At Monday’s (December 13, 2011) Grove CID meeting the board voted to hire St. Louis consulting firm, Via Partnership to develop a public art strategy for the Grove. The strategy’s first objective will be to identify appropriate art for the 3 art displays.
Via Partnership works with communities across the country to create more distinctive urban spaces, improve the aesthetics of the built environment, enhance the public’s experience of an architectural space, enrich and enhance the profile of an organization or neighborhood, and extend a broader and more responsive community image.
Via Partnership’s tasks for the Grove public art strategy will be to:
- Assemble a “public art task force” made up of CID members and neighborhood arts leaders that will meet on a regular basis to help guide the development of the strategy, and in subsequent phases, potentially play a role in guiding artist selection and review.
- Review planning documents for the neighborhood. Learn about goals and initiatives of the Grove CID.
- Facilitate an initial discussion with the task force. Share examples of public art approaches from other communities. Engage the group in a discussion about a vision and goals for public art along Manchester and different approaches.
- Have one-on-one conversations with key stakeholders and potential partners, possibly including, but not limited to, neighboring arts institutions, businesses neighboring the display areas, and possible funders.
- Develop a vision/goals statement for review by the task force.
- Make revisions as necessary and develop final plan.
- Work with a graphic designer to create a well-designed version of the strategy to share with potential funders and partners.
Brian Phillips, Washington University Medical Center Director and Grove CID chairman has this to say…
“Via Partnership will provide us with an orderly, but creative process in determining how art should be incorporated into the Manchester streetscape. This is an extremely exciting time for the Grove district and we are looking forward to partnering with Via on this great endeavor.”
Art display at Sarah and Manchester
Art display at Arco and Manchester
Art display at Taylor and Manchester
