(June 7, 2016) Today, ArtPlace America announced that Epicenter’s Riverside Common is one of
80 projects that it will consider for its 2016 National Creative Placemaking Fund. These 80 projects are 6% of the 1,361 initial applications that ArtPlace reviewed.
ArtPlace America’s National Creative Placemaking Fund is a highly competitive national program that invests money in communities across the country in which artists, arts organizations, and arts activity will help drive community development projects that are addressing challenges or opportunities related to agriculture and food; economic development; education and youth; environment and energy; health, housing; immigration; public safety; transportation; or workforce development. Epicenter has proposed Riverside Common, a new, affordable multi-family housing community in Green River, Utah.
As the next step in ArtPlace’s process, Epicenter will complete more extensive application materials and schedule a site visit with an ArtPlace staff member and a national peer expert this summer. ArtPlace will convene these peer experts for an in-person panel meeting this fall and will then announce the final projects in which it will invest a total of $10.5 million in December 2016.
The complete list of the 2016 finalists for ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund may be found here
About Epicenter’s Riverside Common
Green River’s 2012 Affordable Housing Plan (rated a top ten plan in the state by the governor’s office) identified a severe lack of rental housing: only twelve apartments exist in town (2.5% of all housing). Epicenter and its partners are working to construct twelve new and well-designed multi-family housing units that provide durable and efficient options for local residents. These units will innovate a model of housing in rural places, where traditional funding and access to architectural design are scarce. This Riverside Common will raise the collective standard of living, empower residents to become change leaders and beautify the community through design.
Riverside Common will double the available multi-family rental units in town and provide currently unavailable options (e.g. studio, multi-bedroom, and fully-accessible units). Elderly residents will have the option to age-in-place rather than 60 miles away from their family and lifelong home. Young adults will gain an affordable option outside of their parents’ home. The project will improve the standard of living, decrease substandard housing (specifically overcrowded mobile homes), and demand more of negligent landlords. The outdoor shared space will foster a micro-community and provide a third-space for populations that have been traditionally underserved including elderly, young, disabled, Hispanic, and low-income residents. Riverside Common will be the new standard for affordable and well-designed housing in Green River and for rural communities throughout the country.
About ArtPlace America
ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partners foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities. ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, which describes projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic.
Media contact: Maria Sykes