Project Description
The City of Richmond (COR), Richmond Art Center (RAC), The Trust for Public Land (TPL), & area residents will partner together to paint interactive games & artwork on a recently transformed "green alley" to transform it into a play street where families can have a fun, green, and clean place to play in
a underserved and park-deficient neighborhood. The project partners will host a design charrette to develop ideas for the play street, & then work with artists, local non-profits, & volunteers to implement the improvements.
Project partners will select 1-2 Lead Artists with public art & community engagement experience from the RAC's roster of experienced teaching artists. Through RAC's Artists in Schools & Arts in the Community Program, the partners will work with two local elementary schools & youth of the Nevin Community Center to develop and implement portions of the project. In addition to the work done by
K-6th grade students in after school programs, the project lead artists will hold 3-4 community work days in which community members & families of student artists can help install the fence art work & complete the asphalt painting.
The improvements contemplated include games painted on the ground, a game that will be displayed as fence art, stepping stones for balancing, blackboards for drawing, boulders for seating, community garden boxes with seating areas & interactive educational signs about the green features of the alley, nutrition, and healthy living. Other improvements include a trash & recycling receptacle, a safety barrier that can be closed when families are playing, & gateway fencing for the play street. The themes of the games will focus on sustainability, nutrition, & healthy living. The games & signage proposed will be in English and Spanish to encourage
use of this play street by non-English speaking area residents. Prior to the green alley improvements, this alley was a source of blight for this community. This project will make play a priority in the alley versus vehicle travel and will help create community ownership of the alley to ensure its longevity as a community asset.
The creation of an attractive neighborhood green & play space will reduce the need for vehicle trips to have opportunities for play and to be physically active in a park-deficient neighborhood. It will also encourage and support the use and enjoyment of outdoor space,
enhancing the community &
promoting public health.
Mathieu Court Alley Play Street Selected as One of the 50 Winners Nationwide in the Play Everywhere Challenge
Earlier this summer, the City of Richmond partnered with the Richmond Art Center, Trust for Public Land, Richmond Love Your Block Initiative, and the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council to submit a concept to paint interactive games & artwork on Mathieu Court Alley, a recently transformed "green alley". The idea is to add opportunities for
play where families can have a fun, green, and clean place to play within the alley in this park-deficient neighborhood. In August, this project was selected as a finalist to submit a full grant application and on Tuesday, September 20th, the project was selected as one of the 50 winners, out of the 1000 plus applications submitted nationwide. The project implementation is expected to begin in November, beginning with a design charrette with area schools and residents in October.
To learn more about the Play Everywhere Challenge, and view a gallery of winning ideas from cities across the US, please visit
http://kaboom.org/playeverywhere. To learn more about the Mathieu Court Alley Play Street Project, contact Francisca Penafiel at
francisca_penafiel@ci.richmond.ca.us or Lina Velasco at
lina_velasco@ci.richmond.ca.us. #playeverywhererichmond
The Play Everywhere Challenge is hosted by KaBOOM! in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts.