What value did the project bring?

This year at The Junction at Five Points we created an “Artist of the Month” Mural installation which was a first of its kind program for me and Capital Associates. To share lessons learned I have tried to provide my answers to a broad range of questions, one of which is shared below. Please let me know what you think about the project and lessons learned!

What value did the project bring?

           Given the temporary nature of the Artist of the Month project, the intent was never to bring long term monetary value to the development. The intent was to create a sense of community and allow folks to engage with our project. Part of me wanted the art to also bring attention to the development project itself. However, that attention never really came. The murals received 10’s of thousands of impressions through various social media channels, but I would be interested to know if the folks who saw the photos knew where the murals were located or knew anything about the redevelopment project associated with the art. Bringing attention to the redevelopment was never the intent, but it would have been nice. 

The murals did however gain a lot of attention for the artists (one of our artist was even on the local news!), created good will with our neighbors, and got them excited about the redevelopment, and gave a nice prompt for updates and conversation with investors and potential tenants. 

As the redevelopment has been under construction I have also heard from neighbors and several members in the community that they appreciated us putting in the effort to beautify our project with art. The goodwill created within the neighborhood should not be undervalued.

Lastly, the project was simply a blast to work on!