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Downtown Muncie plans AR ‘Echoes of the Past,’ public-art utility covers and launches facade-grant reviews
Summary
Downtown Development reported new businesses, event attendance gains and several pilot public-art and facade-grant projects. Arts Walk on Oct. 2 will introduce an AR history experience at three sites and debut permanent art utility covers; facade-grant applications are under review.
Downtown Development and local arts leaders updated the commission on a series of cultural and placemaking initiatives intended to boost downtown visitation and spur investment.
Vicky Veach (Downtown Development Partnership) said staff have received a pair of façade-grant applications; each application was returned for additional information so the committee can apply the program guidelines. Veach said the program team expects awards to start within a few months once applications are complete and reviewed.
Veach and presenters outlined a suite of Arts Walk programming scheduled for Oct. 2: a QR-code-driven augmented-reality feature called "Echoes of the Past" will let visitors hold a phone at three downtown locations and view the former buildings that once occupied those spaces (Main & Walnut/Weiser building, the Delaware County Courthouse former footprint, and Main & Mulberry/Weiser Grand Opera House). Veach said the AR pilot grew from a partnership with Ball State’s IDIA Lab and the Bob Brothers Foundation and could expand to additional sites in future years.
The downtown team is also installing the first two permanent decorative "pedestrian iron works" utility-cover artworks — one on the sidewalk outside Destination Muncie and another sanitary district sewer cover nearer Canton Commons — with at least five additional covers planned next year. A new alley-based interactive installation using QR-triggered effects will debut in Dave’s Alley during Arts Walk; organizers described the experience as layered visual and audio elements activated via phone.
Vicky Veach reported the city’s signature summer events performed strongly this year: Summer Arts Walk drew an estimated 7,000 attendees (Placer.ai data) and the "Fire Up Downtown" event attracted about 17,000 attendees, an increase the organizers described as roughly 35% year over year. Veach said new downtown businesses over the past 18 months include a Filipino restaurant, a martini bar, a record shop, a salon and classroom/space use by the Ball State College of Architecture Planning.
Tanya Saied, executive director of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, said the council will coordinate a public ribbon-cutting for a new public-work installation at Ivy Tech (the Exhibit Columbus–donated piece "Designed by the Public") on Thursday, Oct. 2 at 2 p.m. She invited the commission and the public to attend and noted the work was donated to Muncie by Exhibit Columbus.
Separately, Muncie Land Bank director Nate Howard reported recent property transactions, pending proposals for neighborhood corridor planning work and a grant application to the Ball Brothers Foundation for acquisition and redevelopment work.
Downtown leaders asked the commission to publicize the façade program and future calls for applications; staff said they would coordinate communications with the city communications office.
No formal vote was taken on these items; they were informational updates to the commission.
