BILLINGS - The City of Billings has been approved for a $50,000 Our Town award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the “Mobilize the MAGIC (Making Art Grounded In Community) City” project. One of 51 grants approved nationally, projects will support creative placemaking efforts. Creative placemaking projects integrate arts, culture, and design activities into community spaces. The intent is to strengthen communities by engaging residents and artists alike in developing spaces that support physical activity, social connections, community pride, and economic activity, ultimately laying the groundwork for community improvement for all.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including the City of Billings, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”
While the City of Billings is the official awardee for the Our Town grant, “Mobilize the MAGIC City” is a collaborative effort that would not happen without several very important partners. The Healthy By Design Coalition, the Billings Arts Association, Smart Growth America, and Billings Councilmember Denise Joy will all serve on the project leadership team, and were key to shaping the project application. Several other local community organizations will serve on the project team, helping to engage the public and providing interdisciplinary perspectives on project work.
As part of “Mobilize the MAGIC City,” the City of Billings will hire an artist-in-residence to engage residents to vision creative placemaking hubs along Billings’ first neighborhood bikeway. The bikeway runs for about 4 miles across central Billings. The exact form of creative placemaking hubs will be decided collaboratively with residents. Examples of potential placemaking hubs could include street art, a poetry corner, or a sidewalk stamped with poetry. The artist-in-residence will document successful creative placemaking processes in a “Placemaking Playbook” so that they can be duplicated in future planning efforts. The artist will also conduct a feasibility study into a Public Arts Commission for the City of Billings.
While the artist-in-residence model is new for Billings, leadership team partner Smart Growth America (SGA) has helped integrate artist-in-residents into local governments across the country: “The artist-in-residence model has proven effective in bringing much needed creative problem-solving skills into transportation agencies. SGA has supported artists to implement road safety improvements and create placemaking projects that help residents see themselves reflected in their community's infrastructure” says Ben Stone, Director of Arts & Culture at SGA.
Billings Councilmember Denise Joy, a member of the project leadership team, says: “This award is wonderful news for our community. Public artwork will become a notable feature of our community and support our arts and cultural aspirations. By developing a public process for public artwork in the city, we are nurturing a healthy and thriving community.” Healthy By Design Coalition member, Melissa Henderson, also believes this project will bring many benefits to the Billings community: “This opportunity allows us to consider how to best integrate public art into our community fabric in creative ways while putting Billings somewhat unexpectedly on a national map. Creative placemaking not only builds pride in our community – it promotes walkability and livability.”
For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, click here.