The Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC), the Northfield Arts Guild, and the City of Northfield’s Arts and Culture Commission (ACC) are pleased to announce the next round of the Artists on Main Street program!
For more information about the 2020-2021 program, please see this info sheet. You can also download this year’s application here. Applications are due by July 17th and projects must be complete by May 31, 2021. An informational webinar will be held on Friday, June 5th from 11:30am-1:30pm for anyone interested in learning more about the program. More details about the webinar will be shared soon in an event on NDDC’s Facebook page.
The NDDC was selected in Fall 2018 to participate in the Artists on Main Street program (AOMS), a three-year community development initiative offered through Rethos: Places Reimagined and Springboard for the Arts, with support from the Bush Foundation. The program explores the intersection of arts and culture, downtown revitalization, and historic preservation by investing in “creative placemaking” projects within a defined area of a community. Creative placemaking has many different definitions, but could be simply described as using art and other creative activities to make positive physical, economic, and social impacts within a particular place or community.
The overarching goals of Northfield’s program include:
- Providing art and creative placemaking experiences that draw people to shop, dine and connect in Downtown Northfield;
- Enhancing the downtown’s aesthetics through the creativity of our local artists;
- Utilizing the arts as a springboard for improving diversity and inclusiveness in Downtown Northfield across all cultures.
Northfield’s first year of involvement (2019) in the program was a rousing success, with ten projects funded under the theme of “Connections/Conexiónes” – highlighting the physical and cultural divides that too often get in the way of a thriving community. These projects included musical performances, poetry readings, spoken word events, pop-up art installations, and one large cement shark.
In this second year of Northfield’s program, we are looking to support creative placemaking projects under the theme: “Visions of Northfield’s Future.” Artists and creatives can apply for up to $10,000 to support projects that might, for example, address concepts such as evolving demographics and increasing cultural diversity; climate change or the environment/ nature in general; the impact of technology and digital life on physical communities; or many others besides. We encourage all applicants to think broadly and make a case for your vision. Preference will be given to projects that embody a positive vision of the future, in accordance with the principles of creative placemaking – think of adjectives such as welcoming, delightful, whimsical, thought-provoking, and so on.
