Learn About Placemaking Grant Program from Past Recipient Jan Johnson

Published on January 18, 2024

This article was written for City Speaks, a bi-weekly newsletter that connects you to what’s going on in Charlotte government. Sign up to receive every edition straight to your inbox.

By Kayla-Chadwick Schultz

Have you heard about the City of Charlotte’s Placemaking Grant program? This program is a community-building initiative that supports quick-wins and transformative projects throughout the city to create and enhance community vibrancy, safety, and identity. We achieve this through:

• Activation of leftover and underutilized spaces.
• Streetscape improvements.
• Art and beautification efforts.
• Creation of community gathering spaces.

Now, five years into the program, this grant has a total pool of $150,000. It builds upon the opportunities presented in the city’s Placemaking Hub, which provides toolkits to inspire and guide placemaking efforts. But what is placemaking?

Placemaking is a word for prioritizing the experience people have as they spend time in public places. Projects work toward enhancing those spaces; making them vibrant and active; and serving the needs, wants, and hopes of the communities where they live. The Charlotte Urban Design Center sees placemaking as a collaborative process to better connect community members to the spaces and people around them.

Progress photo of the “Paint the Pavement with Nutrition” mural painted along a bike lane on the 300 block of Davidson Street.

To help provide a better understanding of the Placemaking Grant experience, we reached out to 2023 program winner Jan Johnson of Uptown Farmer’s Market. The awarded project was called “Paint the Pavement with Nutrition” and involved created a mural within the protected bike lane along the 300 block of Davidson Street. Here’s what she had to say…

City Speaks: How did you first hear about the Placemaking Grant program?

Jan Johnson: We first heard about the program in 2021 from Abby Wyatt, who was working at Mecklenburg County’s Health Department at the time. We partner with the Health Department for our SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) Double-Bucks program. The new bike lanes on the 300 block of Davidson were just being installed, and she mentioned that there was a program to “paint the pavement” with the City’s Urban Planning department. This was just before we installed our mural in July 2021, so we had that project to tackle first! We did go ahead and invite representatives from CDOT to take a look at the bike lane idea, and once we had their verbal approval that the idea would fit within the parameters of what is normally approved, we began to plan on how we could get funding and execute on the project. 

CS: Why this project? Why protected bike lanes?

JJ: Since the Uptown Farmers Market is focused on health and nutrition, we were very excited that the new bike lanes would go right by the market. The lanes were ideal as a painting canvas because of the protective barrier between the lanes and car traffic. This prevents the painted sections from being driven over which should help protect the images from wear and tear. We love using art at the market to help promote healthy eating – the fruit and vegetable images are bright and engaging and catch the attention of anyone who passes by. The bike lane was also ideal because it was naturally broken up in sections which allowed us to create 18 community teams to paint the sections. We had muralist Curtis King design the images and supervise the teams, with volunteer support, and we were able to have over 150 participants painting. We had corporate sponsors, community partners, and patrons all involved in the project. The Placemaking Grant Program made this possible with funding and in coordination with the City’s goals.

CS: For any newcomers who may be considering applying for a grant, can you share what the application process was like?

JJ: We can’t say enough wonderful things about working with Kate Cavazza, who was accessible for lots of questions all along the way. The application was definitely easier for us since we had been planning the idea for a couple of years, had some early approvals in place, and had our muralist identified. The steps of the process helped to guide the remaining details of what we needed. We formed a committee of volunteers to help coordinate the process for us also.

Photo of mural painting participants courtesy of WSOC TV.

CS: Once you found out that you had received the grant, what were the next steps like? How did you go from grant recipient to actually having a mural in the protected bike lanes?

JJ: Since we were planning on executing the project in one day last July, we were on a short timeframe to pull it all together once we knew we had funding. Again, the early planning was key for us, and having such an experienced and talented artist like Curtis King gave us great assurance that everything could be coordinated that day. We were thrilled that the sponsors and community partners of the Market were so enthusiastic to participate also, because we wanted it to reflect a community effort. We set up a calendar of necessary steps and tried to stay on track with that. You always have to expect a few surprises along the way and be flexible.

CS: Now that the mural is complete, what are your thoughts? Have you noticed any differences with bikers or passersby?

JJ: We hear such positive comments about the healthy images on the bike lanes! We especially love to hear that the Brookstone School students across the street enjoy crossing them every day for their PE classes. The Market has even started a monthly healthy snack initiative partnering with the school and fresh produce from our farmers. The 300 block of Davidson is truly a destination for cyclists Uptown also as it is such a unique and colorful stretch.

CS: What advice would you share with future Placemaking Grant hopefuls?

JJ: Doing as much legwork ahead of time is really helpful when submitting the application. Even though we tried to think of every expense, there were still items that we didn’t anticipate. So, always good to have some margin in an organization’s budget to cover the unexpected. We ended up needing to close the entire block on two separate days in order to get the background colors painted before the actual project day. This required hiring CMPD off-duty officers for two days, instead of just one. Thankfully, this all came together due to the help of CDOT and CMPD.

The Charlotte Urban Design Center is accepting applications for the Placemaking Grant program starting Jan. 19. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2024. Learn more and apply.