Article: NEA seed money to help art projects bloom along light-rail corridor
September 15, 2011 - Mary Abbe, Star Tribune. St. Paul receives $750,000 for arts and economic development - and hopes to leverage more.
More than 100 arts projects will flow along the light-rail Central Corridor in St. Paul from Midway to Lowertown because of a $750,000 grant from a program announced Thursday by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Called ArtPlace, the privately financed $23.5 million program will provide seed money for 34 projects around the country to use arts to spur economic development. The projects aim to integrate artists and arts organizations into transportation, housing and community-development projects.
St. Paul's project, dubbed Irrigate, is anchored at both ends by thriving artist communities. The city hopes to leverage its ArtPlace money to bring in additional grants.
The aim is to nurture and encourage artists and their work all along University Avenue from the Minneapolis border to downtown's Lowertown. That stretch has long been an underachiever as a home to low-rise businesses, auto lots and warehouses mixed with housing. The hope is that the new light-rail corridor will strengthen the area.
"Artists aren't victims; they are a powerful, creative force to be mobilized," said Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts executive director. Springboard is a community development agency organization for artists.
She said Irrigate could become a national model for marrying a massive infrastructure project with art.
Mayor Chris Coleman, at a Thursday news conference that revealed the plan, talked about artists as urban pioneers, revitalizing neighborhoods. He didn't hide his pleasure at St. Paul being recognized nationally as an arts community.
"If you're not paying attention to artists, you're not paying attention to the heart of the community," he said.
The national ArtPlace program will be financed with $11.5 million from foundations and $12 million in loans from banks and corporations. The Twin Cities-based McKnight Foundation is among 10 participants. There are no federal dollars in the program, but government agencies will advise the project.
Carol Coletta, president of ArtPlace, came to St. Paul for the kickoff. She said ArtPlace understands how economic development has moved beyond luring a big corporation into town.
"Now we know the economic development game is all about how you deploy local assets to develop, attract and keep talent," including artists, she said.
Other foundations participating in the NEA-led ArtPlace project are the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the James Irvine Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Robina Foundation.