Three unique, arts-driven projects in Minneapolis will receive almost $1 million in grant funding from ArtPlace – an across the country collaboration of 11 major national and regional foundations, six of the nation’s largest banks, and eight federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S.  To date, ArtPlace has raised almost $50 million to work alongside federal and local governments to transform communities with strategic investments in the arts.

Intermedia Arts, a non-profit arts and cultural center in South Minneapolis, was awarded $325,000 for a project to embed artists in the city’s planning process.  The Pillsbury House + Theatre will receive $250,000 to establish a new Chicago Avenue Arts District. The third ArtPlace grant in Minneapolis is also the largest, with $435,000 dedicated to create a new front door for the Native American Cultural Corridor. The half-mile corridor was established in 2010 with the goal of revitalizing a low income neighborhood with the densest urban population of Native Americans in the country. The undeveloped light rail station area at one end of the Corridor has been a barrier to connecting the heart of the Cultural Corridor to transit and the adjacent Seward Neighborhood. This project will develop a unique cultural gateway and arts market at the station to welcome people to the corridor and serves as a unique community gathering space. Public art, festivals and food will make it an inviting entrance to the neighborhood.

“These Minneapolis projects receiving ArtPlace funding exemplify the best in creative placemaking,” explained ArtPlace’s Carol Coletta.  “They demonstrate a deep understanding of how smart investments in art, design and culture as part of a larger portfolio of revitalization strategies can change the trajectory of communities and increase economic opportunities for people.”

 

Council Member Lilligren, the 6th ward representative for the Franklin Avenue area, notes that this grant will not only accelerate the transformative work happening along the Native American Cultural Corridor but it will also maximize the public investments the City of Minneapolis has made in things like light rail, street and pedestrian improvements.

 

“This area needs this investment in the arts; especially around the LRT station. Today it is unwelcoming for pedestrians and bikes that happen to be important transit users. Putting this dead space into productive use with opportunities for local vendors means the chance to start and expand small businesses. It will help reconnect the neighborhoods of Seward and Ventura Village. It will bring even more good people doing great things in a rapidly redeveloping area,” highlights Council Member Robert Lilligren.

 

“With the establishment of All My Relations Gallery, an Arts Festival, and street enhancements like banners and wrapped electrical boxes, everyone can see the community’s vision of a Cultural Corridor coming to life,” proclaimed Council Member Lilligren who has served as the Board Chair of the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) for the past four years. 

 

The Anpetu Wa’ste Cultural Arts Market (see visual below) project will develop a unique cultural gateway and arts market that welcomes people to the American Indian Cultural Corridor at the Franklin Avenue light rail station, connects two neighborhoods, and serves as a unique community gathering space. The project will develop the unused central median of Franklin Avenue into this arts and food market with space for arts vendors, food trucks, seating, and performances. The plaza will be reinforced with community public art. This project will be a catalyst for future development at the station and bridges a critical short term goal to get people off the train and into the neighborhood.

Athara Ibrahim, a STEP-UP Intern, is a graduate from Patrick Henry High School, in North Minneapolis and began working for City Council Member a week ago. She will be joining our office for the summer during her 9 week internship program. Athara lived in South Africa before she came to the United Sates two years ago.  She says she still getting used to living in the United States after two years. She is the third oldest of seven children. She grew up in a society that taught her to that there is no good or bad in this world, but that it’s only a matter of perspective. She intends to major in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota this fall. Her interests are in Engineering and Law. She also enjoys reading, researching on whatever comes to mind, poetry and outdoor as well as indoor sports. Athara enjoys working with people by volunteering in her community and teaching children to read and write. She has learned that it takes hard work and dedication to accomplish one's dream and also be open-minded about the world around her.  When she is asked about her time working for the 6th Ward City Council Office she says, "the City Council is a place where the council members make decisions about issues that affect our lives. I am thankful for being given the opportunity to work in such a place.”

Next year, recycling in Minneapolis will get easier, helping both residents and the environment. The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak today approved moving forward to implement a single-sort recycling collection program for City of Minneapolis residential recycling customers. Single-sort recycling is a system in which customers put all of their recyclables into one container for collection instead of separating glass from plastic from paper, etc. A study conducted for the City of Minneapolis compared single-sort, dual-sort (separating paper products from everything else) and our current “multi-sort” system, and it found that single-sort recycling is the most cost-effective of the three systems studied and the most convenient for customers.

Getting a new system in place will take time, and customers will see a changeover sometime in 2013. Until the new system is in place, Minneapolis recycling customers should continue separating their recycling. But once single-sort recycling starts, City of Minneapolis residential recycling customers will only need one container for all of their recycling.

 

“Minneapolis residents are already pretty good at recycling, but we need to recycle more – a whole lot more,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak. “Single-sort recycling will make it easy for folks who don’t recycle yet, and folks who do already recycle may start recycling more materials than they have been.”

 

“Today we took a big step forward to make recycling simpler and with the potential for a BIG increase in the resources saved through recycling,” said City Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy. “As chair of the Transportation and Public Works Committee, I watch cost closely and finally we can be sure that the money we receive for recycled commodities can continue to pay for system. I’m very excited about this plan because it is cost effective, it will dramatically increase the amount of recyclables collected, and it will make life easier. Win, win and win!”

 

Based on case studies, a single-sort system is projected to increase materials recovered by 60 percent and increase the Minneapolis recycling rate from 18.1 percent to 32 percent. It is also compatible with the possibility of the City collecting recycling from multi-unit housing, which is not currently under the City of Minneapolis recycling program, and the option to add organics recycling in the future.