Local Officials Hope Federal Grant Dollars Help
Transform the City Through Arts and Culture
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Transforming and revitalizing Flint through artistic vision and cultural planning is the aim of two recently awarded federal grants that local officials hope will engage residents and attract more people to the community.
Awarded through the National Endowment for the Arts, a $50,000 Our Town grant was awarded in July to the Greater Flint Arts Council in partnership with the City of Flint. One of eighty awarded nationwide this year, the grant will be used to update the community's arts and culture plan and to incorporate arts and culture in the city's master planning process. In addition, the Flint Public Art Project received a separate $250,000 ArtPlace grant in mid-June. After finding out about the Our Town grant opportunity, the Flint Area Reinvestment Office convened a meeting of key organizations and funders in the community to discuss the possibilities for Flint, said Jason Caya, Director of FARO. Along with a couple of other local organizations, FARO also helped support the grant writing process. As part of its master plan, the city now will be able to incorporate arts and culture—strong catalysts for community and economic development in the community, Caya said. Work related to the Our Town grant is expected to kick off this fall when city officials will begin seeking input from residents and others involved in the master plan updating process. Money for the three-year project is coming from a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant that the city received in 2010. “We know we need new ideas and fresh perspectives to address the longstanding problems in Flint,” Mayor Dayne Walling said, “and I believe that artists can help us see those opportunities. The purpose of the Our Town process is to be open minded about new ideas, and about arts and culture in community.” City officials will begin working closely with the Greater Flint Arts Council this fall to develop a work plan for the Our Town grant, Walling said. The Greater Flint Arts Council will manage the grant dollars as well as the contracted services associated with the grant. Greg Fiedler, President and CEO of the Greater Flint Arts Council, said he is excited about the opportunities that Our Town represents for the future of Flint. The city already has made a lot of progress over the past several years in its effort to revitalize the downtown district, Fiedler said. And the arts have played an important role in making that happen through various events like Art Walk, the Parade of Festivals, and other programs and events. “So the city's master plan really wouldn't be complete without considering the activities of the local arts agencies that operate here,” he said. Through the Our Town grant and the master planning process, the community's arts and cultural organizations will have the opportunity to unify around some common goals and objectives, Fiedler said. |
Jennifer Acree, Project Director for the BEST Project, agrees that the Our Town grant will give the local arts community an opportunity to identify and rally around some common goals. The organization—which supplies technical assistance and capacity building support to the community's nonprofit sector—has a long history of supporting arts and culture in the community and also was involved in the Our Town grant application process.
The Our Town grant also will help the community's arts and cultural organizations determine how best to focus their work over the next five to ten years, Acree said. And it will help address important provisions, laws, and ordinances to remove any potential barriers that could get in the way of public art projects. The ArtPlace grant and the Flint Public Art Project also will help engage residents and draw people to the community in new, creative ways, Acree said. “Public art is an outlet for people who are struggling with things that are happening in their immediate environment, and it offers a way to express that,” she said. “I also think there's a community ownership piece that the art helps express.” Stephen Zacks, Director of the Flint Public Art Project (flintpublicartproject.com), said he hopes to help “transform the identity of the city of Flint.” The $250,000 ArtPlace grant will help fund about fifty projects and events, including ten separate events through the end of October. There also will be a public art festival in May 2013 that will be open to local, regional, and international participants. Artists will be invited to submit proposals to transform a former factory site into a temporary public space as a way to showcase a potential future use for the property. The Flint Public Art Project was one of three organizations that received ArtPlace grants in Southeast Michigan, and was among forty-seven creative placemaking initiatives nationwide that received ArtPlace funding this year. ArtPlace is a group of eleven national and regional foundations, eight federal agencies, and several financial institutions that is working to help transform communities through investment in the arts. Walling said he is excited about the opportunities that the Our Town grant and the ArtPlace grant represent for the community. “Public art can bring to life the ideas and visions for how our neighborhoods and vacant properties can be reused,” he said. It is significant that both federal grants were awarded to Flint from two highly competitive programs—a testament to the fact that others also see the community's potential, Walling said. “Our charge now is to capitalize on them.” |
503 S. Saginaw Street, Suite 1200 --- Flint, MI 48502-1851
Phone (810) 962-8065 --- Fax (810) 766-1748 --- Email info@reinvestflint.org
Phone (810) 962-8065 --- Fax (810) 766-1748 --- Email info@reinvestflint.org
