Call for Community Participation

Activity Sheet and Community Survey for Art En Route Project Now Available

Art En Route is a new public art project through the City of Dubuque’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Green Dubuque and funded by a $25,000 national grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Asphalt Art Initiative.

The Asphalt Art Initiative was created by Bloomberg Philanthropies to help cities use art and design to improve street safety, revitalize public spaces and engage their communities. The program not only seeks to create vibrant public spaces but also looks to build city capacity for working with artists and community groups on projects involving transportation infrastructure.

Dubuque's solution to the Asphalt Art Initiative call was Art En Route, a project at the intersection of public art, public transit, and climate action efforts that enhances 14 bus shelter locations throughout Dubuque with painted sidewalk murals under and around the shelters.

Activity Sheet for All Ages

Community members of all ages are invited to share their ideas for what the sidewalk mural at their neighborhood bus shelters could look like by downloading, completing and submitting an Art En Route coloring sheet  by March 15, 2021. The community-sourced designs will inform an official open call for art, coming in Spring 2021. Select community mural concepts will be shared on social media and with the press to promote the project.
When submitting a completed coloring sheet, teens (18+) and adults can elect to considered for short-term artist mentorship opportunities during implementation of the sidewalk murals in Summer 2021.

Community Survey
To better understand how the community does or doesn’t use the 14 bus shelters featured in the Art En Route project, and to help prioritize strategies identified in the City’s 50% by 2030 Community Climate Action Plan, citizens are encouraged to complete the Art En Route survey online by March 15, 2021. Survey feedback will be used to educate project partners and to identify themes to highlight in the sidewalk murals and future messaging campaigns related to the Art En Route project.

The network of Art En Route sidewalk murals coming in Summer 2021 will draw attention to the City’s extensive and accessible public transit system as a community asset while encouraging residents to actively partner in the City’s Climate Action Plan. The project also advances strategies of the City’s Arts and Culture Master Plan to make arts and cultural resources and activities available in every neighborhood in the city and county, to make art more visible in all aspects of daily life in Dubuque, and to facilitate the presence and participation of arts and culture at non-cultural activities and venues.

The project's primary funding source is the Bloomberg Philanthropies grant with in-kind from the City of Dubuque. The project is produced in collaboration with Green Dubuque, Sustainable Dubuque, the City of Dubuque's Transit Department, and Gigantic Design.