Projects
The 2022 Liv Co Walls mural festival is an innovative project intended to enhance Livingston County’s economic development efforts.
This project brought one large mural to each of the nine downtown districts— providing another asset in their walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtowns. These murals attract visitors, locals, and tourists!
In July of 2022 regional, national, and international artists created 9 high-quality murals — one in each of the 9 villages of Livingston County. The murals were unveiled on the same month, with celebrations and events taking place all over the county throughout the duration of the festival to recognize the artists and the communities.
This regional mural festival concept builds on the quality of place efforts accelerated by the Downtown Partnership, a program of Livingston County Economic Development, grows regional pride, and garnered significant attention and exposure nationally.
Photos by Keith Walters | Alex Hall
ART THIS WAY is a public art program and creative place-making initiative which operates under the umbrella of the Fort Wayne Downtown Economic Improvement District, FWDID. The FWDID contracts A H Public Spaces Consulting, LLC to liaison between property owners and artists to bring large scale professional art installations into Fort Wayne, IN. Managing Art This Way includes the commission and development of public realm projects, event planning, and the facilitation and implementation of public art on private property.
Over the last five years, the program has installed 30 permanent projects in Downtown Fort Wayne. Art This Way projects include murals, sculptures, and inclusive signage. In 2020 the program facilitated over fifty temporary art installations, including a Plywood Paint Out in the wake of the George Floyd protests in Fort Wayne and a dozen works installed in September which advocated for social justice.
[Photo Credit: Brett Frauhiger, Adam Garland, Rachel Von Stroup, & Stephen J Bailey]
ELECTRIC WORKS CAMPUS
Hall was hired to help facilitate some of the artwork on the Electric Works campus. Theoplis Smith aka Phresh Laundry installed the Union Street Tunnel. This tunnel mural acts as the gateway piece that invites and welcomes visitors to the newly renovated Electric Works campus. The project, a 700,000 square foot adaptive re-use of the former GE campus, will act as the heart of innovation, collaboration, programming and cultural change for Northeast Indiana. Hall worked with the Ancora team to implement this tunnel mural as well as nine mural panels for the Union Street Market. All the artists hired are local to Fort Wayne, and each project tells a story about GE’s history and celebrates the new makers coming to
the renovated campus. Artists who painted the nine mural panels are: OLIVIA PEREZ & CECILIA DUNIFON, RAUL PEREZ, THEOPLIS SMITH III aka PHRESH LAUNDRY, JULIE WALL, TERRY RATLIFF, JEREMY STROUP, GRACE YENCER, BONNIE "BONJO" ANDREWS, EMILY MERCEDES.
MAKE IT YOUR OWN MURAL FEST is a region-wide public art initiative which encompasses eleven counties in northeast Indiana. A H Public Spaces Consulting, LLC was hired by the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership to act as the public art consultant on the project. Alexandra's role included development of property owner contracts and artist agreements, development of artwork content, facilitation of the artist selection processes including open calls, recruiting artists, jury sessions and property owner approval processes.
She also advised wall selection, on-site logistics, paint order delivery, wall preparation, and acted as the artist liaison-working to ensure artist participation, answer their concerns and ensure a completed project.
Each mural is approximately 2,000 square feet in size, and almost all murals are located within a community’s center. These were strategically placed to allow for maximum economic impact. The overarching goal of this initiative is the leveraging of public art to attract a skilled and talented workforce and to impact regional quality of life.
[Photo Credit: Stephen J Bailey & BFA Studios]
Public Realm Programming
Under the contract with the Fort Wayne Downtown Economic Improvement District, FWDID, A H Public Spaces Consulting, LLC works to further activate spaces with seating, events and greenery. This part of the contract involves collaboration with the city of Fort Wayne and FWDID to activate spaces on public and private property in order to encourage pedestrian use and draw traffic to specific zones. This programming includes partnerships with anchor businesses; The aim is to increase their business and offer them additional seating and event zones near their restaurant, café, or boutique. Murals and public art are often a component of these activation zones, but additional creative placemaking mechanisms include seating, lighting, greenery, trash containers, closure of streets and parking areas, and art installations.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES THROUGH IMPROVED QUALITY OF PLACE
In 2021 the NewAllen Alliance brought five large scale art projects to five communities: Leo-Cedarville, Grabill, Woodburn, Monroeville and Hoagland, Indiana. Each community has a unique project in a location that is in the heart of their town or city. The purpose of this artwork implementation is to highlight community assets, educate visitors, encourage economic growth, and improve over-all quality of place.
All five murals are complete.
A huge thank you to the talented artists: Tim Parsley, Julie Wall, Ricco Diamante, Amy Buchs, and John Klein!
NewAllen Alliance Projects
Jefferson Pointe Murals
In the summer of 2021 five unique murals were installed at Jefferson Pointe in Fort Wayne, Indiana. These murals were part of an open-call artist application and a people’s choice contest.
The purpose of this artwork implementation is to drive organic social media content, provide opportunities to emerging talent, enhance the pedestrian experience in these zones, and increase commerce.
MURAL INSTALLATIONS
TAMMY DAVIS | BEAR in VAN
CHRIS CATALOGNA | CANYONS
NICK FERRAN | BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF
JOHN KLEIN | SUMMIT CITY
MATT PLETT | YOU GOT THIS!
FRIENDS OF THE RIVERS
CLEAN DRAINS FORT WAYNE
STAY TUNED FOR 2023 UPDATES!
Recognition & Celebration Event: WORLD RIVER DAY 2023
FORT WAYNE PUBLIC ART COMMISSION
Nebraska Neighborhood Mural
Public Art Commission funded this project by Jeff Pilkinton in the Nebraska Neighborhood.
There was an open call for artists to submit qualifications. The top three chosen by the jury were paid to create concepts for review. This design by Pilkinton celebrates the
Kekionga Baseball history, the local gardens, and the women of Wayne Knitting Mills.
Make Music, Fort Wayne
MAKE MUSIC, FORT WAYNE is a project run in partnership with Lutheran Life Villages. Upright pianos are painted by local artists and then they are placed in strategic public areas. The community is invited to bring music to the alleyways of Fort Wayne, IN.
Each year a new piano is released into the wild!
Kevin Naber created this video and is responsible for the entire Make Music FW program.