Public art a key piece in making Grand Forks beautiful

Aug. 28—GRAND FORKS — University Park Neighborhoods is making public art a fixture in the Greater Grand Forks area, one fire hydrant at a time.

UPN is hosting a fire hydrant painting contest in collaboration with the city. Grand Forks residents are invited to fill out an application with a design idea. UPN provides the necessary materials, which were purchased with funding from the Knight Foundation and Community Foundation.

"The idea is just to provide beautification in the neighborhood, to embed community spirit in the neighborhood," said Renee Cardarelle, UND professor and UPN faculty adviser.

Six fire hydrants have been painted and many are still available. They're located on the north end of Grand Forks, but painting is open to anyone 12 and older.

"We want to make it easy for people to participate," Cardarelle said.

Contest submissions will close sometime in September, then the submissions will be posted on Facebook. The painting with the most likes wins the contest.

Jillian Westrum, a local art teacher, worked with her students to paint the fire hydrants at Winship Elementary School and Valley Middle School.

"We try to make everything we do collaborative, because it's about community building," Cardarelle said. "We don't want to just have it done in isolation. We really want to draw others in."

The fire hydrants are just one of UPN's current beautification projects. The other, a school mural, was delayed and eventually resulted in a change to city code.

"Murals were already allowed in industrial districts and business districts, but now they're allowed on schools and churches in residential districts," said Sierra Johnson, city planner.

Cardarelle observed a substantial amount of support for the project.

"We had a number of people come to the City Council meetings, and the planning and zoning meetings, voicing their support and sending in comments," she said. "That was a long process that we went through, with a lot of community input."

UPN's goal, though, is just that — to include the community in all potential projects.

"We always want the community to be involved and feel really connected to us," Cardarelle said.

Cardarelle believes people are becoming more aware of the benefits of beautification and, in turn, public art is gaining traction in the Grand Forks area.

"Just having art that enhances your city is a draw for people outside the city," she said.

A couple of murals have been painted downtown in the past few years. Jill Proctor, CEO of the Downtown Development Association, said the community's response to the artwork has been incredible.

"I don't think that there are many days that go by where we don't see somebody in Town Square taking a photo in front of that Grand Forks mural," she said. "We're seeing travel bloggers making a special stop to get selfies with it. We're seeing senior pictures being taken there."

The DDA views art as a key piece in making spaces welcoming, inviting and inclusive to all community members, Proctor said. Because of this, the association took a strong approach in bringing new art downtown — and Proctor says it paid off.

"I think the more the community is engaged with these different types of art projects, the better and healthier the community is as a whole," Proctor said. "It might look like some paint on a wall to some people, but there's some really good philosophy and studies around what this type of art does for communities."

Artists have been coming together in a variety of ways to embrace these new opportunities and take on leadership roles.

"When you create pathways where there's financial opportunity, and there's mentorship opportunity, that's when you really start to grow that artist culture, because people can see themselves being able to do it," said Becca Cruger, a local artist.