The Douglas Design District has been awarded a grant to help add public art and other enhancements to the burgeoning neighborhood east of downtown.
The award of $84,500 from the Knight Foundation Fund at the Wichita Community Foundation was announced Monday night at the From Perception to Action forum at Central Standard Brewing.
The grant will go toward the district’s 2020 Vision campaign, a two-year, $215,000 project that includes enhancing or adding public art, establishing a business improvement district for long-term sustainability and civic engagement for accelerating a streetscape plan. “This grant is going to really help us pass through some of these speed bumps and hurdles that have slowed us down” in the efforts to help the district blossom, Janelle King, president of the Douglas Design District board, said Monday night. The money will allow the district to “make the next step forward.”
The board and executive committee for the design district worked hard to “have a very clear vision of creating public art and space along Douglas that will not only engage the community but continue to attract business, industry and talent” to the area, King said in a statement released earlier Monday.
(Read more: Wichita Eagle)