Updates

Members of CIRD Design Learning Cohort were among the nearly 700 practitioners and policymakers gathered in Washington, DC, in October for the Housing Assistance Council’s 2023 National Rural Housing Conference. Over the course of three days they explored arts, culture, and design-driven community development in Frederick, MD, took in placemaking sessions at the conference, and connected with each other about shared design challenges in their communities.

In 2023-2024, CIRD will support eight local design workshops across the country, twice the number of workshops funded in previous years. The members of the design learning cohort come from 17 communities as geographically diverse as Dalhart, Texas, and Ellsworth, Maine.

Every two years, the NEA seeks rural communities of 50,000 people or less to apply for the CIRD program. With over 30 years of leadership in rural design, CIRD is perfect for creative, community-oriented rural leaders seeking to enhance the quality of life and economic vitality in their communities. Selected applicants emerge from CIRD programs with greater capacity and a wealth of resources to lead their community through current and future design challenges.

Four workshops across the country will bring together local leaders and residents with design professionals to work on a local design challenge. The members of the Design Learning Cohort come from 15 communities as diverse as Skagway, Alaska and Manchester, Georgia.

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design™ will offer four local Design Workshops that address specific community challenges, and an online Design Learning Cohort program that will allow up to 15 communities.

CIRD’s multi-day design workshops bring together a diversity of participants from the local community and introduce a wide array of design strategies to improve the way a community looks, its quality of life, and economic viability.

The first CIRD Cohort Summit brought together 23 organizations from around the country to share design principles and learn from each other.

After receiving over 80 deserving applications, we have identified 23 awardees and three workshop locations for the 2019 Citizens' Institue on Rural Design initiative. We are pleased to announce the 2019 CIRD awardees.

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. The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design is now accepting applications for its 2019 funding opportunities

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.

Calling all CIRD Awardees Past and Present! As Project for Public Spaces' tenure with the CIRD program concludes, we ask that you JOIN US in celebrating this great collaboration! This December's CIRD Newsletter will feature PPSxCIRDs "Greatest Hits" and we’d love to include you in that piece. We ask that you complete the attached survey, share your proudest CIRD moments, most surprising CIRD outcomes, and other meaningful CIRD memories with us!

This month, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRDTM) team ventures out from the East Coast to the Delta, the Sonoran desert, and the high plains to meet our four 2018 selected communities. This year’s workshops focus on Main Street revitalization, multimodal transportation, and healthy living by design: three distinct topic areas that have proven to be especially relevant to rural towns in the United States.

The Citizens' Institute on Rural DesignTM (CIRD), an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) managed by Project for Public Spaces, is pleased to announce four communities selected to host rural design workshops for the 2018 program year. Recommended by a review panel of rural experts, the four host communities are: Greenville, Mississippi; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Tuttle, North Dakota; and Valentine, Nebraska.

Limon, Colorado to join communities from Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, New York, and Washington to Host Rural Design Workshops

The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ is pleased to announce six communities from Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, New York, and Washington to host rural design workshops.

We are weeks away from the 2016-2017 CIRD workshop program deadline. We look forward to receiving your proposals, and in the interim would like to offer our assistance as you gather your materials for submission.

Announcement for CIRD's 2016-2017 Request for Proposals for Rural Communities Facing Design Challenges. The RFP was intended to help small towns and rural communities, with populations of 50,000 or less, build their capacity and acquire technical expertise to solve their design challenges.

Communities from Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, and New Hampshire to Host Rural Design Workshops.

The Program Staff of the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design™ is pleased to announce the receipt of 48 applications for our 2014-15 rural design workshops! The applications came from a remarkable range of communities across 26 states, ranging from a town with a population of 414 in Indiana, to a region comprised of 17 provinces in Idaho- each with unique histories, cultures, assets and identities, yet facing challenges that are pertinent to rural communities across America.

The deadline for the 2014-2015 CIRD workshop program is quickly approaching. While we know the application process is an exciting time for solidifying partnerships and dreaming big, there are a lot of pieces to manage. To help prospective applicants in the final weeks of the process, we’re putting the top resources for applying at your fingertips. Here is the 2014 CIRD “one stop shop” for your application needs.

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design has announced four organizations selected to host design workshops in rural communities in Florida, Kentucky, New York, and Texas.

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) will be co-hosting three monthly capacity-building conference calls over the course of the summer. Part of the ongoing CommunityMatters conference call series, these calls are designed to help any community working on a design or planning project get the skills they need to succeed, as well as the inspiration to get started.

We are very excited to re-launch this program, as it represents a unique opportunity for both of our agencies to provide essential design services to rural communities. Through our new partnership with Project for Public Spaces, Inc., the Orton Family Foundation, and the CommunityMatters® Partnership, rural communities can build upon existing assets and improve the way their community looks, its quality of life, and its economic viability.