Artists-in-residence programs can help parks departments celebrate spaces and spark conversations about complex issues
"I’m hosting a pep rally ... for a tree,” Amanda Lovelee says.
As a U.S. Cultural Policy Fellow at Stanford University, the Minnesota-based artist models how organizations like parks departments can think about artists-in-residence and artists-in-government. The “Homecoming” project she was preparing aimed to celebrate the replanting of a tree that burned in Minneapolis’ Lake Street Corridor during the 2020 uprising.
Most proposals for public art begin with a product in mind, like commissioning sculptures or murals. Artist residencies provide creative professionals the time, space, and resources to work. As parks departments continue to grapple with complex issues and strive for more inclusive programs, place-based artist residencies invite select participants to draw inspiration from a place without defining a specific output. Sometimes residencies are framed around a theme or used to generate ideas that address a specific challenge.
By co-opting the excitement of sports traditions, Lovelee hoped art could bring attention to environmental issues. She booked a marching band and found a pennant supplier who could fill a custom order quickly. A Hennepin County environmental educator contributed a mascot to represent a nemesis of local trees: a giant emerald ash borer.
Lovelee planned similar rallies with localized components for places like Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wis., as well as sites in Arizona, New York, and Massachusetts, where bleachers were erected to watch trees grow. That installation aimed to draw attention to changing planting zones.
“It's a bipartisan way to talk about climate,” she says. “When I work with cities and municipalities and across different sectors, they are used to using artists as contractors. I want to think about the whole system, not just putting something beautiful in a single spot.”
In her former role as artist-in-residence for the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council, Lovelee contributed a creative perspective to the regional organization’s work of providing essential services and guiding strategic growth. “Signs of Belonging,” a project with Ramsey County Parks and Recreation, won a 2024 National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Innovation in Equity Award. Post-project surveys showed artist-designed panels at park-entry kiosks increased 69 percent of respondents’ sense of belonging as they visited the park.
Piloting A Residency Program
Minnesota’s first statewide artist-in-residence program, MNPAiR, an Artist Residency in the Parks, [BS1] was also spurred by conversations Lovelee convened during her tenure with the Metropolitan Council. Funded through Minnesota’s Legacy Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund[BS2] , MNPAiR launched in July 2024 as a joint initiative of the Metropolitan Council, Metropolitan Regional Parks, the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Parks and Trails Division, in partnership with Forecast Public Art.
Forecast selected a pilot cohort of 12 Minnesota-based artists-in-residence to research and experience a park, trail, or park system and its communities. In addition to creating new artworks, the residency program empowered artists as park partners and ambassadors. Although they did not live on-site, artists were asked to imagine new ways to deepen community engagement and foster relationship-building in state and regional parks.
“It's all about the discovery process,” says Jen Krava, Forecast’s director of learning, grants, and research. She holds a bachelor’s degree in recreation and leisure studies and a master’s degree in landscape architecture, and works as an arts administrator and artist. “In the application, we asked about their connection to Minnesota parks and land. Why is this opportunity interesting to them, and how does it fit within their body of work? How have they worked with communities in the past? We did not ask the artists what they were going to do because it was important that they were embedded in the park site before they made any assumptions or decisions around what their project would be.”
Participants received career-boosting artistic support and mentorship through Forecast while learning from site staff about the local environment and cultural traditions. Towards the end of the 12-month, 20-hour-a-week, paid residency, artists-in-residence activated their ideas, developing new work supported by an additional materials budget. Performances, pop-up activities, temporary installations, and other artistic outputs exploring community and belonging emerged from the experience.
“It's workforce development to be able to bring artists into projects like this and help them build their skills,” Krava says.
Forecast embedded an evaluator as part of the pilot and created a report sharing learnings from the MNPair process: forecastpublicart.org/mn-parks-artist-residency/.
Partnering With Artists
Launching an artist residency doesn’t have to be complicated, but hosting an open-ended opportunity does call for relinquishing some control.
“It is recognizing the value that an artist might bring to the team and trusting in the creative juice of the artist,” says Teva Dawson, founder of Group Creative Services.
Dawson spent nearly 20 years in parks and recreation and community-planning roles before starting a consultancy that specializes in facilitating processes that lead to meaningful arts experiences. Her team collaborates with communities across the country on conceptualizing public art and comprehensive planning initiatives. She advises starting residencies with a focus area where there’s excitement around bringing a fresh perspective, and strong staff support.
"Even a city-level park system has lots of organizational structure to start to understand,” she says. "You don't want [artists] to spend most of their time trying to navigate that.”
With proper scoping, Dawson believes even budget-constrained departments can creatively engage artists. Tweaking summer internships or creating a part-time role can help parks and rec departments innovate activities and make a significant impact. Residencies may also attract philanthropic funds, with a significant social impact.
Bringing artists into civic spaces, Dawson says, is a way for government to demonstrate an effort to evolve and respond to changing dynamics.
"Artists can humanize the need and role of government,” she says. “It is crucial that it's relational. That people have a sense of government serving their needs. They’ve got to feel it. Artists can be another way—not the only way—to build trust that the work government does is of value.”
[BS1]https://forecastpublicart.org/mn-parks-artist-residency/
[BS2]https://www.legacy.mn.gov/arts-cultural-heritage-fund
