Look for the new Franklin Ave Pedestrian Plaza

ArtPlace, a national collaboration of 11 major national and regional foundations, six of the nation’s largest banks, and eight federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, has awarded one of its largest grants:

$435,000 to the Native American Community Development Institute to construct a pedestrian plaza on Franklin Avenue at the LRT station. The Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts Market will connect the Ventura Village and Seward neighborhoods while also creating spaces for performances and vendors. The grant includes commissions for four public art pieces for the plaza, which will serve as a gateway to the American Indian Cultural Corridor.

The project will develop the unused central median of Franklin Avenue with space for arts vendors, food trucks, seating and performances. The plaza will be reinforced with community public art. This project will be a catalyst for future development at the station, and bridges a critical short-term goal to get people off the train and into the neighborhood.

The conceptual rendering of the plaza is not a final design. The actual elements included in the final project will be determined through a public engagement process.

The project will create a new front door for the Native American Cultural Corridor. The half-mile corridor was established in 2010 with the goal of revitalizing a low-income neighborhood with the highest density of an urban Native American population in the country.