Front and Schiller Park
In Reading, Pennsylvania, a community leader pairs fun community activities with cleanup efforts to reactive an underutilized pocket park and engage residents in reclaiming their neighborhood.
Read MoreLeap Year Lights Festival
Riverfront Park is located on the Nashua River in downtown Fitchburg. Throughout the 1900s, paper manufacturers dumped dyes and other industrial byproducts into the river, and the river was named one of the 10 most polluted in the nation in 1960.[1] Residents fought for new and improved water treatment plants and today the river is…
Read MoreAlleyway Concerts
Every summer in Reading, Pennsylvania, Barrio Alegria engages community musicians and vocal artists to perform in their Alleyway Concerts series. Barrio Alegria (Barrio) is “a community engagement organization that uses the arts to create transformations in individuals to help them transform their communities.”
Read MoreVacant Homes Tour
The Vacant Homes Tour in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, showcased vacant and abandoned properties, their histories, and potential. The tour took participants on a journey back in time through the stories of the people and homes of a once vibrant community, and worked to reframe the narrative around vacant properties from challenges to assets.
Read MoreUnion Station Revival
A nonprofit organization focused on urban exploration, art, and preservation led the effort to beautify an abandoned rail station in Gary, Indiana, with the plan of converting the 4,000 square foot space into a cultural hub and economic driver for the city.
Read MoreSalsa on the Riverfront
The program was made possible through leadership development training led by NewVue Communities, a regional nonprofit dedicated to resident leadership. NewVue Communities hosts a Leadership Cohort through their community organizing department. Cohort participants receive technical assistance and develop skills needed to write and receive grants along with seed funding to support their own programs. Through…
Read MoreProphets, Poets, and Parks
City resident Lourdes Monzon organizes these gatherings, called Prophets, Poets, and Parks. She intentionally rotates the events around the city, picking abandoned and underutilized areas of parks. Her purpose is to create safe spaces that highlight the importance of words, narratives, and poetry. The first event in the series focused on reading poems by Audrey…
Read MoreKalamazoo Fare Games
Throughout 2016, six competitors, all local food entrepreneurs, provided food samples and business plans to community members in a “small bites” tasting event. A committee for the Fare Games guided this process, mentored the competitors on their business plans, and ultimately voted to select Pho on the Block to occupy the new restaurant space. The…
Read MoreDARTS
The pop-up hosted daily programming for all ages which connected with the day’s theme and included stand-up comedians, magic performances, and more. Attendees were encouraged to take the books with them and to then pass them onto their neighbors and friends once they had finished reading them. The catalyzing force behind this project was the…
Read MoreThe Big Zipper
Over the course of the summer of 2015, the Meadville Neighborhood Center and Steve Prince, artist in residence at Allegheny College, initiated the summer-long collaborative art project. Mr. Prince cut zipper pieces – that is, the individual prongs of a zipper – out of wood and distributed them to community members at 25 wood carving…
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