Executive Summary

Emerald Loop Priority Places

Emerald Loop Vision

Greenville's Center City as a place of community, inclusivity, activation and innovation as a result of a vibrant and varied art overlay onto the built environment

Use art as a transformational placemaking catalyst for economic and cultural vitality

Goals:

• Create a necklace of gems connecting the

City’s cultural assets

• Enhance walkability in Greenville's urban core • Develop creative placemaking to attract and retain people of all ages in Greenville • Create iconic visual forms, content and materials to incite curiosity and wonder • Create immersive, interactive experiences and participatory events • Create spaces for art experiences to happen spontaneously • Synthesize the historic past, dynamic present and unknown future • Honor Greenville’s cultural diversity • Incite change over time through programming and lighting • Increase the number of resident working artists • Engage the community in artwork development and experience • Make art a community conversation

Methods:

• Combine public and private investments in art • Implement art projects over time, leveraging and enhancing parallel urban design efforts • Incorporate artists onto design teams to integrate art with plaza, streetscape and architectural elements

Many opportunities for art experiences were identified during conception of the Vision Plan. This map represents a set of places and projects that are prioritized because of either their high placemaking capacity or their ability to unify and connect Greenville's Center City.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Emerald Loop Placemaking Art Elements

The Emerald Loop is a conceptual necklace connecting Greenville’s existing and envisioned cultural gems. This map represents all the varied places and art media – some permanent and some temporary – that have been identified in the visioning process. Some of these elements fall within key placemaking nodes while others are stand-alone opportunities.

Placemaking Artwork

Art as Collective Consciousness

Art is the expression and experience of human perception, ideas and inquiry. It stimulates thinking, reveals meaning and can uniquely resonate with our personal associations as well as our collective consciousness of the world. Art in the public realm has the potential to capture the imagination and engage with civic memories in a collective manner. Communal experiences can be pivotal in the formation of bonds between people and place.

Site Specific Art in the Public Realm

Site-specific art responds to conditions of the place where it is located. Art that taps into cultural, social, physical and natural systems, as well as stories and phenomenological qualities of place, can spark curiosity about a place. Public art and creative placemaking can visualize and crystallize a community’s identity. Interactive public art can activate spaces where people gather on important occasions as well as everyday. Iconic sculpture or architectural treatments often come to symbolize a city while also elevating its image as cosmopolitan and contemporary. The ELVP includes a menu of art opportunities for lighting, sculpture, facade surface treatments and temporary programming. In many cases, these elements are intended to be integrated with the architectural and functional programs of their sites.

Role of Public Art in Greenville's Center City

As the cultural heart of Greenville and home of the majority of the city’s art organizations and venues, the Center City is a place where public art should play both a civic role, representing the values and increasing diversity of the city’s evolving population; as well as a theatrical role, offering unexpected and magical experiences. Public art should be included in the planning and development of Greenville as a discipline that is just as important as architecture, landscape architecture and transportation. Integration of thoughtful public art, taking inspiration from its context and community, can create both beauty and dialogue that enrich the lives of those who encounter it.

The integration of site-specific, permanent and temporary public art into Greenville's Center City will help to shape and define the character of its community gathering places. Public art is envisioned to be overlaid onto the design framework of the Center City's public realm, including its surfaces, furnishings, wayfinding and lighting, contributing to Greenville’s identity and sense of place.

Activating the Public Realm

Creative placemaking inspires people to re-imagine and reinforce connections between each other and the places they share. The Emerald Loop art opportunities are linked through their common purpose of activating the public realm – streets, plazas, parking lots, parks, trails, buildings, theaters and bridges. Some locations noted in the ELVP have the potential to host numerous art media and experiences, indicating their importance as cultural activators. Incorporating multiple layers of art experience will increase a place's potential to pique the interest of a wider audience.

Art as Economic Stimulus

Vital Culture, Vital Commerce

At the root of the SmART Community Initiative that enabled Greenville's Emerald Loop Vision Plan and the designation of Greenville's Center City as an Arts District is a profound recognition of a symbiotic relationship between a thriving creative environment and a robust economy. Active and dynamic urban areas draw in visitors and increase the health and vitality of both culture and commerce.

