neighborhood along the Great Allegheny Passage.
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