City of Altoona

Extensive Community Research Drives City’s Public Art Plan

When conducting research for the city of Altoona’s public art plan, Group Creative Services supplemented traditional research methods with in-person community interviews facilitated by portrait artists during the annual Breakfast with Santa. The free portraits were a survey incentive, and also helped spark the notion that public art can move beyond typical murals and sculptures.

A key focus of Altoona’s resulting public art plan was to make town entrances and arteries more visually pleasing and welcoming. Work is now underway to integrate public art in upcoming transportation infrastructure projects for the growing city.

The plan also led to forming a local arts committee to implement the types of memorable public-art experiences desired by community members. These could range from a traveling front-porch concert series, to a “museum of dropped things” collected from anonymous roller coaster riders at nearby Adventureland, to temporary visual art and sound installations along the city’s popular bike paths.

You can download the assessment here. (pdf, 1.4 Mb)

You can download the plan here. (pdf, )