Calling Artists: $600,000 Grant To Beautify Downtown Brooklyn With Public Art
Connecting Downtown Brooklyn to the surrounding communities, making it more open, greener, more part of the rest of the city – these are some of the goals for the Downtown Brooklyn Public Art + Placemaking Fund, announced last year. The $600,000 fund will “award grants of up to $50,000 for public art and performance projects, and improvements to cultural spaces that serve to connect neighborhoods, revitalize public spaces, and increase access to cultural programming” in the area you can see in the map above.
The fund is part of New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) that allocated $10 million for projects in Downtown Brooklyn announced last year. Other projects selected to receive funding are Commodore Barry Park, crossings at the intersection of Tillary and Navy Streets, a new pedestrian crossing at St. Edwards Street and Flushing Ave. and a more accessible public entrance to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Funding also has been allocated for a digital tech center at the Ingersoll Community Center and for Walt Whitman Library.
“Improving public art and cultural space is a crucial way to revitalize downtowns that can be enjoyed by all,” said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul in the announcement. “This is part of our effort to revive downtowns and neighborhoods hit hard by this nightmarish pandemic, and build back New York City better than ever before.”
Borough President Eric Adams echoed that adding that the funding “could not have come at a more crucial time. We are rebuilding our city – literally and figuratively – and the inclusion of art in our city’s infrastructure sends exactly the right message.”
Applicants are welcome to apply from June 25, 2020, to August 18, 2020. Winning projects will be announced in fall 2020, with all selected projects to be implemented between October 2020 and October 2021. Application and selection guidelines, and details on the information webinar are available at https://www.downtownbrooklyn.com/dtbk-public-art-placemaking-fund.
