City of Lansing Sense of Place – Arts Impact Project Details

Come Share Your Ideas at a Community Open Forum

We are looking for ideas, and we want to hear yours! The City of Lansing’s Sense of Place in the Arts Grant program allocated $75,000 in FY2016 to develop an Arts Impact Project created and administered by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) in partnership with the Arts Council of Greater Lansing. The goal – to build permanent creative infrastructure that enhances a neighborhood appearance and kindles community engagement in the City of Lansing. 

Bring ideas! Bring a friend!

Bring your creative project ideas to the Lansing Public Media Center (2500 S. Washington Ave., Lansing, MI 48910) on Monday, Nov. 9 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. where you can present them to LEAP and the Arts Impact Project Panel. Persons interested in sharing a project idea can simply show up at the center, sign in, and wait for their name to be called. Each person will have exactly 5 minutes to step up to the podium and convey their idea. Ideas can come from organizations, businesses, community members, neighborhood associations or any other entity or individual. We are looking for creative placemaking ideas that will have impact on making our community a better place to live, work and play. 

Community and Creativity

The Arts Impact Project will place artists/designers and community members at the forefront of the conversation so that the chosen project will reflect the creativity and sensibility of the neighborhood in which it resides. Projects may include but are not limited to physical gateways, small outdoor performance spaces, murals, alley enhancements, fountains, way-finding, landscaping/greenspaces and seating, public art that captures a neighborhood’s heritage and cultural soul, community driven collaborative art installations, playground/play-on art, and/or arts incubator/studio spaces to name just a few.  (NOTE: We are NOT looking for temporary projects or programming ideas – proposed projects must be permanently installed and built for lasting impact where people can gather and convene.)

What you need to know

This is a very informal setting. LEAP and the panel wants to hear exciting, creative ideas for making our city and communities amazing through art and creativity and will announce the chosen project after January 1, 2016. The guidelines below will assist you in choosing a project and planning your five-minute pitch.

Project Parameters 

1.  Must be located in the City of Lansing

2.  Must be led by an artist/designer/creative

3.  Must be a permanent, physical art installation

4.  Must have high visibility

Presentation Format

1. State your name and affiliation/organization (if applicable)

2. Briefly explain your project, its location and community impact

3. State estimated/guesstimated project cost

4. State any partners and organizations that have helped to envision this project and will help to implement

5. State if any other resources have been secured for implementation

6. State why you think this project should be chosen

We look forward to seeing you and hearing your ideas. As mentioned, this is a drop-in, first-come-first-served opportunity. However, we would like to have an idea of how many people will be presenting, so if you are thinking about pitching your idea, please email Arts Council program manager, Josh Holliday, at josh@www.lansingarts.org