Direct and Indirect Art Economy

Artist productions are an important part of a healthy cultural ecosystem and contribute directly to the business environment through employment for artists, craftspeople and contractors. Art also has an indirect catalytic effect on the economy in urban areas, spurring development in many dimensions beyond the initial art investments. As more members of the community visit and participate in cultural activities in the Center City, they will be more likely to visit the shops, restaurants, hotels and bars there - allowing both the creative economies and the business economies to prosper.

Investing in Experiential Urban Amenities

A large majority of Americans believe that the arts improve the identity of their community. Art experiences cultivate a community identity by raising awareness that can stimulate dialogue and debate. By questioning and discussing, a community develops, reinforces and fine-tunes its shared values. A broader understanding and appreciation of the various cultural expressions that make up Greenville will enhance the richness of the urban core by building cultural and intellectual capital for a more vibrant and vital Center City. An important long-term benefit of this investment will be the attracting and retaining of young professionals to the major businesses of Greenville. At a time when young professionals are seeking to spend their disposable income on unique experiences, Greenville must invest in the production of such experiences because without these amenities young people will choose instead to live in other places that do offer them.

Implementing the Plan

Matching Artworks to Projects

The success of the Vision Plan hinges on City planners and managers, elected officials, private developers, long-standing property owners, businesses, institutions, artists and the broader community of Greenville cohering around a joint vision for the “Emerald Loop.” The key to making this possible is a vision that is both cohesive and open enough to allow for individual expression and integration with particular projects. The ELVP includes art projects that have the potential to encompass the entire Center City, such as a lighting scheme for architectural facades and towers that can be implemented over time by a variety of stakeholders. With wide enough participation, the impact of the “whole” will be greater than the quantifiable sum of the individual parts. The plan also includes “one-offs” to highlight special places within the Emerald Loop area. Some Art Elements and Placemaking Nodes noted in the plan already exist and thus create a foundation on which to build, but most are proposed for future implementation. The variety of art approaches is intended to provide “something for everyone,” making it easier for public and private organizations and individuals to find an art opportunity that not only matches but also enhances the other goals of their projects.

Public and Private Investment

Investments in the arts by private developers will be just as important as City funding is to a vibrant Center City. It is recommended that the City implement a percent-for-art model that would create funding streams for the arts through both public and private development.

Public Art Project Management

Implementation of a public art policy in Greenville should be accompanied by the creation of a Public Art Coordinator position within either the City of Greenville or Emerge to assist the City and developers with selection and management of public artists and implementation of the artwork.

Design Team Collaborations

Ideally, public art should be conceived as integral with the design framework of a development’s surfaces, spaces and wayfinding. For most effective integration, the earlier an artist can join a design team to coordinate their work with that of other disciplines, the better. This will allow the best ideas to be integrated in the most cost-effective way.

Artist Rosters

Rosters of artists pre-qualified to execute integrated artworks, murals and programming events can be established to aid in the selection of artists by the City and private developers.

Fluidity of Vision

The ELVP is intended to be a fluid, living document, with the ultimate goal of Greenville's Center City being studded with many more gems than what is currently even envisioned. The diagrams in this document are snapshots taken at the time when the plan was completed. Because healthy and growing cities are constantly changing, there will be unforeseen future conditions leading to additions, deletions, crossovers and exchanges between art typologies and sites shown on the diagrams. For instance, circumstances may arise where it becomes more feasible to do a lighting artwork at a site designated for a signature sculpture; or a land owner may wish to fund or provide space for a facade treatment in a location not currently shown in the plan. Opportunities for temporary programming in particular will constantly evolve.

Developer Toolkit

For projects that exist or are in development, the Vision Plan includes suggestions for art elements that would contribute to the Emerald Loop vision. For projects unknown or not started at the time of this writing, it is hoped that the Vision Plan can serve as a resource and template for conceiving cultural experiences appropriate for a particular location or group. The Art Elements section of the ELVP can act as a kind of “Toolkit,” providing examples of art treatments within the media of Lighting, Sculpture, Surface Treatments and Programming; and describing how they can be applied at different sites.

