Bunnell gets $150,000 grant for Old Town art project

ArtPlace America has awarded Bunnell Street Arts Center a $150,000 grant for Old Town AIR, an artist in residence program.
Old Town AIR seeks to inspire and create artistic events in the Old Town area of Homer. The project will link the Old Town People’s Garden, Bishop’s Beach and the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center through signs, sculptures, murals, trails and events.
Bunnell was one of four Alaska nonprofit organizations receiving $1 million in grants from ArtPlace America. Other Alaska organizations honored are the Anchorage Park Foundation Light Brigade, the Perseverance Theatre Rainforest Festival and Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Center, both in Juneau.
ArtPlace America is a collaboration of national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies committed to accelerating what it calls “creative placemaking — putting art at the heart of a portfolio of strategies designed to revitalize communities.”
“ArtPlace America recognizes the central role arts and cultural activities can have in the revitalization of American cities,” said Rip Rapson, chair of ArtPlace America’s Presidents’ Council. “With this grant award ArtPlace America is directing individual project support to scores of creative, high-impact projects throughout the country.”
ArtPlace America has awarded a total of $42.1 million in 134 grants to 124 projects in 79 communities across the U.S. and a statewide project in Connecticut.