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• Percent for the Arts Program
• Upcoming Arts Projects
• A City of the Arts and for the Arts
• Arts & Culture Committees
• Arts Initiatives Contacts

Percent for the Arts Program

Each year, the City of Rochester sets aside 1% of the total development costs of qualifying capital (infrastructure) projects to help fund public art in the community. For example, a $3.5M bridge project would result in the City setting aside $35K for public art. The art does not necessarily have to be installed on that bridge. 

Most years, there are several capital projects that would contribute to this calculation. The City then has a variety of processes and programs to invest that money throughout the community. This formalized process began in Fiscal Year (FY) ’21-’22, resulting in $200K set aside for public art programs such as the Community Equity Public Art Project described below. Plans are underway for investing the $236K from FY ’22-’23 and an estimated $271K from FY ’23-’24, including some current opportunities listed below:

Upcoming Arts Projects

Whether you’re an artist or simply an arts lover, would you like to know about other ways to get involved? The City of Rochester has an ongoing need for people to serve on juries and panels to review submissions related to our various arts initiatives. Interested? Please fill out this form to submit your name and background for consideration.

Check back on this page for updates, new projects, and ongoing developments regarding arts initiatives in the City of Rochester.  

On February 14, 2023, Mayor Evans announced a series of public arts initiatives, as summarized in the table above. Click below to watch the full video.

A City of the Arts and for the Arts

Rochester is home to a robust arts and culture community and a blossoming network of creative professionals in the local economy. Rochester’s historic roots established a legacy of large arts and cultural institutions. Today, the arts have grown into a multitude of small arts organizations and individual artists. Whether visiting one of the City’s museums, viewing new work at artist studios such as the Hungerford, taking a dance class or simply walking past a mural, the arts instill a sense of place, connect diverse residents and provide a retreat in Rochester.

Rochester has demonstrated a commitment to strengthening arts and culture. From 2016 to June 2022, the City funded over $2.6M of public art and arts education using City operating funds, City cash allocations, CDBG and other grant funding, and Library-specific funding. An additional $2M of City funding has supported special events, including many annual festivals, since 2017. For more information about these arts and culture investments, see these links:

• To learn more about the $2.6M of public art and arts education funded by the City, see the information here>>. 
• To learn more about the special events funded by the City, click here>>. 
• All of this information was compiled into the City's arts and culture investment map, which can be found here>>. 

The City will annually update this inventory of arts and culture investment.

With this strong framework, Rochester has an opportunity to further grow and strengthen the arts. While the Neighborhood of the Arts and Downtown are centers of arts and culture, residents want to see a diversity of arts and cultural amenities in their neighborhoods throughout the City. Artists and small arts organizations are similarly calling for more equitable distribution of public art funding, including for often underrepresented artists and organizations. Artists and small arts organizations are also grappling with the recent dissolution of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, which previously provided centralized advocacy and support for the creative sector.

Arts and Culture Committees

The City of Rochester works collaboratively with local artists to advance the community’s desire for a more dynamic city of the arts and for the arts, one in which the arts are accessible to all Rochesterians regardless of where someone lives or their ability, and where there is committed support for small organizations and individual artists representing the diversity of Rochester.

The City Arts Team (CAT) and the Arts and Creative Community Committee (AC³) were created in April 2021 to move this vision forward. 

The CAT is an interdepartmental committee established to advance various arts-related initiatives for the City. CAT members are City staff that have experience and ongoing involvement in the selection, installation, and maintenance of public art. Members include staff from the Office of Management and Budget, Law Department, Department of Recreation and Human Services, Department of Environmental Services, Office of Special Events, the Bureau of Communications, the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, and the Office of City Planning (lead staff). The team's primary responsibilities are to:

• Formalize and implement the Percent for the Arts program.  
• Develop an Arts and Culture Plan to identify the vision, goals and action plan to further support and grow the creative community.
• Establish the structure and mission of a City Arts Commission.

CAT Members:

• Kevin Kelley (lead facilitator), Manager of City Planning, Office of City Planning 
• Heather Anderson (lead staff), Senior City Planner, Office of City Planning 
• Barbara Pierce, Director of Communications, Bureau of Communications 
• ReyJeanne Antoine, Social Media Coordinator, Bureau of Communications
• Holly Barrett, City Engineer, Department of Environmental Services 
• Ellen Micoli Soffa, Assistant Landscape Architect, Department of Environmental Services 
• Sabrina Boykin, Assistant Architect, Department of Environmental Services 
• Sara Scott, Director of Recreation & Parks Stewardship, Department of Recreation and Human Services 
• Johanna Brennan, Municipal Attorney, Law Department 
• Liliana Ruiz, Director of Special Projects & Educational Initiatives, Mayor's Office 
• Anne DaSilva Tella, Director of Development, Neighborhood and Business Development Department
• Kara Osipovitch, Manager of Special Events, Office of Special Events 
• Kristina Heiligenthaler, Principal Staff Assistant, Office of Management & Budget 
• Terrance McCutchen, Violence Prevention Senior Coordinator, Office of Violence Prevention

The AC³ is a group of stakeholders that represents various artists, genres, venues, and institutions within this critical sector of the Rochester community.  This committee serves as an advisory panel, with the goal of giving feedback and lending their expertise on the projects that are the CAT’s primary responsibilities.  The AC³ also serves as a strong partner in advancing various initiatives through outreach, advocacy, research, and forging connections with other partners.  The Office of City Planning facilitates the overall AC³ process and coordinates with committee co-chairs and the CAT.  

