The exterior of Saint John City Hall is pictured in this file photo. (Staff photo)
Saint John is considering a program that would match artists with groups and businesses to help bring a touch of colour to unexpected parts of the city.
ENCORE, the municpal program aimed at accelerating economic and community activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, has recommended a program that would encourage community artists to bring their work out into the open.
Kate Wilcott, Arts and Culture Coordinator, says the Spotlight program could bring about unexpected collaboration for the community.
“(It could be) a poet working with a senior’s centre,” Wilcott said in a presentation to the city’s Growth Committee on April 13. “Another idea would be a photographer working with Outflow to create large-scale photo installations on street corners.”
The Spotlight project is based on Irrigate, a program from St. Paul, Minnesota, which connected artists with businesses to help liven up a community as construction for a rail-line caused disruptions for business-owners and community members.
Wilcott says Irrigate and Spotlight are both examples of ‘creative placemaking’ in a municipality.
“Creative placemaking is the act of people coming together to transform overlooked and undervalued public, shared spaces into welcoming destinations,” she said.
Wilcott said there is a long history of the arts being used to help rebuild economies and communities, citing England creating the very first arts council following World War II.
The hope is Spotlight would help build social capital, and create small projects that give opportunities to residents, artists and the business sector.
“We can all acknowledge this past year has been extremely disrupting to the community and business centres,” Wilcott said.
The Spotlight program will come before Common Council at its April 19 meeting.
