Improvement Project Lands Placemaking Grant

RECLAIM is the only project in Indiana being funded by the ArtPlace grant.

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A three-year, $200,000 grant from Artplace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund will support a neighborhood improvement project on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The RECLAIM project, led in part by an official from the Polis Center at IUPUI, aims to use art to turn vacant, unsafe spaces into safe pathways for elementary school children.

Polis Center Spirit & Place Community Engagement Director Lashawnda Crowe Storm and Phyllis Viola Boyd earned the grant. RECLAIM is the only project in Indiana being funded by the ArtPlace grant.

The overall project includes a series of design, business and community development workshops. Storm says decreased funding for public works projects over time has "left the community fragmented and in dire need of infrastructure improvements and maintenance of vacant city-owned properties, of which there are hundreds."

In all, ArtPlace awarded $11 million in funding to 29 projects in 19 states. Nearly 1,400 applicants requested funding. You can find more on the RECLAIM project by clicking here.