Press Release 2/25/16

PERTH AMBOY, NJ— Mayor Wilda Diaz was joined by Perth Amboy City Council and members of the Perth Amboy Arts Council Wednesday night to announce that the City of Perth Amboy was awarded the 2015 Planning Award for “Outstanding Municipal Plan for 2016 – Municipal,” from the American Planning Association, New Jersey Chapter for the City’s Creative Placemaking Plan.

The Arts Council receives the American Planning Assoc. Award.
*Photo by Carolyn Maxwell

The plan focuses on ways Perth Amboy can use arts and culture to empower economic and community development.  The plan was developed by the City and the Jewish Renaissance Foundation with funding from a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) “Our Town” grant,  and the Dodge Foundation. A Creative Team of 20 artists, stakeholders and officials from Perth Amboy, worked with the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, Rutgers’ Center for Latino Arts and Culture to develop the plan over the course of two years.

“I want to thank the members of the Creative Team for all your hard work and personal time spent over the past two years, and for your commitment to the City of Perth Amboy. This has been a vision of mine in the making and I am so pleased that we are gaining momentum in this area of community development,” said Mayor Diaz.

Members of the Creative Team, and later the Arts Council, which was an outgrowth of the Creative Plan, conducted interviews and physical surveys of the City to determine the size and location of the City’s creative assets.  The Team also conducted extensive mapping of potential sites for future creative uses. According to the plan, “creative placemaking focuses on building diverse and sustainable partnerships, and strategically organizing arts and cultural activities to address social and economic opportunities.”

The plan seeks to have a significant positive effect on the future of Perth Amboy.  Its role, according to Annie Hindenlang, AICP/PP, Executive Director of the Office of Economic and Community Development, is to “enhance the quality of life and empower economic development through Arts and Culture in Perth Amboy.”   Some recommendations of the plan have already been successfully implemented, including the City Council’s passing of a Public Mural Ordinance, the creation of the Arts Council, as a key advisory board and the first Waterfront Arts Festival.  The plan also recommends the development of a registry of artists working in Perth Amboy and for zoning changes that would permit development of a downtown Arts District.

The Arts Council voted to endorse and adopt the plan to use as a guide for its future goals and activities.

A copy of the Perth Amboy Creative Placemaking Plan may be viewed on the City’s website at: www.ci.perthamboy.nj.us.oror at the direct link below.  You may also visit the Perth Amboy Arts Council’s Facebook page for additional information on local arts events.