Staff recommends that Council approve the submittal of the "Our Town" grant application to the National Endowment for the Arts and approve acceptance of the grant should it be awarded. 

In partnership with Healthy By Design, City staff and Council Member Joy are working on a grant application for the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant. The application requests funding to contract with an artist in residence for one year between approximately September 2022-August 2023. 

According to the National Endowment for the Arts' website, "Our Town is the National Endowment for the Arts' creative placemaking grants program. Through project-based funding, we support projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes." According to the Project for Public Spaces, "placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value...placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identifies that define a place and support its ongoing evolution."

Throughout the course of the year, the artist will:
· Engage local residents along the route of Billings’ first neighborhood bikeway (formerly bicycle boulevard) to create at least three placemaking hubs. Creative placemaking elements will be decided through an interactive process with the public but could include elements like sculpture, entryway signage, paintings, etc. 
· Create a Placemaking Playbook with replicable guidelines for engaging residents in placemaking and community art during planning processes
· Conduct a feasibility study examining the possibility of creating a city-wide Public Arts Commission to guide art in public spaces such as the right-of-way

The goals of the project are to:
· Improve safety for residents of all ages, abilities, incomes, and backgrounds while traveling via all modes of transportation
· Connect residents to daily needs including schools, healthcare, jobs, healthy foods, and more
· Increase social cohesion and neighborhood identity among neighborhoods along the route, which range from low income to high income
· Create a replicable process for future placemaking use within the City of Billings. Placemaking is an effective tool to engage the public during the planning process, including during neighborhood planning. 
· Identify strategies to standardize the way public art is vetted and approved so that it is reflective and inclusive of the whole community

The deliverables for the project include:
· At least three placemaking hubs along the neighborhood bikeway route
· Placemaking Playbook
· Public Arts Commission feasibility study

The grant is due on August 17. Staff plans to apply for $50,000 from the grant.  A one-to-one local match is required. This match can be provided in-kind. Existing staff time, both from City staff and local partners, will be utilized as an in-kind match. Staff may work with local partners to fundraise a small cash match. However, no cash from the City will be dedicated to the match. 

City Council may:

• Approve submittal of the application and acceptance of the grant should it be awarded
• Not Approve submittal of the application. 

There are no fiscal effects to submitting this grant application. Should it be approved, staff time that is already budgeted and funded by current sources will be used as a match. No cash from City budgets will be committed to the project.