$8.7 million in funding invested in 23 projects
(December 5, 2017) Today, ArtPlace America announced that Caroline Rutledge Armijo has been chosen from nearly a thousand applications to receive funding through its 2017 National Creative Placemaking Fund.
ArtPlace received 987 applications in 2017, from which 70 finalists were selected and The Lilies Project is one of only 23 projects that will receive funding this year. ArtPlace has a deep commitment to investing in rural America, with almost 52% of this year’s funded projects working in rural communities.
ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund is a highly competitive national program, which invests money in community development projects where artists, arts organizations, and arts and culture activity work to strengthen communities across 10 sectors of community planning and development.
Armijo’s The Lilies Project proposed using public art and public programming to address coal ash impacting her home community. Walnut Cove, NC is adjacent to Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Power Station, which houses 20 million tons of coal ash. Armijo, mixed-media artist will partner with scientists from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to create a series of sculptures that repurpose this hazardous waste material safely and that will become the centerpiece of a new public park. This project will also serve as a local pilot for environmental policy that can provide safer alternative for how coal ash is managed in the region.
“This year’s investments highlight critical dimensions of creative placemaking strategy that can provide great inspiration to communities across the country.” said F. Javier Torres, Director of National Grantmaking at ArtPlace. “We are deeply excited to announce these 23 new investments as our seventh cohort of funded projects through the National Creative Placemaking Fund.”
“Creative Placemaking seeks the full and robust integration of art and culture into the decisions that define the ebb and flow of community life. These projects embody what this looks like at its most effective,” said Rip Rapson, president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation and Chair of the ArtPlace President’s Council. “We were overwhelmed by the extraordinary commitment demonstrated in these projects - contributing to the growing understanding of creative placemaking efforts throughout the nation.”
Meet all of the 2017 funded projects here.
Learn more from ArtPlace : Caroline Armijo | ArtPlace
About Caroline Rutledge Armijo
Caroline Rutledge Armijo is a Stokes County mixed-media artist, environmental advocate and mother who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her work expresses her concern for environmental justice issues threatening her home community, including coal ash and fracking. She works with Residents for Coal Ash Cleanup based at Belews Creek, NC and Alliance of Carolinians Together (ACT) against Coal Ash. Caroline is the ninth generation of her family to live in Stokes County, NC. She primarily works in book arts, collage and paper sculpture.
About ArtPlace America
ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partner foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities.
ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic.
Media contact:
Caroline Armijo
919-358-5057
caroline.armijo@gmail.com
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