Bridge Builders Award (Prince George's County, MD)
Nick Francis, President, Gateway Community Development Corporation and The Honorable Jack B. Johnson, County Executive, Prince George’s County, Maryland for their development and creation of the Prince George’s Gateway Arts District, the largest, single public/private arts and community revitalization effort in the nation. Gateway is an innovator on how to use arts-based development projects as a catalyst for commercial revitalization by exploring ways to support the artists living and working in its community.
Prince George’s County is one of the first counties in America to apply a culture builds community strategy as a vehicle for revitalization with the development of an arts district. Beginning at the northeast border of Washington, D.C. and traveling north through the towns of Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood, and Hyattsville, the Prince George’s Gateway Arts District stretches for two miles on Route 1.
Executive Director of Gateway Community Development Corporation (CDC), Nick Francis, heads one of the largest, single public/private arts revitalization projects in the nation. Initially founded to support and enhance affordable housing, safety, and economic opportunities for its citizens, Francis is the voice of a community development corporation that uses arts and culture as a development strategy to pursue these goals with a belief that culture will better the lives of citizens. County Executive Jack Johnson is the voice of the county, supporting the Gateway project as a means for growth, unity and a way to build an enriched community.
The four planned arts districts in the inner-Beltway will provide affordable housing for artists and hopefully attract other innovative businesses. Collectively, the four sites to be created by Artspace Projects, Inc. expect to attract 150 new artists and their families to The Gateway, along with studios, galleries, arts organizations, educators, arts-related businesses, and pedestrian-friendly commercial enterprises.
Underway are community building strategies within the county incorporating the use of art such as a Gateway Arts Fair/Fine Arts Festival set for Spring 2004 to showcase Gateway artists, both students and professionals, and artists through out the region. To strengthen the existing Gateway Arts and Education Initiative, Gateway CDC sponsored Teacher/Artists Art and Education Workshops over the summer to target the learning principles of art and education. Gateway also plans to promote the use of civic spaces such as church halls, schools and outdoor areas.
With the support of Johnson and the belief of Francis in the power of arts and culture, Prince George’s County is setting the bar for community development.