Long Beach selected for NEA Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative

July 15, 2010

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman announced 21 grants totaling $3 million awarded through the NEA Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative (MICD 25) today, including an innovative design project in Long Beach submitted on behalf of the City by the Arts Council for Long Beach.

MICD25 supports creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform sites into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core.

The Long Beach grant of $25,000 will be more than matched by the Arts Council and will fund a national competition to design a portable performance space that could be moved throughout the City, transforming vacant lots into temporary performance venues aimed at families and children.  The Arts Council included the Long Beach Opera and the Khmer Arts Academy in their proposal and some of the funds will allow these two highly-acclaimed performing groups to consult on the specifications for the project.

In speaking of the highly competitive program and the local award, Mayor Bob Foster said, "This is a great honor for our City and showcases the progress we have made in recognizing the power of the arts to transform our neighborhoods and parks into places of community-building. Whether it is the growth of the Arts Council's GLOBAL festival in October or the international reputations held by Long Beach Opera and our Cambodian dance troupe, the Khmer Arts Academy, Long Beach recognizes the role that the arts can play in creating a vibrant city."

The Arts Council conceived of the project as a response to citizen input during the creation of the new cultural master plan, Create Long Beach.

According to the Council's Executive Director, Craig Watson, "The difficulty of finding suitable performance space, particularly in our neediest neighborhoods, was a regular theme during our community conversations on the cultural plan. We know that a unique, portable and well-designed performance venue will get active use and meet one of our key missions...to support community cultural experiences in all the neighborhoods of Long Beach."

In comments on the overall program, NEA Design Director Jason Schupbach noted, "From post-industrial small towns using arts strategies to reinvent themselves after the major manufacturer has left, to a growing city implementing an environmentally sustainable public art project, these MICD25 grant awards will spark innovative methodologies for the recovery of our communities during this most challenging of economic times."

Each of the MICD25 projects takes a problem such as isolated neighborhoods or a neglected waterfront and uses the arts to solve that problem. The aesthetic and communal qualities of art make them excellent construction materials for transforming physical spaces. Although the arts are at the center of each of the projects, the grantees are extending beyond the arts world to collaborate with local entities such as chambers of commerce, downtown redevelopment councils, departments of transportation, urban planning offices, and park and recreation offices.