City of Rochester
News Release
(Thursday, July 15, 2010) — The National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) announced today that the City of Rochester has won a prestigious $250,000 grant for the ARTWalk Extension Project through the NEA Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative.
The Mayors' Institute on City Design supports creative place-making projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform sites into lively, beautiful and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and were awarded to 21 communities from Easton, Pennsylvania (population 26,000) to Los Angeles, California (population 9.8 million). Rochester was one of only four cities in the nation awarded the maximum amount of $250,000.
Criteria for the grant included artistic merit and artistic excellence, including the quality of the artists, design professionals, arts organizations, works of art that the project involves, the partnerships formed with other organizations that the project may benefit and the potential to:
• integrate design and the arts into the fabric of community life; • serve as a vehicle for economic revitalization; • reach underserved populations; and • serve as a model for other communities across the nation.
“I want to thank the National Endowment for the Arts for this generous grant, which will advance our goal of building on the proven success of ARTWalk by creating a regional destination of culture and beauty in Southeast Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts,” said Rochester Mayor Robert J. Duffy. “It is a testament to the quality of the project that Rochester has been awarded one of only 21 grants under this program, and we were awarded the maximum amount. Everyone involved in the ARTWalk Extension project is to be commended for their outstanding work.”
Paul Way, Project manager for the City, called the grant “a ringing endorsement of the quality of the project and the depth of collaboration and cooperation among so many key stakeholders.”
Partner organizations in the project include: The University of Rochester Memorial Art; Creative Workshop; The Visual Studies Workshop; Writers & Books; The Rochester Museum and Science Center; The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film; Village Gate; Anderson Alley Artists and ARTWalk of Rochester. Grant funds will be used to help pay costs related to four major works of public art in the Neighborhood of the Arts, including:
• Creation Myth: A sprawling half-acre interactive stone and bronze installation by nationally acclaimed artist Tom Otterness and commissioned by the Memorial Art Gallery and sited in the Centennial Sculpture Park along University Avenue.
• Needle Spindle: A soaring light sculpture for North Goodman Street at Village Gate by artist Cliff Garten that references the early manufacturing history of the site.
• Traveling Through Stillness: A multi-part interactive science-based sculpture in a new public plaza at the Rochester Museum and Science Center by artistic team Louise Bertlesen and Po Shu Wang.
• Spectator: A new media showcase and sculpture by Adam Frank which will be a vehicle for The Visual Studies Workshop, regional and national new media artists.
Design professionals on the ARTWalk Extension project include: Bergmann Associates (prime consultant); Bayer Associates (landscape architect for the Memorial Art Gallery); and Studio William Cochran (sub-consultant for design, public art and public participation), who also spearheaded the NEA grant application initiative.
The ARTWalk Extension project is expected to break ground this fall and be completed by the end of 2011. The project will extend the ARTWalk Urban trail along the University Avenue, in front of the Memorial Art Gallery and along North Goodman Street from Village Gate to the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
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News Media: For more information, contact Paul Way at 428-7383.