Uptown Dallas Public Art Plan

Public  City  was  asked  to  draft  a  public  art  and  cultural  programs  plan  for  Uptown  Dallas,  Inc.,  a public improvement  district  in  the  heart  of  Dallas,  TX.  The  goal  for  the  plan  was  to  offer  guidance  and  direction  onstrategic  placemaking  plans  and  investments.  Public  City  was  commissioned  to  evaluate  Uptown  to  get  a  deeper  understanding  of  the  cultural  and  historic  assets  that  exist  within  the  neighborhood.  By  finding  the  overlap  among  the  existing  efforts,  critical  gaps  and  benchmarks  and  ideas,  Public  City  sought  to  identify  commonalities,  trends,  inflection  points,  and  drivers  across  various  sectors  and  perspectives.  Working  with  multiple  groups  of  stakeholders,  Public  City  engaged  PID  board  members  and  property  owners/developers,  tenants  and  residents—both  renters  and  owners,  and  the  general  public  for  input  and  ideas  about  what  mattered  to  them  most.  

Based  on  that  information,  Public  City  was  then  tasked  with  looking  forward  at  the  10-year  strategic  and  transportation  plans,  and  to  consider  how  art  and  cultural  programming  support  those  plans.  The  next  step,  then,  was  to  guide  and  educate  the  Uptown  Dallas,  Inc.  board  of  directors  on  best  practices  for  PID  and  TIF  districts’  approaches  to  cultural  programming  and  public  art  around  the  country.  To  ensure  continued  engagement  in  the  evolution  of  Uptown,  Public  City  designed  opportunities  to  connect  the  community’s  constituents  through  art  and  cultural  programming.  The  goal  was  to  do  all  this  work  with  an  eye  toward  increasing  the  value  and  vitality  of  the  neighborhood,  as  demonstrated  by  engaging  residential  dwellers,  commercial  tenants,  stakeholders,  and  consumers.