December 19, 2019

We wish you a happy 

 and peaceful holiday season.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture celebrates all the efforts you have made in the past year in championing the city of Phoenix's vibrant arts and cultural community, and we wish you much continued success in the new year!

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture has awarded seven neighborhood groups and artist collaborators funds through the city’s Neighborhood Arts Grants program for 2019-2020. Using funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and in partnership with Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department, the Office of Arts and Culture will support seven projects in Phoenix neighborhood parks for a total of $50,000. Projects will be implemented throughout the 2020 calendar year.

Neighborhood Arts Grants encourage partnerships between neighborhood community groups, artists, and arts and culture organizations, bringing them together to propose arts and culture projects within Phoenix neighborhoods. For this third year of the Neighborhood Arts program, all awarded projects must activate a Phoenix park with an arts and culture experience. City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture worked with the Neighborhood Services Department to promote the funding opportunity. All eligible applications were reviewed by a community panel of artists, community advocates, and city staff. 

The following projects received individual awards between $7,125 and $7,500:

Information about the 2020-21 Neighborhood Arts Grants program will be available in summer 2020 on the Office of Arts and Culture’s website.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture’s current strategic plan officially ended in 2016. Since 2016, the Office of Arts and Culture has experienced transition and growth. The department’s grants budget has grown since the recession, public art projects continue to enhance neighborhoods, new programs and initiatives have been undertaken, and new leadership is in place.

At the same time, Phoenix has had political changes with a new Mayor, the City has moved to become the fifth largest in the nation, and the changing demographics continue to shape the diversity of our community. 

We are a different Phoenix than we were in 2016 and a different Office of Arts and Culture, so it is essential to have a new roadmap to guide our work. That said, we are excited to announce the development process of our new strategic plan.

Community engagement will be at the center of our newest planning process. The Office of Arts and Culture has engaged Eric Bailey and Nicole Lance of Bailey Innovation Group to facilitate three listening sessions and conduct a stakeholder survey to ensure we hear from you!

SAVE THE DATES

More information will be available after the new year, but please save the dates:

All listening sessions will be held at Steele Indian School Park Memorial Hall, 300 East Indian School Road, Phoenix, AZ 85012. The online survey will close on Friday, February 21, 2020. 

The Office of Arts and Culture's Public Art Program is heading into the new year with three major projects at or nearing completion.

At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, fabricators and installers are applying the finishing touches to Phoenix Light Threshold, by artist James Carpenter Design Associates. The work will span the nearly 200-foot passenger bridge connecting Terminal 3 to its North Concourse. A past recipient of a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, Carpenter is renowned for creations that fuse art and engineering into celebrations of natural light. His North Bridge combines all three to create a walkway bathed in the beauty of Arizona’s landscape and sky. The work’s more than 750 reflective blue and gold aluminum cells amount to a light-gathering beehive along the west wall of the bridge. Like the airport’s other artist-designed passenger bridges, this one promises to be a soothing passage between the hustle of TSA and the bustle of boarding or leaving the plane. Stay tuned opening dates.

Speaking of the airport, check out Mitch Fry’s newly installed sculpture at the top of the escalators at the west end of Terminal 3. The work was among several sculptures commissioned as part of the Terminal 3 Modernization. He created the 8-foot wooden ball with more than 2,200 pieces of spruce, pine, fir and other white woods. Don’t forget to peak in the eyehole! It offers a lesson in geometric perfection. 

In Laveen, a new pedestrian bridge is taking shape as part of the new South Mountain Loop 202 freeway. Designed by artist Jody Pinto, the bridge will provide a safe and beautiful way for families to cross the freeway near 59th Avenue and West Elwood Street. The bridge features perforated brushed aluminum cladding and durable colored skylights. These features will provide plenty of cooling shade and airflow, along with splashes of color during the day. For added safety, the inside of the bridge will be illuminated with blue lights at night. The bridge cladding is being fabricated and installed by Magnum Companies of west Phoenix.

Public meeting agendas are posted on the City's website at least 24 hours before the meeting.

The City's official bulletin board for posting notices is located on the ground floor at the west side of Phoenix City Hall, 200 West Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona. The notices are viewable from the outside of the building (along Third Avenue), 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please be advised that only the City's official bulletin board may be relied on for official posting under Open Meeting Law.