Providence, RI LISC receive $300K grant

THE CITY'S Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, in partnership with Rhode Island LISC, received a $300,000 grant from ArtPlace America through its 2015 national grants program.
LISC Rhode Island Executive Director Jeanne Cola. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – The city’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, in partnership with Rhode Island LISC, received a $300,000 grant from ArtPlace America through its 2015 national grants program, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza said this week.
The money will be used to integrate arts and culture into community planning and development, according to a press release.
The Department of Art, Culture + Tourism and RI-LISC also will collaborate with a series of community partners to repair fencing around Grace Church Cemetery and add lighting. Also, programs will be created at Southside Cultural Center. In addition, the project will include a community engagement process to develop strategies for change that involve all neighborhood stakeholders.
New York-based ArtPlace selected Providence and RI LISC from a pool of nearly 1,300 grant applicants across 48 states; 38 grants were awarded. Grants ranged from $50,000 to $500,000 with an average of $265,000.
“I am excited to share this great news with our community,” Elorza said in a statement. “We have seen arts and culture transform our city and we know that cultural expression in our neighborhoods is just as important as in downtown. I am grateful ArtPlace America has decided to join our efforts by helping provide this opportunity to improve Trinity Square.”
In addition, Providence has been selected as one of two U.S. cities to pilot the Community Innovation Lab, a new approach to solving tough social problems by integrating artists and artistic experience into a process developed by EmcArts, a nationally recognized service organization.
The Lab will focus on public safety in Trinity Square, engaging city agencies, community organizers, nonprofit service providers, business leaders, artists and cultural organizations to co-create strategies for systematic change.
Richard Evans, president of EmcArts said, “We’re thrilled to be working alongside Mayor Elorza, RI-LISC, and the other partners to harvest the unique power of local artists and cultural workers to catalyze systemic change. Public safety is a complex problem. It requires questioning old assumptions, collaborating across boundaries, deep understanding of local system dynamics and rehearsing many potential strategies for change. The Community Innovation Lab framework creates space for high-impact, creative solutions to emerge and builds a robust network of advocates to ensure that those strategies get implemented. With national support from the Kresge Foundation, the timing couldn’t be better to initiate a Lab in Providence.”
Added Jeanne Cola, executive director of Rhode Island LISC, “We are so pleased to be partnering with the city on this initiative. The funding from ArtPlace America is directly in line with a new initiative at LISC that is incorporating art and culture into our community development model, funded by the Kresge Foundation. We are thrilled that in addition to the ArtPlace funding we are investing more than $200,000 into this project over the next two years.”

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