Front and Schiller Park
Starting in 2020, Ashely DeJesus Santiago, a young mother of three, started organizing the themed clean up at the Front and Schiller Park. DeJesus lives across from the Front and Schiller Park, a pocket park located on the northwest side of Reading. Neighbors have been concerned with the safety of the park because it is…
Read MoreAlleyway Concerts
The Alleyway Concerts were born out of the desire to activate underappreciated spaces while also gathering community members through music. Concert locations have ranged from abandoned lots to bodega fronts to inside a laundromat. Using simple portable speakers and microphones the program engages local artists and businesses to see the beauty of their community through…
Read MoreVacant Homes Tour
Wilkinsburg is community just outside Pittsburgh with a population of 15,000 residents. In 2014 a community artist, Dee Briggs, purchased a vacant house slated for demolition in Wilkinsburg. She painted it gold and used media channels to shine a light on the history of the house and the people who once called it home. In…
Read MoreThe Yes! House
Leading the project is the Department of Public Transformation (DoPT), an artist-led nonprofit focused on rural revitalization and civic engagement through the arts. The organization is fueled by a belief that arts-based interventions have the power to address some of the challenges rural communities face and strengthen social cohesion among community members. Leaders of the…
Read MoreThe Exchange House and Backyard
The Exchange House is located in North Akron, an international neighborhood home to people from Nepal, Bhutan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, and more. Beyond providing a gathering space and lodging, the Exchange House is also working to build a coalition of multicultural leaders in North Akron. The organization that initiated the effort was Better Block Foundation,…
Read MoreSteps at Main
From the library’s perspective, staff were seeking a way to make the library more relevant for the low-income Latino community who live nearby. As part of this work, the library established an outreach coordinator position to develop non-traditional programming, starting with baseline surveys to identify obstacles that prevent folks from using the library. Respondents expressed…
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 MoreRARE
Richfield, Minnesota is a small inner ring suburb in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The former Lyndale Garden Center space, which closed in 2006 and become abandoned, was the focus of the redevelopment. The former retail space was located at the center of a lower-income community of color which experienced decades of disinvestment. In response…
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 MoreThe King’s Canvas
The studio sits in the West Side of Montgomery, Alabama, in Washington Park, a neighborhood with a rich history of Black entrepreneurship and excellence that has experienced decades of disinvestment and widespread vacancy. After a sixteen-year hiatus from using his creativity, Kevin King, founder and executive director of The King’s Canvas, was gifted painting supplies,…
Read More