Two new quilt murals were recently completed on the practice walls at Wilson Park’s tennis courts in Fayetteville. The project, announced earlier this month by city officials, is a collaboration with local artist Olivia Trimble as part of her ongoing Quilt Square Project. (Flyer photo/Todd Gill)FAYETTEVILLE — Accessibility and housing affordability were key concerns expressed during discussion of an arts and culture plan for the city on Tuesday.
The City Council voted 8-0 to adopt the plan, which is intended to guide policy decisions for the next 10 years to help grow and sustain the city’s arts scene.
In 2023, the city hired Jill Stilwell with Stilwell Cultural Consulting and Kendall Peterson with ThereSquared, both of Colorado, to come up with the plan for a fee of $188,900. The pair presented the plan to the council along with Joanna Bell, the city’s arts and culture director.
“This plan reflects the voices, insights and aspirations of over 1,250 artists and community members,” Bell said. “They deserve perhaps my biggest thanks of the night, because those generous contributions at the center of this plan reflect our collective vision and provide actionable strategies to realize them.”
Peterson said the team spent more than a year holding events, doing interviews and surveying community members to develop the plan.
“We have fallen in love Fayetteville,” she said. “As outsiders looking in, it was important for us, with this plan, to understand the uniqueness of Fayetteville and make sure this plan reflected the unique arts and culture ecosystem here.”
A handful of residents spoke to the council about the plan. Several said artists are being pushed out of the city because they cannot afford to live here, and the plan did not appear to adequately address that issue. Some questioned the city’s priorities in adopting an arts plan and spending millions of dollars on the Ramble amid a housing and homelessness crisis.
Council Member Monique Jones emphasized the need for accessibility. Transportation is a huge barrier for many residents to engage in the arts, she said. The city needs to be active in place-making, and impacts to residents should be measurable, she said.
Council Member Sarah Bunch said citywide plans often take a “30,000-foot view” of a topic. It’s up to the city leadership to come up with specific policies to address the issues outlined in the plan, she said.
A guest at an unveiling ceremony stops to look at the ‘Remembrance’ mural along Nelson Hackett Boulevard during a ceremony in June 2024. The mural, created by local artist Joëlle Storet, honors prominent Black Fayetteville residents, including Nelson Hackett, an enslaved man who fled the city in 1841 in search of freedom. (Flyer photo/Todd Gill)“This plan is just a broad concept of the route we would go,” Bunch said. “It overlaps with other plans we have in the city — transportation, parks — all these things overlap.”
Mayor Molly Rawn said she saw the plan as not the finish line, but a first step in promoting the arts. The plan itself will not solve issues, and in some instances, raises issues city officials may not have been aware of, she said.
“I think it sets the stage for all of the wonderful things we are going to do related to arts and culture,” Rawn said.
The 66-page plan outlines five community priorities to expand the arts in the city. It also lists goals to support each priority, with strategies to accomplish each goal.
The first priority is to cultivate the city’s long-established and growing community of working artists and creatives. The goal is to help artists and arts organizations thrive and connect with the broader community.
Another priority is to sustain the local economy through the arts. The goal is to develop funding, economic tools and philanthropic strategies to support and expand the arts.
A third priority is to have more spaces for creating, gathering and experiencing art. The goal is to prioritize and target investment in arts facilities, venues and creative work spaces.
Place-making is another priority. The goal is to enhance the vibrancy, activation and security of public spaces through public art.
The final priority is to lead the region as a destination for arts and culture. The city should use its unique cultural assets and strong creative community to advance arts and culture beyond its borders, the plan says.
Another section lists immediate, short-term, mid-term, long-term and ongoing actions to implement the plan. The plan says the city will take action with help from arts organizations, community partners, creative businesses and individual artists and creatives.
Local artist Tina Oppenheimer puts the finishing touches on her storm drain mural at the southeast corner of School Avenue and Mountain Street across from the Fayetteville Public Library in May 2014. (Flyer photo/Todd Gill)The plan makes a few recommendations on how the city could increase its capacity to take action. For instance, it suggests four new city positions under the city’s arts and culture division to create over the next decade. The positions are a public art coordinator, a strategic support fund coordinator, a specialist in arts and culture economic development and a full-time programming and events coordinator.
Another idea is to put a certain percentage of capital project budgets toward public art. Additionally, the plan recommends doing a cultural facilities study. Also, the city should financially support the arts through contracts for services or grants, the plan says.