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Want to bring rural design to your local community? Apply now!
After much anticipation, we are pleased to open another opportunity to be a part of a CIRD, a national initiative around rural design and creative placemaking.
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New Leadership for Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design Brings Broad Reach
The National Endowment for the Arts has selected the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) as its partner for the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD), one of the Arts Endowment’s leadership initiatives.
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CIRD's Greatest Hits
CIRD communities offer a plethora of helpful hints and creative ideas for hosting community-wide events that address diverse rural design issues.
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The Prophet of Micropolis
Vincent DeSantis, the author of “Toward Civic Integrity: Re-establishing the Micropolis,” published eleven years ago, works in the spirit of Holly Whyte: quietly, carefully and with great acuity. Vince was my host, at his B&B, on my trips to Gloversville, New York. He is a Gloversville native, an attorney, served as the City Court judge in town for years and is now the at-large member of the city’s Common Council. He’s the moving force behind many of the good things happening in Gloversville. What I didn’t know, I suppose because of his reserve and modesty, is that he wrote a book that was years ahead of its time and that even today should be essential reading for everyone involved in placemaking. Back in 2007, Vince was conclusively making the case for small cities and how to revitalize them.
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When Main Street is a State Highway: Building Community through Transportation in Valentine, Nebraska
Highway 83 runs from North Texas straight through to North Dakota. Valentine, Nebraska sits somewhere in the upper middle, the closest neighbor the Rosebud Lakota Sioux reservation, where Highway 83 morphs into Main Street. Valentine is lucky: the looming façade to façade reconstruction of Main Street - is a cause for celebration.