CITY PARKS FOUNDATION (New York, NY) - Developing Arts and Cultural Programs to Revitalize Parks and Communities

(Parks Practices)CITY PARKS FOUNDATION
New York, NY

In This Profile: Program Description • Program Goals • Budget • Funding/Support • Results Achieved • Lessons Learned • Ask The Expert • Contact Information

Introduction

Established in 1989, City Parks Foundation (CPF) works in over 700 parks across New York City, presenting a broad range of free arts, education and sports programs, and helping citizens to support their parks on a local level. Programs ranging from the renowned Central Park SummerStage to CityParks Tennis — one of the country’s largest free municipal tennis programs — reach more than 600,000 New Yorkers each year, contributing to the revitalization of neighborhoods throughout New York City.

CPF brings 900 arts and cultural performances each year to a total audience of nearly 400,000, making it one of the largest providers of cultural programs in New York City. David Rivel, executive director of the City Parks Foundation, serves on the City Parks Alliance board.

Program Title: Developing Arts and Cultural Programs to Revitalize Parks and Communities

Program description

Urban parks have always been used as a setting for arts and cultural programs — most were designed in part for that purpose — and arts activity in a park can be part of a long-term strategy to revitalize a park and as an important tool for building community involvement. City Parks Foundation uses arts and cultural programs as a vital element in the process of improving parks.

CPF presents over 900 performances a year in parks through the following programs:

Central Park SummerStage, the world-renowned free festival in New York City’s most famous park, attracts over 200,000 people each summer.

CityParks Concerts, a summer series of three concerts in each of ten parks around the city, reaches 40,000 people.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, a two-day musical celebration in two parks, reaches 10,000.

CityParks Kids, featuring professional musicians, storytellers and dancers in performances designed for kids ages 3 – 12. CityParks Kids takes place at 84 different parks and reaches over 100,000 kids each year. In total, we present 600 performances a year to kids. The overwhelming majority of these kids come from low income neighborhoods.

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in America, presents performances six days a week throughout the year in Central Park. The PuppetMobile also takes performances on the road, presenting shows in parks, beaches, playgrounds and other public spaces year-round.

CityParks Dance and CityParks Theater, to be launched in summer 2006, will showcase small- and mid-sized dance and theater companies in parks around the city.

These programs not only allow New Yorkers to experience high quality art, right in their neighborhood park, but they also serve to revitalize a park that might have been abandoned. Arts performances, especially at night (when the community might otherwise be fearful of entering the space), help fill the park with activity. They show the neighborhood the potential for the space and help change the way a community views the park.

Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, for example, had been a neglected and largely abandoned space for years. Although it sat in the middle of a residential neighborhood, residents would avoid the park and walk around its perimeter rather than risk crossing it. Criminal activity was prevalent. Concerts, dance shows, kids' arts programs and other performances helped bring people back into the park and, together with a strategy to involve the community in the life of the park, helped turn the park around. As a next step, CPF taught the community how to put on its own performances, and much of the arts activity in the park is now self-produced. In 2000, approximately 70% of the performances in Marcus Garvey Park were produced by CPF, but today, community presenting accounts for about two-thirds of the activity.

Similarly, seven failing waterfront parks in Queens are being improved through arts activity. A recent report from the Center for an Urban Future highlighted the area as a neighborhood poised for economic development and noted that bringing existing cultural institutions together would greatly enhance the neighborhood. Through the “Living on the Edge” initiative produced by CPF, film series, concerts, public art and kids programs are connecting people and arts institutions to the parks and waterfront. Local merchants have been invited to sell their products to the audiences gathered for the arts events, thus spurring micro-economic activity. The neighborhood residents who attend these arts programs are becoming the core members of the community’s park support groups.

$3.2 million (of a $7.1 million total organizational budget)

Funding sources/partnerships and type of support provided:

Support from foundations, corporations, government and individuals as well as partnerships with arts organizations. About half the funding comes from corporations that want to sponsor these performances. Another 25% comes from foundations. The remainder is split evenly between individuals (largely a membership program for SummerStage) and some government funding.

Results achieved/impact:

See above.

In addition, two of the biggest challenges for small and mid-sized arts organization nationally are:


1) finding accessible and inexpensive performance/workshop space,
2) developing audiences for the future. Performances in neighborhood parks help artists solve both challenges. While not all of the artists we book are New York City-based, many of them are, and they welcome the chance to perform before audiences that may be unfamiliar with their work and may not have had a chance to see them in typical venues. Much of the funding we receive for these programs comes from foundations and individuals who want to support and nurture artistic activity in New York City.

Lessons learned:

Arts and cultural programs can be an important part of the process of improving a neighborhood park, but there are challenges to setting up arts and cultural programs.

• It can be technically difficult to perform in parks. It’s hard to do proper sound and lighting, and working with the elements (rain, heat, etc.) is difficult.
• City kids sometimes do not like to sit on the grass (worms, you know), so we bring out tarps or other covering in sites where we don’t have chairs or bench seating.
• Dance companies don’t always like to perform on surfaces other than sprung dance floors.
• Don’t be overly ambitious. Start small, with only a few performances in a neighborhood park.
• Music is the easiest major art form to do. Choose performers who are comfortable working outdoors.
• Target the audience clearly and carefully; be sure to indicate the suggested age range.
• Program short performances, under an hour.

Ask the Expert (contact person for additional information on this case study):

Name: David Rivel
E-mail: DRivel@CityParksFoundation.org
Date submitted: 3/7/06

Contact Information:

Address: City Parks Foundation
830 Fifth Avenue
NY, NY 10021

Tel/Fax: 212-360-8275
E-mail: Info@CityParksFoundation.org
Web site address: http://www.CityParksFoundation.org

Photos courtesy of City Parks Foundation     Print Friendly

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