project overview
Hickory Hill Bus Shelter Artistic Enhancements | Neighborhood Art Initiative 2021
Budget: $65,000 ( includes three artists honoraria of $500 each )
Most recent benchmark/update: Artist selected for this project: Brandon Marshall
Upcoming benchmark/update: Final Design
Next Artist Selection Committee Meeting: May 2023.
Selected Artist design
project concept
UAC and The City of Memphis, in partnership with Gestalt Schools, are seeking an artist to create artistic enhancements to bus shelters for the Hickory Hill neighborhood.
background
About Hickory Hill:
In the 1950s, Hickory Hill was a rural community just southeast of Memphis, with some paved roads and less than 1,000 homes were available in the area. Today, Hickory Hill is bounded on the north by where Bill Morris Parkway (385) meets Kirby, and the community of Fox Meadows (or Winchester Road), on the east by Riverdale Road, on the south by Holmes Road and Shelby Drive, and on the west by Mendenhall Road and/or the community of Parkway Village.
About Gestalt Schools:
Gestalt operates five K-12 college-preparatory charter schools serving over 2,300 students in the low-income, predominantly minority Hickory Hill community. After suffering blight and abandonment in the early 2000s, the Hickory Hill community has begun to revive itself by focusing on education and community development—and Gestalt’s network of schools has been a driving force in this effort. Ninety-two percent of Hickory Hill residents are minority (82.2% African American and 9.8% Hispanic), and poverty and educational outcomes are alarming: 50.1% of children under 18 live below the poverty level (compared to
21.7% nationally). Targeting low-income communities with failing schools, Gestalt catalyzes grassroots leadership to revitalize neighborhoods, create high performing schools, and tackle out-of-school challenges. Over the last decade, Gestalt has launched 5 successful schools and built a unique approach to urban community engagement and strategic partnerships addressing every aspect of a thriving community: education, community revitalization, economic development, housing, health and wellness, financial empowerment, and social-emotional support. We are leading neighborhood revitalization of Hickory Hill via two projects: Eden Square, which includes the redevelopment of 43 acres in Hickory Hill once home to a blighted, crime-ridden abandoned apartment complex. In Phase 1 and 2, we built a permanent home for Power Center Academy (PCA) Middle and a Performing Arts Center, and Habitat for Humanity has built 10 homes and will complete 23 additional homes for PCA families and low-income seniors adjacent to PCA Middle. Mendenhall Mall is an abandoned property transformed with the launch of PCA High in 2014 and construction of a new school for PCA Elementary (opened July 2019). Our partners are adding social service agencies, a financial institution, a health and wellness center, and retailers on the property to serve students, families, and the entire community.
About UAC’s Neighborhood Art Initiative:
UrbanArt Commission launched its first Neighborhood Art Initiative as a Pilot Program in 2019 through support from the Assisi Foundation and totaling $120,000. Five public art projects were awarded to neighborhood associations, CDCs, community groups, non-profits, or arts organizations leading the development of public art in their spaces: Cherokee Heights Civic Club is creating five signs to mark the entrances of their historic South Memphis neighborhood. These permanent aluminum signs will carry the club’s motto, “We Care”, along with original designs relevant to the history of the community. At the Carpenter Art Garden in Binghampton, NAI will support a successful mural apprenticeship program in its second year. South Memphis Alliance and other neighborhood partners will convene soon to decide on how more public art can be added to the Soulsville area. In North Memphis, the NAI has furthered the work of the HUG Park Friends through Jamond Bullock’s colorful mural wrapping the pool area. In Orange Mound, artist Yancy Villa-Calvo, as a continuation of her engagement efforts through the Memphis 3.0 comprehensive planning process, installed the mural on Whitten Bros. Hardware store in late November 2019 with Melrose High School (RedZone Ministries) students.
The second round of Neighborhood Art Initiative was launched in November 2020 in partnership with the City of Memphis’ Percent-for-Art Program with the intention of funding a plethora of projects on city property in multiple neighborhoods within each City Council District over the course of consecutive fiscal years. There are 4 public art projects are in the works through UAC partners: Gestalt Schools (Hickory Hill), Mallory Heights CDC (Mallory Heights), The Time is Now Douglass RDC (Douglass), Uplift Westwood CDC (Westwood).
selection committee
Yetta Lewis: Gestalt Schools (UAC’s Neighborhood Partner)
Scott Fox: MATA Transit Planner
Tijuana Kimble : Hickory Hill Resident
Alex Uhlmanmn: City of Memphis: Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager
Danielle Sierra: UAC Artist Representative
Kristian Taylor: Power Center Academy Art Teacher
Alex Weaver: Haizlip Studio: UAC’s Architect/Engineer Representative
Alexis Gwinn Miller: Power Center CDC Director: Community Stakeholder
Jacquelyn Johnson: Site Coordinator for Agape Child & Family Services: Community Stakeholder (nonvoting)
John Truong: City's BD&C Project Manager: City Engineering Representative (nonvoting)
Adrianna Moore: City’s Recreation Program Manager: Parks Representative (nonvoting)
