$75k federal grant to fund art in new park

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

The federal government is going to help ensure that the new Truman Waterfront Park is full of art.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded Key West a $75,000 grant to create an arts master plan for the park, as well as help pay for multiple arts installations in the new public grounds. The city will contribute a matching $75,000 through money generated by the one percent fee imposed on the $18 million park project as well as city staff time contributed towards developing the arts master plan.

“[The NEA] grant program supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core,” said city Senior Grants Administrator Carolyn Sheldon in a memo to city manager Jim Scholl. “Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work – placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies.”

The city will partner with The Studios of Key West to develop a creative placemaking master plan that will include recommendations for art installations and public performances in the park. Eleven regional and nationally known artists will be recruited to work on the master plan. Those artists will represent a broad range of disciplines, including dance, theater, music, visual arts, written/spoken word, arts education, public art and architecture. The master plan will include recommendations for using the new amphitheater as well as creating a Folk-Art Garden.

The Truman Waterfront Advisory Board and the Art in Public Places Committee will also help develop the master plan.

“This funding supports local efforts to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity and create a distinct sense of place,” Sheldon said.

The funding will also pay to commission six arts performances at $10,000 each to be presented in the park’s first year, sometime before March 31, 2019, according to the grant stipulations. The Studios of Key West will “conceptualize” and select the performances.

Despite President Donald Trump’s threat to cut all funding to the NEA, Scholl said the city will receive the money, albeit a little under the wire.

“This [$75,000 grant] is for this fiscal year. He’s taking about the next fiscal year,” Scholl said of Trump’s efforts to cut the arts foundation.

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