PopUp Providence, a tactical urbanism program that introduces inexpensive and temporary installations designed to engage its residents and invigorate the area is now accepting proposals from the community. The program is a partnership between the Providence Redevelopment Agency and the Providence Department of Planning and Development.
“By making a small investment you can make an impact in the public realm,” said Bonnie Nickerson, director of long-range planning for the Department of Planning and Development, adding that the installations will make the area more interesting and lively, as well as engage “residents around their neighborhoods and around different areas of the city.”
Tactical urbanism is employed “in advance of large investments in the city,” said Emily Kish, principal planner with the Department of Planning and Development. “Citizens and the government can work together to provide smaller … activation installations throughout the city.”
Inspiration for PopUp Providence came from the Department of Planning and Development’s work with the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, Kish said. The two departments collaborated on the development of the R-Line, a “Rapid Bus Route” launching in May 2014, according to RIPTA’s website. As part of the “Art in Transit” program, the Department of Planning and Development has teamed up with artists to install art in new bus shelters along the line, Kish said. The department thought it was a “great initiative to try to expand in different ways,” Kish added.
PopUp Providence, a three-year program, is funded by the Redevelopment Agency and is coming to the conclusion of its “demonstration” year, Kish said. The Redevelopment Agency has allocated $150,000 for the program and $50,000 annually, she added.
Demonstration projects included two “Before I Die” walls, chalkboard walls set up in Burnside Park and Grant’s Block. The walls invite pedestrians to write down their hopes for the future, according to the Department of Planning and Development’s website. The walls represent part of a larger “Before I Die” project started by artist Candy Chang, according to the department’s website. They have been temporarily removed.
At Olneyville Square last fall, a branding campaign known as Square One led to the creation of banners used to cover construction zones. The banners “show the community: here’s our identity,” Kish said. “We’re working to build this community. … We’re investing in this area.” The banners are reusable and cover different construction sites when the need arises.
A third demonstration project, Community MusicWorks, will launch March 14. The studio provides music instruction to Providence youth, and it will hold a concert in a vacant storefront on Carpenter Street, she said.
“They wanted to activate the vacancy to provide sort of a concert learning center,” Kish said, adding that the department hopes to hold more concerts with Community MusicWorks in the coming months.
A public art installation made in collaboration with AS220 Youth will be inaugurated in Trinity Square this spring, Kish said.
The application deadline for Year Two projects is March 28, and any member of the public, provided they are 18 years or older, can submit a proposal, Kish said. The projects must correspond to one of five categories: PopUp Playspace, PopUp Parklet, PopUp Art, PopUp Shop or PopUp Amenity.
Approved proposals will be put into action beginning this summer, Nickerson said.
Kish said she hopes to see community groups, nonprofits or individuals collaborate with private businesses on their projects. The collaboration could financially support individuals or groups and offer services to sustain and promote projects, she said.
“We’re really interested in art that is locally produced,” Nickerson said. “If it has particular meaning in the location where it’s proposed that would be something the selection committee would be interested in.”
The Providence Redevelopment Agency will require applicants to contribute at least 20 percent of the total project cost, “so as to create an investment on their part in their particular application,” said Donald Gralnek, executive director of the Redevelopment Agency. He added that the agency will contribute a maximum of $8,000 to a single project, and if an individual project is less costly, more projects could be funded.
Projects are more likely to be approved if they have the support of the community, Gralnek said.
Applications are reviewed by a steering committee composed of “folks active in the community,” Gralnek said, adding that the committee will advise the agency board on which projects seem most suited to PopUp Providence.
Gralnek said the Redevelopment Agency sees the creation “of commercial interaction opportunities” as one of PopUp Providence’s major goals. He recognizes that the “conditions that are conducive to the interchange and the delivery of commerce can take many forms,” he added.
Nickerson said the whole city should be able to participate in PopUp Providence.
“We want to invest money in improving the public realm of our cities … by highlighting the talent that we have in Providence,” she added.
Kish said it is important that a PopUp project “directly represent that immediate area in which it is located,” adding that,“We want it to really engage people. We want people to have fun with it. We want to be surprised and encouraged by it.”
The Department of Planning and Development also plans to initiate several smaller projects, such as “Walk Providence,” which will offer residents an opportunity to design signs encouraging people to walk to different locations throughout the city.
Kish said “there have been a few hang-ups” with regard to obtaining the necessary permits and approvals needed to go ahead with some of the projects. But she said she is “confident that we can get all the approvals and permits that we need to make it work.”
Gralnek described the public response to PopUp Providence as positive overall, noting the popularity of the “Before I Die” walls.
“It’s a great opportunity to enliven our city,” Nickerson said. “We’re really excited to see the creative ideas that come in.”
Kish said she saw the program as benefiting not only Providence residents but also helping the artists involved in the art’s creation publicize their name and promote their work.
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