NEXT: Montpelier, Vermont Transit Hub Art Plan

Designing Local has begun work for the City of Montpelier, Vermont on a Public Art Master Plan for One Taylor Street, a new transit hub in the heart of downtown. The project, supported by local, state and federal funds will be Montpelier’s largest private to public development in the past 30 years. One Taylor Street, which is being called the new gateway to Montpelier, has been catalytic for other design and community development projects. The City recently participated in the EPA’s Greening of America’s Capitals project, downtown merchants approved a Downtown Improvement District tax to fund cultural activities and streetscape improvements and a Downtown Design Summit was held to engage the community in developing catalytic projects.

To that end, the City applied for and won an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to express community values and vision through public art at One Taylor Street. The centerpiece of the planning process will be a series of five creative visioning workshops led by teaching artists from different disciplines. These hands-on workshops will lead community members to create expressions of their vision for how art can increase their sense of place and community. Each workshop will culminate into a public event to exhibit the creative visioning works, with reflection time with the audience to gather input for the master plan. All five of the creative visioning workshops will culminate into a Master Plan and an installation of the first major city-funded public art work. This commissioned work will celebrate the community’s hard work at developing the Public Art Master Plan and the adoption of the plan as a central component of city planning.

Our team is thrilled to be part of such a catalytic project as Montpelier has long been known for its forward-thinking arts and culture initiatives. We are excited about the new discoveries and ideas that will emerge over the next year.