Arlington Art Truck Selected as Finalist for AFTA's 2019 Gard Award

Published on April 03, 2019

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, announced that the ARLINGTON ART TRUCK is one of 10 finalists selected from across the nation for the annual Robert E. Gard Award. The award recognizes and celebrates exemplary projects from 2018 that crossed the arts into other aspects of community life in meaningful, measurable ways.

The Arlington Art Truck, funded partly by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, is a mobile platform for fostering artistically enhanced civic engagement and increasing access to the arts by delivering cultural experiences where Arlingtonians live, work, and play, and gives them a chance to engage with county and nonprofit initiatives in Arlington, VA, in a unique, fun way. During the Art Truck season from April - October, artists-in-residence packed the van with projects ranging from interactive sculptures, installations, performances, and more. Each project was paired with a county or community partner so visitors could create or activate artworks as well as learn more about county and community resources. This resulted in 31 public activations with more than 6,000 Arlington residents, workers, and visitors participating.

Voting will be open for one month, from April 3 to May 3, 2019, and the winning project will be announced from the main stage at the 2019 Annual Convention in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis, on Saturday, June 15, 2019. Read about the 10 finalist projects by visiting http://www.americansforthearts.org/gardaward.

“These Gard award finalist projects have integrated the arts into their communities in important and innovative ways,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Through this work, each of these ten finalists—and thousands of other projects like them across the United States—have positively impacted the lives of residents and strengthened their communities as a whole, and their commitment is deserving of this recognition.”

“Arlington Cultural Affairs is delighted to receive this recognition from Americans for the Arts,” says the organization’s Director, Michelle Isabelle-Stark. “The Arlington Art Truck exemplifies our commitment to expand the role of curator in the public realm, connecting artists with our diverse community to creatively explore the ideas of place, history, civic responsibility, and our shared humanity.”

The Robert E. Gard award is named in honor one of the founding fathers of the local arts movement and a champion of the arts role in the creation and maintenance of healthy, vibrant and equitable communities.

The nine other Gard Award finalists include:

• Arts in Corrections Initiative
  Sacramento, CA
• Build Better Tables
  Nashville, TN
• Community CollabARTive
  St. Louis, MO
• Fergus Falls' Year of Play
  Fergus Falls, MN
• PreEnactIndy
  Indianapolis, IN
• Price Hill Creative Community Festival
  Cincinnati, OH
• Southside Civic Lab
  Fayetteville, AK
• Station Hope 2018
  Cleveland, OH
• Worcester Cultural Coalition PopUP
  Worcester, MA