IU names new partner organizations for Rural Placemaking Studio
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Sixteen rural organizations will partner with Indiana University this year for the next round of the Rural Placemaking Studio, an initiative that links IU faculty and students with Indiana residents to foster art and design in public spaces.
Launched in 2024, the studio is a collaboration between the IU ServeDesign Center at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design and the IU Center for Rural Engagement. The 13 projects selected last year included murals, wayfinding signs, architectural and park design, and downtown revitalization efforts in eight counties.
“The IU Rural Placemaking Studio makes community heritage, hopes and dreams visual and tangible,” IU Center for Rural Engagement Executive Director Denny Spinner said in a Wednesday news release. “All rural communities have something that makes them special, and the IU Rural Placemaking Studio helps residents create connection around their unique assets.”
The studio helps the organizations develop a scope of work, create designs, implement a timeline and gather community feedback. Students studying community design, placemaking and arts engagement will collaborate with the community partners.
“There is no substitute for the kind of experiential learning the Rural Placemaking Studio provides IU students,” IU Eskenazi School Dean Peg Faimon said in the release. “When they are serving real clients in small communities not unlike those they may have grown up in, our students have an organic engagement experience that grows their capacity to design with the user in mind.”
This year HWC Engineering of Indianapolis pledged $100,000 to support the work of students in the studio, IU said.
Jon Racek, program director of comprehensive design at the Eskenazi School and director of the ServeDesign Center, said the result of the studio’s efforts represents more than just the installation of public art.
“These collaborations,” Racek said in the release, “help build relationships and give communities a sense of momentum to keep making positive changes.”
The following are the organizations and projects in this year’s round of the Rural Placemaking Studio:
- The Nashville Lincoln Pinch Park in Brown County, which will design a parklet with seating and public art by local artists.
- The Jeffersonville Township Public Library in Clark County, which will create a pocket park at the Clarksville Library branch to serve children and highlight the history of Clarksville.
- The Town of Borden in Clark County, which will design signs for the Borden Business Park to highlight historical sites and local landmarks.
- Friends of Marengo Big Springs Old Town Church in Crawford County, which will design a parklet on the public site of a 167-year-old historic building.
- Alquina Blue Arrows Park in Fayette County, which will develop a piece of public art to be installed at the park.
- Hoosier Action Resource Center in Floyd County, which will create plans to transform two former houses and an adjacent lot into a Community Center and Resilience Hub.
- Main Street Brookville in Franklin County, which will design two murals for Printers Alley off Main Street. One will honor the philanthropy of the Franklin County Community Foundation, and the other will celebrate 200 years of local journalism.
- The Town of Edinburgh in Johnson, Bartholomew, and Shelby counties, which will develop designs for a year-round downtown plaza suitable for drive-in vendors and events.
- Friends of Knox County Library inKnox County, which will create a parklet at the Knox County Public Library.
- Pantheon Business and Innovation Theatre in Knox County, which will design an outdoor seating area and a mural on the exterior of the historic theater.
- Community Action Leading Loogootee in Martin County, which will design signs to identify the seven remaining Mesker facade buildings in Loogootee, eventually contributing to a historic architecture tour.
- Knox County Association of Remarkable Citizens, which will develop designs for the redevelopment of the Launch 99 Co-Working and Entrepreneurship Center.
- Martin County Alliance for Economic Growth and Historic Shoals River District, which will continue to work with students to create sign designs for Main Street Shoals businesses.
- Paoli Redevelopment Commission in Orange County, which will design a parklet on a vacant lot on the southeast corner of the Historic Paoli Town Square.
- Pike County Economic Development, which will design three public art pieces to be installed along the new Buffalo Trace Trail.
- The City of Tipton in Tipton County, which will design signs greeting visitors.