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Mount Vernon Triangle Named as Playable Art DC Location

Monday June 30, 2014

The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVT CID) announced today that the DC Office of Planning (OP) has selected the Mount Vernon Triangle community as one of three Washington, DC locations for a Playable Art DC installation. The Mount Vernon Triangle site will be located along a section of K Street streetscape near 5th and K Streets, NW. The two other DC sites are the Kennedy Street Development Association and the NoMa Business Improvement District. The Playable Art DC team will now conduct design workshops with neighbors of all ages and an online survey available at http://svy.mk/1nE6qyM.  Once the workshop information is gathered, OP will release a call for designers.

The Playable Art DC team, led by OP and funded by a grant from ArtPlace America, conducted a search for three non-traditional sites as homes for creative, innovative and artistic play structures. Playable Art DC promotes the use of art as a means of creating new types of play spaces in areas that are constrained by space, topography, or other barriers. The search requirement was for unique locations and other unexpected places with the underlying belief that play and art should be everywhere.

MVT CID President, Claire Schaefer Oleksiak, welcomed the announcement, saying, “We are thrilled to have been selected for a Playable Art installation. With more than 16,000 residents within a half mile, many of them with young families, we believe this location along MVT’s “main street” will be a wonderful place to bring innovative art and play together to support the community.”

The MVT CID extends its appreciation to the many local businesses and residents who took the time to express their support for this opportunity to enrich our neighborhood.

Playable Art DC is a play and place making initiative of the DC Office of Planning in partnership with the District Department of Parks  and Recreation (DPR) to bring innovative art-based play spaces to neighborhoods with underserved park space in the District though an international design competition. Playable Art DC seeks to engage the whole community in play as a way to promote fitness and exercise and create community landmarks and neighborhood gathering spots.

ArtPlace America is a collaboration among 14 foundations, 8 federal agencies, and 6 financial institutions dedicated to strengthening the field of creative placemaking.  Toward this end, ArtPlace has invested in projects in which artists and arts organizations play an explicit and central role in strategies to help shape their communities’ social, physical, and economic futures.

Project design and coordination is by Cynthia Gentry, founder of the Atlanta Taskforce on Play. Gentry created Playable10 International Design Competition that resulted in the iconic ATL play structure sitting in Woodruff Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta.

About The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District
The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District is a private, nonprofit organization established to enhance the overall quality of life for residents, visitors, employees and property owners in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood in Downtown DC. Celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2014, the Mount Vernon Triangle CID is considered to be one of Washington DC’s best examples of a mixed-use community. The Mount Vernon Triangle is at the heart of the City—both geographically and culturally. Its boundaries include 17 blocks within the East End of downtown Washington, D.C., bordered by Seventh Street to the west, Massachusetts Avenue to the south, New York Avenue to the north and New Jersey Avenue to the east. The Mount Vernon Triangle is a welcoming, authentic, and centered neighborhood that mirrors the City’s unique mix of historic and modern buildings, longtime and new residents, and diverse cultures, restaurants, and experiences. For more information, we invite you to explore our website at mvtcid.org or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MountVernonTriangleCID or Twitter @MVTCID.

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