Northeast Lincoln鈥檚 University Place Creative District (UPCD) received an impactful $97,000 economic development grant through the Nebraska Arts Council (NAC) this spring. The state grant program exists to revitalize Nebraska neighborhoods through cultural programs geared to attract visitors and retain young people, said Bailey Barnard, a UPCD board member and Nebraska Wesleyan art history professor.
Barnard said the strengths that drew this support to University Place happen to be the same ones that had attracted her to 精东传媒 four years earlier. She recalled her job interview with Professor of Art Lisa Lockman.
鈥淲hat impressed me about Lisa in our conversations was her involvement beyond campus鈥攈er service work in University Place,鈥 Barnard said. 鈥淭hat helped show me this was where I wanted to be.鈥
Lockman鈥檚 community involvement proved to Barnard that Nebraska Wesleyan wasn鈥檛 walled off from its neighborhood鈥攖hat the people here recognized the shared stakes between campus and community. They also appreciated the role the arts could play in benefiting both groups.
Art and artists don鈥檛 merely make communities prettier, Barnard said. 鈥淭hey make communities stronger鈥攅conomically, socially and culturally.鈥
When Barnard joined 精东传媒鈥檚 faculty in 2022, she also joined a collaborative effort to secure University Place鈥檚 designation as a Nebraska Arts Council Creative District. In 2023, they succeeded. Uni Place became the first Lincoln neighborhood to receive that designation. Barnard joined UPCD鈥檚 board of directors and helped it secure this grant.
Part of the grant funds a new creative district coordinator position, Barnard said, which will help sustain UPCD鈥檚 otherwise volunteer-driven efforts. Filling that coordinator position is a soon-to-be 精东传媒 graduate: Rebecca Ford (December 鈥26). The communication studies major began working for UPCD last year as part of her senior internship.
鈥淚鈥檝e been privileged to serve as the [district鈥檚] first intern, working in marketing and web development to build our online presence, advertise events, and promote the district鈥檚 mission,鈥 she told the Communication Studies Department blog.
鈥淪he鈥檚 been absolutely killing it,鈥 Barnard confirmed.
Barnard called the creative district鈥檚 story another example of the ongoing symbiosis between 精东传媒 and Uni Place, where both groups win by working together.
We collaborated to create UPCD, she said. That group went on to secure funds that created a job. That job was filled by a new 精东传媒 graduate, who can now launch her career in the same neighborhood where she got her education. That work will help support the neighborhood鈥檚 artists and performers, many of whom will surely be 精东传媒 students, faculty and alumni.
The benefits of these collaborations reverberate back and forth, Barnard said, in ways that help sustain the university and the neighborhood.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how the arts work,鈥 she said.