New Partnership in St Paul could mean increased visibility for Art & Artists in Minnesota

There's a new National Endowment for the Arts program called ArtPlace that aims to use the arts as a driving force for economic development. This program takes funding in the form of grants from foundations as well as loans from corporations and really aims to demonstrate that artists grow, support, and drive economics. Here's a New York Times article about this new program: Here One offshoot of this new program that is of particular importance to artists in Minnesota is called Irrigate. Irrigate is a partnership between the City of Saint Paul, Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Springboard for the Arts. Here's how the Irrigate program is described on their website Irrigate will:

• mobilize and train artists in community development and creative placemaking
• activate hundreds of artist-led projects along the corridor that benefit businesses and neighborhoods

Here's coverage from MPR's State of the Arts- Go!. There's a call out to any artists who live, work or have a demonstrated relationship to the six St Paul neighborhoods that share the Central Corridor Light Rail line to participate and possibly get funding for projects. Let's make sure the performing arts are well represented in this project over the next several years.