New London, MN has a Main Street that is home to vibrant retail shops and restaurants; a beautiful river that runs through town and a significant artist population. The town has not yet connected these three assets. It is the goal of this project grant to train project leaders to develop public art projects along the banks of the river that will revitalize an underused natural green space and create community gathering places.

We have established a seven-member Advisory Board made up of stakeholders and community leaders to serve as a review and support for the projects as they move forward. They developed criteria we will use in the development and execution of projects.

We partnered with Forecast Public Art to conduct three workshops (Nov '14/Jan '15/Mar '15) to teach 13 community members how to develop and execute public art projects in the Riverspace area. They have formed four project teams that are in various stages of project plans, several are crafting artist calls. One obstacle we have is getting permission to use land owned by the State Department of Natural Resources; we are currently in negotiations for a lease, and are optimistic about the outcome.