Rochester Art Center awarded Bush Foundation Grant for PlaceMakers | Rochester Prototyping Festival

Release Date: August 19, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rochester, Minnesota – August 19, 2016 – The Rochester Art Center today announced it has been awarded an event sponsorship grant from the Bush Foundation for the PlaceMakers | Rochester Prototyping Festival to be held on September 15, 16, and 17. The grant will help increase support for materials, educational opportunities, and design for PlaceMakers.

The PlaceMakers | Rochester Prototyping Festival is a collaboration among the Rochester Art Center, the Rochester Downtown Alliance, and the Destination Medical Center (DMC) Economic Development Agency that focuses on creative placemaking as a tool for economic regeneration and engagement in community-building. Beginning this past January, community activists, architects, urban planners, artists, landscape architects, City of Rochester officials, designers, and others came together to imagine what can be done collectively to re-imagine, build, and activate public spaces in Rochester.

With significant public and private investment coming to Rochester over the next 20 years to support the DMC strategic vision, the festival seeks to achieve broader and deeper participation in city planning and development efforts. The City of Rochester, DMC, the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Journey to Growth, and other economic development organizations in the region are leading these efforts.

The theme for PlaceMakers is “Health and the Built Environment” and, through a series of public meetings, workshops, and learning sessions, residents of Rochester can advance their ideas of becoming a creative citizen.

“We are grateful to the Bush Foundation for its sponsorship of the exciting and innovative PlaceMakers | Rochester Prototyping Festival,” said Megan Johnston, executive director at the Rochester Art Center. “PlaceMakers is connecting people with a vast array of professional and personal interests who are learning from each other about our community and placemaking opportunities and goals.”

DMC executive director Lisa Clarke feels prototyping fosters potential solutions that show the community the many ways a public space can be transformed. “It also deepens community members’ connections to our community,” she says, “giving them the opportunity to bring forward new ideas and creative approaches for shaping Rochester’s future.”

Media Contact:
Megan Johnston, Executive Director, Rochester Art Center
office 507.282.8629 | cell 507.535.9053

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Rochester Art Center is a leading art center for contemporary practices that acts as a creative hub for place making and civic engagement through vital programming, exhibitions, community engagement, and collaborations. Visit us at rochesterartcenter.org.