Public Art

More welcoming downtown space, Main Street beautification, large scale local art works, and bringing the natural landscape into our more built city spaces were all top of mind for residents. We hope this response not only makes our community feel heard, but encourages more engagement from all sides, and a clear collaborative relationship moving forward. We believe the impact will be significant ? not only to perceived value and pride of place, but even to the commerce of our area. Using public art as a vehicle, we hope to bring more of our residents outside and downtown, and more visitors to our town and alongside our riverfront. We aim to encourage more pedestrian traffic, more bike traffic, and more gathering overall. Lifting up art as a way in to sharing space together seems a valuable community-minded city goal. Our City and Public Works and Parks Department keeps track of usage of these spaces, and our wonderful EDA Director works directly with local downtown businesses to track tourism. We're also planning on hosting additional information about these works on a website, which we will monitor the traffic of, and circulate surveys to local residents soliciting feedback and/or testimonials. We hope for positive responses ? if this proves successful, the City will apply for additional funding from the state for subsequent initiatives marrying art and infrastructure. Creativity and community building should go hand in hand.