GREENVILLE: PAST + PRESENT + FUTURE

Civic Identity

Greenville’s residents know their city to be a great place to live. As the home of Vidant Health and East Carolina University, it is the Hub of education and healthcare in Eastern North Carolina. Other key features of Greenville include its lively sports scene, places for fun, access to environmental amenities, commerce and its affordability. With such renowned institutions established within the city, Greenville attracts academic experts and leaders from around the world who work to improve the community and inspire future generations. Vidant and ECU drive the economic development of the city through the high quality jobs, classes and careers offered. These institutions shape the population of the city dramatically and must be considered in future plans and developments. Though the arts have been an ever-present part of Greenville’s part and present identities, the ELVP sees a future where art and city are inextricably linked - a future where the creative, expressive process in Greenville is tantamount to its high quality healthcare and educational excellence.

While Greenville is beginning to be seen as the entertainment and culture hub of the region, it was also noted across the findings of the “This is Our Story” study, conducted in October of 2019, that there is a lack of activity in these same areas. With the widespread programming listed on ECU and Emerge Gallery’s event calendars, this may be a misconception – but one that needs to be addressed. It is possible that what is missing are visible, iconic symbols of Greenville’s culture, to catalyze exploration of the city’s less visible, but still present, programming.

Pirates

ECU’s identity has blended deeply with the identity of Greenville, especially given its long history of growing with the city and direct adjacency to the Center City. Pirates, ECU’s team name, are an authentic part of North Carolina’s history, having made use of the shallow waters of the sounds and rivers along the fledgling state’s coast. Today ECU, along with their partner, the Queen Anne’s Revenge Project, are researching the historical wreckage of Blackbeard’s famed ship - located in the Beaufort Inlet, not far from Greenville.

Pirates and the school color of purple, have a blurred identity as both the city and school now make use of the bold icon to brand themselves. This character can be interpreted in many ways and should be leveraged with care to showcase some of Greenville’s celebrated characteristics. Research from the “This is Our Story” survey indicates that an affiliation with ECU dramatically shifts a viewer’s association with the pirate symbol, often emphasizing favorable interpretations. Unfortunately, the study also found the opposite can be true of people without connections to ECU.

Employing broad concepts like “Find the Hidden Gems” touches on the treasure-hunting heritage of the pirate, while emphasizing the value and wonder of the city.

Demographics

The vibrancy of Greenville is found in the hearts, minds and hands of its capable residents. ECU’s student body allows for Greenville to have a robust young adult population, with people aged 18 to 24 making up 28.7% of the city’s population. Many of these students activate the urban core most evenings from late August to early May for the lively nightlife scene that keeps things hopping until last call. This group is followed closely in numbers by the age range of 25 to 44, comprising another 28.2% of the overall population in Greenville. Many of these people have young families and make use of the urban core’s wide array of activities that are designed to serve all age ranges. Even with the plethora of amenities offered, the demographic group that Greenville is struggling to keep is a class of Millennial young professionals, according to the findings of the “This is Our Story” study. Older generations indicate feeling that they have a higher quality of life in Greenville than the younger generations. It is critical that all age ranges be considered when implementing the ELVP to foster greater happiness and intention to stay across the age spectrum. As a Southern city, Greenville’s population is composed of a diverse range of ethnic peoples with 53.7% of the population being white, followed closely by 38.2% black/African American. The fraught history of these groups has made the nuances of true diversity illegible at times and in certain areas of the city. The Emerald Loop Vision Plan aims to bring greater cohesion between these two primary groups while addressing the range of other peoples present. Greenville’s population is also comprised of indigenous peoples (0.4%), people of Asian/Pacific Islander descent (2.6%), people with Hispanic or Latino heritage (5.2%) and people of two or more races (2.7%). The ELVP seeks to provide opportunities for all these groups to further enrich the urban fabric of Greenville with their stories, experiences and art.