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 MoreSouth of Penn Community Lot
A vacant lot in Reading, Pennsylvania, that was once full of abandoned cars and trash now serves as a focal point for neighbor-led programs, art, and activities for youth in the community.
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 MoreSteps at Main
In Reading, Pennsylvania, the Reading Public Library joined forces with community organizations to offers its steps as venue for community events. Library administrators recognize that performing arts are a way to build relationships with community members and transform community members’ perception of its space.
Read MoreSprinkler Beach
On an underutilized municipal parking lot in Monticello, New York, youth painted an ocean and beach to kick off a day spent splashing in sprinklers while their parents brainstormed downtown commercial district revitalization. The Sullivan County Planning Department, Village of Monticello Department of Public Works and Fire Department, and Center for Workforce Development’s Youth Program…
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 MorePegasus Garden
After the city demolished a home, the resulting vacant lot attracted illegal drug activity to the area. Jennifer Grau, a Prospect PLACE neighborhood resident, said “Neighbors wanted to create a colorful space for gathering and gardening that would signal to those who live here and those passing by that we live in a connected, vibrant,…
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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