Arts and Creative Placemaking

Creative Placemaking is an evolving field of practice that intentionally leverages the power of the arts, culture, and creativity to improve public engagement. This approach to planning, designing and building public spaces focuses on the community’s needs and values. Over recent years unique public-private partnerships have developed through creative placemaking activities leading to the development to better projects and that complement the social character of the area.

Arts Builds Communities Grant Program

The Arts Build Communities (ABC) grant program is designed to provide support for arts projects that broaden access to art experiences and enhance our communities through cultural art. The Greater Nashville Regional Council (GNRC) is designated to administer the ABC program on behalf of the Tennessee Arts Commission for the following counties: Rutherford, Sumner, Trousdale, Williamson, Wilson.  

TNARTS_PrimaryLogo Opens in new windowThis program is funded through the Tennessee Arts Commission and provides up to $5000 in matching grants for local governments and non-profit organizations to present the arts to the public, foster artists and artwork in the area. GNRC will assist ABC grant applicants with identifying eligible activities, provide feedback on draft applications, administer local grant review panels, and help grant recipients track the success of the funded activities.

Each Designated Agency and subgrantee must provide recognition of Tennessee Arts Commission support through appropriate logo usage and/or text in all informational pamphlets, press releases, research reports, signs, and similar public notices prepared and released by the grantee. Commission logos are available for download on the Commission Web site.  If recognition is provided in text, the following should be used: “This project is funded in part by Arts Build Communities, a program funded through State of Tennessee Specialty License Sales, and administered in cooperation with the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Greater Nashville Regional Council.

Envision Nolensville Pike

Since 2014, the GNRC has worked closely with staff from the Salahadeen Center (SCN), Conexión Américas,  and other business and community leaders along Nolensville Pike in Nashville to facilitate community engagement activities to document transportation challenges and possible solutions along Nolensville Pike. 

The mission of the Envision Nolensville Pike project is to use social practice methods to foster artist-led community engagement in order to creatively inspire and document feedback on transportation challenges and solutions, particularly walking, bicycling and transit access. At this time, we focus our outreach on two areas in particular: among the Kurdish people in the Nashville region and Latinos served by Conexión Américas. 

The 2016 Envision Nolensville Pike Report was released following the first phase of community engagement. This phase of activity was funded in part by the Kresge Foundation. The report maps out the aspirations and dreams for the Nolensville Pike corridor as expressed by residents and business owners. 

Building off the 2016 report, in partnership with Transportation for America, Envision Nolensville Pike II, was released in 2017. This publication offered recommendations to the City of Nashville to improve inclusive development along the corridor. The recommendations include creating a Nolensville Pike business alliance, improving the collection and availability of data about the corridor, developing pathways for business owners to purchase commercial property and increasing production of affordable homes. 

With support from the philanthropic funder ArtPlace America at the beginning of 2018, the work along the Pike has continued to grow. To learn more about Envision Nolensville Pike visit www.conexionamericas.org/enp/.

man walking down Nolensville pike

This photo was taken in 2018 as part of the "Design Your Neighborhood" activities. Efforts from Envision Nolesnville Pike have led to safety improvement for pedestrians along the route.