Placemaking Grant Applications Open Jan. 19
Have you heard about the City of Charlotte’s Placemaking Grant program? This program is a community-building initiative that supports quick-wins and transformative projects throughout the city to create and enhance community vibrancy, safety, and identity. We achieve this through:
- Activation of leftover and underutilized spaces
- Streetscape improvements
- Art and beautification efforts
- Creation of community gathering spaces
Now, five years into the program, this grant has a total pool of $150,000. It builds upon the opportunities presented in the City’s Placemaking Hub, which provides toolkits to inspire and guide placemaking efforts. But what is placemaking?
Placemaking is a word for prioritizing the experience people have as they spend time in public places. Projects work toward enhancing those spaces; making them vibrant and active; and serving the needs, wants, and hopes of the communities where they live. The Charlotte Urban Design Center sees placemaking as a collaborative process to better connect community members to the spaces and people around them.
To help provide a better understanding of the Placemaking Grant experience, we reached out to 2023 program winner Jan Johnson of Uptown Farmer’s Market. The awarded project was called “Paint the Pavement with Nutrition” and involved created a mural within the protected bike lane along the 300 block of Davidson Street. Here’s some of what she had to say…
City Speaks: Why this project? Why protected bike lanes?
Jan Johnson: Since the Uptown Farmers Market is focused on health and nutrition, we were very excited that the new bike lanes would go right by the market. The lanes were ideal as a painting canvas because of the protective barrier between the lanes and car traffic. This prevents the painted sections from being driven over which should help protect the images from wear and tear. We love using art at the market to help promote healthy eating – the fruit and vegetable images are bright and engaging and catch the attention of anyone who passes by.
CS: For any newcomers who may be considering applying for a grant, can you share what the application process was like?
JJ: We can’t say enough wonderful things about working with Kate Cavazza, who was accessible for lots of questions all along the way. The application was definitely easier for us since we had been planning the idea for a couple of years, had some early approvals in place, and had our muralist identified. The steps of the process helped to guide the remaining details of what we needed. We formed a committee of volunteers to help coordinate the process for us also.
Photo of mural painting participants courtesy of WSOC TV.
CS: Once you found out that you had received the grant, what were the next steps like? How did you go from grant recipient to actually having a mural in the protected bike lanes?
JJ: Since we were planning on executing the project in one day last July, we were on a short timeframe to pull it all together once we knew we had funding. Again, the early planning was key for us, and having such an experienced and talented artist like Curtis King gave us great assurance that everything could be coordinated that day. We were thrilled that the sponsors and community partners of the Market were so enthusiastic to participate also, because we wanted it to reflect a community effort. We set up a calendar of necessary steps and tried to stay on track with that. You always have to expect a few surprises along the way and be flexible.
Want to read more of our interview with Jan Johnson? She gives even more advice and first-hand perspective in our full web story (button below).
The Charlotte Urban Design Center is accepting applications for the Placemaking Grant program starting tomorrow (Jan. 19). The deadline to apply is Mar. 15, 2024.
Read Full Interview
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