AC³ Members:

• Annette Ramos (Co-Chair), Rochester Latino Theatre Company
• Thomas Warfield (Co-Chair), Rochester Institute of Technology
• Shawn Dunwoody (Co-Chair), Dunwoode Design
• Antonietta Alfano, Come Fly With Me Healing, Alfano Speaking Ventures, Disability Rights Activist/Advocator
• Nile Blunt, Memorial Art Gallery and M Group
• Bleu Cease, Rochester Contemporary Arts Center, First Friday and Make Art Day
• Amanda Chestnut, Roc Arts United
• Reenah Golden, The Avenue Blackbox Theatre and WOC Art Collaborative
• Annette Jiminez-Gleason, Rochester Area Community Foundation
• Kristina Kaiser, The Yards Collective and Public Market
• Chris Manelli, Geva Theatre Center and M Group
• Orlando Ortiz, Puerto Rican Festival
• Dan Schneiderman, Maker Faire Rochester

Recordings of AC³ Meetings:

Click Recordings of Meetings to see all

Arts and Creative Community Committee

• April 12, 2021
• May 25, 2021
• December 20, 2021
• October 24, 2022
• January 20, 2023

Creative Community Empowerment Plan Subcommittee

• June 23, 2021
• August 2, 2021
• February 16, 2022

Arts Investment Guidance Subcommittee

• June 25, 2021
• July 27, 2021
• February 14, 2022

AC³ Meeting materials:

• AC³ Purpose
• Overview of the Arts and Culture Plan - an early draft of what the plan might cover

Upcoming Project Descriptions

Bloomberg Public Art Challenge

In February 2023, the City submitted its first phase application for the Bloomberg Public Art Challenge, which will provide grants of up to $1M to cities for temporary public art that addresses an urban issue. While the applicant must be a Mayor, the program requires a partnership between government, artists, and organizations. 

The City of Rochester's proposal to Bloomberg is entitled “Centering Youth: Acknowledging Trauma and Healing through Public Art." This topic gets to the heart of many issues in Rochester; youth in Rochester experience trauma from violence, disparities in education, the pandemic, and multi-generational poverty. We will propose a community-wide effort to create multiple public artworks – whether it be installations, performances, or other creative expressions. The public artworks will include art created by youth and art inspired by youth. The City is looking forward to exploring the prospects for this proposal:

• Artistic expression is a strategy for healing from trauma and for prevention of youth violence;
• Youth civic engagement provides real-world learning opportunities and reinforces social connection for youth that were lost during the early days of the pandemic; and
• Expanding youth opportunities, including work experience, shows youth that they have value.

Further project concept development will happen as we identify the network of partners for the project. The City is prioritizing a collaborative effort for this project. Additionally, the City is committing a minimum of $200K to the project and welcomes financial or in-kind contributions from organizations to create a more robust project. Opportunities for participation include:

Public Art Equity Project

The inaugural Percent for the Arts competitive process is being administered by two consultants. See below for more details. 

LOCUS : FOCUS (mosaic art)

Roc Arts United is administering this public art program. LOCUS:FOCUS aims to create at least two site-specific significant mosaic artworks that capture the contemporary spirit and memory of a neighborhood. The resulting monuments will “set in stone” tangible community connections to public spaces. The creation process should be collaborative, both inspired by and physically constructed with the support of neighborhood residents and vested community members. Priority will be given to Rochester-area artists and community partners throughout the project. The period for concept submissions is now closed and concepts are in review. Continue visiting this webpage or visit this website >>  for updates. Work is projected to begin this fall with installation completed in the spring.

My Rochester (murals) 

Aria Strategies LLC is administering this public mural program under the theme My Rochester, an exploration of what Rochester means and has meant to artists and communities from different backgrounds and lived experiences, their hopes, hard work, losses, and victories. There are many Rochesters; depending on lived experiences, Rochester is a different city to each of us. This project invites artists to showcase their lived experiences with and in Rochester, and share their experiences through their personal lens. Continue to visit this webpage for updates, or submit questions, comments or inquiries to Aria Camaione-Lind and/or Tamara Leigh at MyRochesterMurals@gmail.com. Work is projected to start this summer. 

ArtsBloom

ArtsBloom is the City’s non-capital art competition funded through the Percent for the Arts program. It is designed to fund arts education, performing arts, and temporary art, as opposed to permanent physical installations (capital art) that are funded through other Percent for the Arts programs. The goals of this program are to enrich and expand the experience of public art for all Rochesterians by reaching historically underserved residents, while increasing economic opportunities for local artists and small arts organizations in Rochester.

