Michael R. Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies (Website) has launched a new grant program that will fund the creation of ten street murals in cities around the country next year. And we could get one here in Orlando.
The Asphalt Art Initiative (Website) was unveiled at the CityLab summit in Washington D.C. and will dish out up to $25,000 per project to create murals on crosswalks, intersections, and street surfaces for cities with populations between 30,000 to 500,000.
The act of painting street surfaces is about more than simple aesthetics as they often have the added benefit of increasing safety in urban environments; some planners even call them visual speedbumps, because drivers slow down when driving near them and have proven to reduce speeds by anywhere between 25 to 30 percent.
For a city like Orlando that repeatedly places as one of the worst cities in the nation for pedestrians, using a treatment like this could be potentially lifesaving, and really move the needle in helping to prevent car/pedestrian collisions. This would also be a great tool for some of the upcoming initiatives to transform Magnolia Avenue downtown into a pedestrian boulevard or the upcoming Robinson bike trail by Lake Eola.
The deadline to apply for the grant is 5 p.m. Thursday, December 12.
Click HERE for more information on the grant.
Bloomberg also published an Asphalt Art Guide which you can interact with below.
