Madisonville Creative Placemaking

The Cincinnati neighborhood of Madisonville is a diverse community with a great quality of life — quiet walkable streets, trees and parks, nestled by hillsides. Overlooked for years, I’ve been working with the community and developers to utilize creative placemaking to unify the community through a new chapter.

I really enjoyed working with my neighbors, interviewing them for my research and making sure the stories of many were told.

200 years of Madisonville timeline mural

COMING: I need to update this section with final drawings and descriptions of the scenes

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Above: Community History Timeline (click to forward)

In 2017 ArtsWave and Design Impact led a creative placemaking workshop to improve quality of life in Cincinnati communities by infusing arts and creativity into everyday life. I worked on a team with some Madisonville Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation and other community volunteers — we interviewed residents and identified opportunities such as Bramble Park as a venue for events, celebrations and recreation.

Local landmark bike racks like the old trolley turnaround, bank building, library and Madison Bowl.

Information kiosk and park-let at Madison and Whetsel, an efficient way to communicate with residents. Shapes inspired by Kolar Design’s rebrand of the neighborhood — and idea of many pieces coming together to form a unified mosaic.

I developed a coloring and activities page as a fun way for residents of all ages to express what they would want to see in the park — this was in-addition to in-perons interviews and online surveys.

Brainstorm image of short-term and long-term implementation of Little Duck Creek trail — long-term featuring community timeline.

Concept of neighborhood timeline in walking paths.

Brainstorm image of play place that references historical landmarks.

Updating basketball courts with design inspired by neighborhood re-brand.

Creating a stage for events in main parks like Bramble Park, so residents would have a platform for many types of expressions and celebrations. Design inspired by neighborhood re-brand.

Residents mentioned wanting more seating and activities — this concept would allow for multi-generational play and relaxation.

Playground concepts that provide educational experiences as well as celebrating a unifying expression of the community.

Brainstorm image of short-term and long-term implementation of Little Duck Creek trail — long-term featuring community timeline.

Concept of neighborhood timeline in walking paths.

Brainstorm image of play place that references historical landmarks.

Playground concepts that provide educational experiences as well as celebrating a unifying expression of the community.

In a 2019 event Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Cincinnati Parks and volunteers from Gorilla Glue implemented some of these concepts developed from the ArtsWave/Design Impact Creative Placemaking community interviews.

2015 All-Star Game event: Community mural painting in Bramble Park.

2019 event where Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, Cincinnati Parks and volunteers from Gorilla Glue implemented concepts developed as part of ArtsWave/Design Impact Creative Placemaking community interviews.

Hopscotch

Four-square featuring local landmarks

Since then, I have felt disheartened. I was hoping that our work would create more opportunities for jobs and black-owned businesses in our neighborhood but I feel that the current racist structure of capitalism has once again created another opportunity for gentrification. Rents have tripled and one black-owned business had to relocate at great economic cost to their business and cost the livelihoods of their employees.

The mural design was created in the winter of 2016. The history of Madisonville reflects the history of the United States and many of our mistakes as a nation, mainly the massacre and systematic oppression of Native Americans and African Americans.

For me, I am trying to learn from this experience on best practices moving forward: how to provide art experiences for people of all backgrounds, create opportunities for all fellow creatives. I plan to develop a page detailing my goals and progress. Going forward, I would also collaborate or take a smaller role and ensure artists from other ethnicities and races would have the opportunity to lead the commission and the ability to tell their own stories.