Blog - placemaking

Dutch artist Zedz arrives in Erie and begins transforming the exterior facade of 121 West 12th Street, a building owned by Zaphiris Family Limited Partnership.

Erie's Public Arts Projects move full steam ahead.

Erie Arts & Culture is excited to announce our 2019 Erie Gives Day (August 13th) donations, in their entirety, will benefit our New Horizons Initiative! Help us EmbracErie by bonding the city and its people.

In mid-April, Erie Arts & Culture hosted Peter Kageyama as the first installment in our placemaking speaker series. Second we welcomed Barbara Goldstein in mid-May. This June, we welcome Lily Yeh to Erie as the next installment of our Placemaking Speaker Series. Lily will present to the public from 5 pm to 7 pm on Wednesday, June 19 at the HO Hirt Auditorium inside the Blasco Library.

As the second installment of the Placemaking Speaker Series, Erie Arts & Culture welcomes Barbara Goldstein to Erie on Sunday, May 12. Barbara’s visit will extend through Wednesday, May 15. The public is invited to attend her keynote presentation on Monday, May 11 at 6:00 PM at the Erie Art Museum. The event is free but registration is encouraged. Also during her visit, Barbara will meet with community organizations and stakeholders as she is led on a tour of Erie’s neighborhoods to learn more about the revitalization efforts occurring throughout Erie’s urban core.

Erie Arts & Culture is proud to announce a milestone – its 500th artist residency! This momentous achievement has been in the works since 1994 when Erie Arts & Culture became one of four founding partner organizations for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) Arts in Education (AIE) Partnership.

In a continued effort to enhance and cultivate placemaking within the City of Erie, the Erie Downtown Partnership and Erie Arts & Culture are accepting qualifications from artists (or artist teams) for a public art opportunity along State Street in Downtown Erie. It is desired that the finished artwork for this project be incorporated into the intersection of State Street and both East and West 3rd Street.

One of the objectives of the New Horizons initiative is to infuse arts and culture into libraries, public parks, and other community resources to provide neighborhood programming that ensures the benefits of arts and culture are more fully recognized, utilized and valued.

Peter Kageyama is the author of “Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places” and the follow-up book “Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places.” Peter is a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Innovation, a national network of city leaders. He is also an internationally sought-after community development consultant and grassroots engagement strategist who speaks all over the world about bottom-up community development.