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Dive Brief:

• Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Thursday that eight cities will receive up to $1 million each to install temporary public art projects that address urgent civic issues such as public health, climate change and homelessness.
• The selected cities are Atlanta, Baltimore, Honolulu, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Orlando, Florida. Along with a grant, each city will receive technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies over the next two years.
• “The arts have an incredible power to inspire creativity and spark collaboration on some of the most pressing urban challenges,” said Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and former New York City mayor. “These eight projects will help foster community action.”

Dive Insight:

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge was launched in 2014,  and the organization says it has since spurred more than $100 million in economic benefits for participating cities. The first round of grants awarded in 2015 went to four projects in six cities, drawing more than 10 million total visitors.  

Only cities with at least 30,000 residents were eligible to apply this year, and the program drew more than 150 applicants. The winners were picked based on factors including the project’s viability, impact on civic issues, community engagement strategies and ability to form or strengthen public-private partnerships.

Included in this year’s winners are:

• A project in Atlanta that addresses healthcare disparities through the lens of racial equity. The project will include large installations, community dinners, a mobile art gallery and a festival.
• A Baltimore project that will provide light installations and programming at five sites in the city’s arts district, with the goal of projecting safety and respect for residents and businesses in a neighborhood that has seen petty crime and neglect.
• Installations in Honolulu that will share little-known Indigenous history in 12 key cultural destinations.
• A Houston project that will “disrupt perceptions of homelessness” with nine installations created by collaborations between professional artists and unsheltered individuals.
• A project in Orlando that will engage artists and farmers to develop art installations that raise awareness about the lack of access to healthy food.
• A series of workshops in Philadelphia that will invite neighborhood residents of all ages to write poems that will be incorporated into installations. This project aims to address gun violence.
• A Phoenix project that will commission nine artists to create shading and cooling installations in response to extreme heat.
• A Salt Lake City project that will focus on the area’s persistent drought by commissioning public art installations in each of the seven city council districts and along the lake’s border.