York County is looking to bolster the creative space of its trail towns, and a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of Arts will help.
Glen Rock, New Freedom, Railroad, Seven Valleys and York City will split $100,000 over four years via the Creative Communities Initiative announced Friday.
“This is a simple concept of bringing people off of the Heritage Rail Trail and other trails,” said Silas Chamberlin, York County Economic Alliance chief strategy officer. “And bringing people into communities to spend a little more time here, hopefully spend a little money here.”
MORE:Inside York’s newest ‘rage room’ designed for breaking, creating and breaking again
MORE:Frustrated by the snarled traffic and road construction in York County? You’re not alone.
MORE:York City Police seek information on shooting that left man injured
The announcement was made at Glen Rock’s Ruins Hall. Once a factory, the area is now an event venue where artists have been able to express themselves through graffiti. Last year, the space received a $1 million RACP grant for improvements, matched through private investing according to Chamberlain.
“We’re really excited to have progress along the trail. You would be shocked to see how many people come right in off the trail, come in here, check things out, take pictures,” Kate Harmon of Crocodile Dog Marketing, which owns Ruins Hall, said at the event Friday.
Please consider subscribing to support local journalism.
Chamberlin said the five towns selected were because they directly run along the Heritage Rail Trail. He said the grant is for $25,000 over four years.
The grant from Creative Communities will be used to create a steering committee which will include the Cultural Alliance of York County, stakeholders and artists; investing and planning for public art at Ruins Hall as a signature redevelopment site and in the other four communities, Chamberlin said after the press conference. He cited FestivICE, the ice festival that encourages people to come to public spaces in cold weather.
Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York Township, noted that FestivICE has expanded across the county through the Heritage Rail Trail after the press conference.
Public art, Cultural Alliance of York County Kelley Gibson said during the press conference, is a tool to help solve community issues and problems and a way to tell a community’s story.
Please consider subscribing to support local journalism.
“Creative placemaking doesn’t mean calling artists in after it’s done. It means having artists and culture and thinking at the table of design and how to structure a placemaking project that creatively solves those problems and tells those stories,” Gibson said, “and that’s exactly what this project will do for these towns.”
Art also has an economic impact, PA Council of the Arts executive director Karl Blischke said during the press conference. He estimated $28 billion a year, 165,000 jobs and $14 billion in compensation annually for those jobs.
MORE:Fairview Township Police seek public’s help in theft of political signs
MORE:York City Police seeks missing 84-year-old man
MORE:No. 10 Penn State looking to bounce back against struggling Indiana
“It’s real jobs for real Pennsylvanians,” Blischke said,” and the great thing about the arts, the great thing about creativity, is it’s located all across Pennsylvania.”
Not addressed during the press conference was the YCEA’s presence at a press conference where York City police announced the arrest of a teen for causing over $27,000 in damage in graffiti and vandalizing over 100 properties in the city.
Asked after the press conference about the difference between creative expression and what had happened in York City, Harmon said she’s witnessed kids draw over pieces of Ruins Hall like a Bart Simpson or wings that had been there for years. The hope, she said, is to have the back wall of the building open for people to create art.
“Our goal is every year to reset,” Harmon said. “We want to have a festival so the kids can meet the artists, because if you can meet these artists, you know how much money is going into the paint, you see the craft, they might pause before they draw something stupid on top of whatever they want to do.”
Chamberlin said other communities have allowed graffiti at various places so people can show their artistic ability. He cited Rivers of Steel in Pittsburgh, which is trying to preserve the city’s steel sites following the collapse of the steel industry in the area in the 1980s; the initiative has several areas for artists to create graffiti.
“It’s not going to ever solve the issue, it’s just one of the mitigating things you can do,” Chamberlin said. “There’s many kids who would love to do it. Some are enticed by the more illegal version of it, and some are enticed if there’s a spot to do it to do it here and nowhere else.”
Please consider subscribing to support local journalism.
— Reach Matt Enright via email at menright@yorkdispatch.com or via Twitter at @Matthew_Enright.