The City released the first ArtsBloom Request for Proposals (RFP) on April 21, 2023. In this inaugural round, a total of $100,000 will fund diverse arts programming and projects that benefit the Rochester community. The concept for the ArtsBloom Project was developed in partnership with an advisory panel of local artists and members of the arts community called the Arts and Creative Community Committee (AC³).  

Respondents may submit a funding request for one of three options: $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000. Each Respondent may only submit one funding request. See below for the full RFP and attachments.  

• ArtsBloom Request for Proposals
• Attachment A: Mandatory Cover Sheet
• Attachment B: Standard PSA Form
• Attachment C: MWBE and Workforce Goals

The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2023. The City convened a Pre-Submission Conference on May 10, 2023 at 1:00 pm so that interested artists and organizations could learn more and ask questions of the project team. The conference was recorded in two segments. You can watch them here>> and here>>. NOTE: Watch both segments to hear all of the information available.

The deadline for questions about ArtsBloom has passed. The City has prepared a Frequently Asked Questions document based on all questions received by the questions deadline. You can find that document here>>.

Heather Anderson is the Project Manager for ArtsBloom. You can contact her at heather.anderson@cityofrochester.gov. 

Arts & Culture Plan for the City of Rochester and Monroe County

Request for Proposals (RFP) – early May

The Arts & Culture Plan will provide a blueprint for investing in and improving the local creative ecosystem. It will be created by the community, for the community, with facilitation assistance provided by City staff and a planning consultant. The Rochester 2034 Comprehensive Plan identified an arts and culture plan for the City as one of the actions to achieve the goal of supporting, growing, and sustaining the creative economy. The City already has an advisory group of local arts stakeholders – the Arts and Creative Community Committee (AC³) – that has been working on the Plan’s framework.

The Plan will have a particular focus on historically underrepresented and underserved populations in the community. It will concentrate on recommendations for the City of Rochester, but will address the broader Rochester area as well. Monroe County will be involved with this Plan as well. They have important perspectives to offer and the arts and culture scene has little regard for municipal boundaries.

The Plan will be a graphically-rich, user-friendly, and implementation-oriented document. It will include an arts and culture inventory and will establish a strategic framework with a set of goals, objectives, and actions, all under the umbrella of a vision and key values that guide decision making. The Plan will be designed so that successful implementation will be a shared effort between local government, institutions, non-profits, businesses, and individuals.

Because of the highly unique nature of an Arts & Culture Plan, the City will be engaging a specialized consultant to facilitate the process and develop the Plan. The consultant will ideally have a diverse staff and have experience with:

• Developing arts & culture plans, public art master plans, and other community plans;
• Robust and creative community engagement, especially with artists;
• Encouraging collaboration between municipalities and non-profit arts organizations;
• High-quality graphic design for documents, websites, and other project materials; and
• Best practices in other communities.

The consultant will be selected through a City Request for Proposals, ensuring an equitable, fair and transparent process.

The City and stakeholders are prioritizing community outreach for the Arts & Culture plan with the following goals:

• Ensure that the community knowledge and expertise of a broad segment of residents are captured in the Plan
• Value the expertise of members of the public who make a time commitment to the Plan
• Foster civic leadership in local artists
• Facilitate innovative thinking around outreach for the City and County

To ground this Plan in the community, the City will facilitate several opportunities for engagement, including Artist Engagement Teams and stipends for public members of teams with recurring meetings and focus groups. See below for more on Artist Engagement Teams.

Call for Artist Engagement Teams – summer 2023 

Minneapolis piloted the use of Artist Engagement Teams to assist with outreach as a way to move beyond traditional modes of outreach to more effectively engage residents most impacted by the legacy of inadequate and often racist policies and practices. Minneapolis has continued to use Artist Engagement Teams beyond the pilot to shape City outreach.

The City intends to utilize this model for the Arts & Culture Plan development. The City will release a Call for Artists – four qualified artists will receive $4,000 each for participating during the year of plan development as Artist Engagement Teams (two teams of two). The teams will assist the consultant and the City in developing an outreach plan, and they will carry out specific outreach strategies. The outcome is two-fold: artists recruited from underrepresented and underserved communities have a better understanding of how to connect with those communities that face barriers in outreach participation; and an artist’s creative process becomes a tool to develop new modes of outreach to improve participation generally.

Examples of arts and culture plans from other cities:   

• Greensboro: Cultural Arts Master Plan
• Minneapolis: Creative City Road Map
• Nashville: Crafting a Creative City

Sister Cities Bridge Public Art Installation

A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will be released in Spring 2023

The project scope calls for a sculptural installation that will be located downtown in the middle of the new Sister Cities Pedestrian Bridge over the Genesee River. More information to come.

Miscellaneous Resources

• Arts in the Loop – an initiative started by the Eastman School of Music and a strong partner of the AC³.
• Meet on Main  – an Arts in the Loop study of arts funding and organizational models in five other cities.
• Arts + Culture Section of Rochester 2034