Sandusky Adopts Public Art and Placemaking Plan
As Sandusky celebrates its Bicentennial and prepares for the future, the opportunity has arisen for the city to reevaluate its context — its place in the world – and to discover new opportunities to communicate its story. The city’s rich history, geography, and diversity set Sandusky apart, but these special qualities are not always visible to the outside world. The celebration of Sandusky’s Bicentennial in 2018 brought an opportunity to create a vision for how the city can build on its legacy through policies and civic improvement. In many ways this effort is an outgrowth of that vision, and to that end, the city has created an innovative policy that funds the creation of public art in order to enhance the physical environment for residents and visitors to the city.
The City of Sandusky has chosen public art as a preferred medium to inject its culture into the built environment. By using public art, the city’s civic infrastructure can physically embody the communal desire to ensure Sandusky is vibrant, celebrated, connected, and livable.
WHY PUBLIC ART?
Artistic Integrity
Sandusky is a city that prides itself on high quality civic amenities. Like the accolades of the city’s historic buildings, roller coasters, or floral traditions, public art in Sandusky can help put the city on the map through the highest quality art possible. Whether the art of Sandusky originates here or elsewhere, that inspiration must be drawn from the community and be relevant to residents. The intention of this plan is to ensure the city succeeds in finding its communal voice and expressing it through high quality art in the public realm.
Community Identity
Though Sandusky is a widely sought out destination for visitors and residents alike, the city doesn’t always capitalize on the visitors. Sandusky has an opportunity to use public art to communicate to both residents and visitors what Sandusky represents – a city that cares about who it is, what happens here, and where its going in the future. The art of Sandusky can become the city’s calling card to the world.
Economic Development
As Sandusky seeks to improve the local economy, public art can aide the effort. Public art is a natural draw for visitors and tourists and has been proven to increase revenue for businesses and government. Additionally it can be a driver for reinvestment in neighborhoods through aesthetic improvement and heightened attachment to place.
WHY CREATIVE PLACEMAKING?
Creative placemaking projects help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. Creative placemaking is the collaboration of artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners to deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work – placing arts at the table with city departments such as land use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies. Creative placemaking supports local efforts to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity, and create a distinct sense of place.
The Sandusky City Commission adopted the Public Art and Placemaking Plan on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, establishing the Sandusky Arts and Culture Commission and strategy of the program for the next ten years.