Brattleboro, VT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Residents considered the Brattleboro Transportation Center's parking garage to be ugly and uninviting. To change this, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance worked with local artists to create signage for each level of the garage. The new signs feature a different animal for each level, with each creature -- the osprey, river otter, American shad and sea lamprey -- significant to the Abenaki indigenous community and the Connecticut River ecosystem. Additionally, the Alliance held a pop-up event in the garage's elevator to display the prototype for a new Ask the River kinetic sculpture. Visitors to the garage could view the sculpture and give their feedback. Today, the full-size version of the artwork decorates the facade of the Transportation Center building.

Palmer Township, PA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: The project will turn an open space adjacent to the public library into a community gathering area with benches, a sculpture and a garden paying tribute to Native American culture.

Nowata, OK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: This project enhanced an alleyway, previously adorned with several murals, by installing ADA-compliant benches, tables, lighting, planters and a small stage.