Elmwood Place banner art shows value of partnerships

A village-wide "art exhibit" will soon appear along Vine Street and Township Avenue in Elmwood Place.

The 37 new banners have been designed by students in Nancy Anderson's art class at St. Bernard-Elmwood Place High School.

The project was made possible by grants from the Fine Arts Fund and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation with support from the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission (HCRPC), local artist Carol Ann Newsome and school superintendent Dr. Mimi Webb.

Catalina Landivar-Simon, project manager and senior planner with HCRPC, calls it "an amazing community building exercise" that will help build a foundation for the future.

"We were able to create a great partnership that allowed us to tap into the arts class," she says.  "And so we got 37 unique, different banners.  The kids are extremely proud of their work."

The banners are part of a larger redevelopment effort that includes beautification of the village's public spaces, and the first step was to create a visual marker.

"I could give you a map and ask you, 'Where is Elmwood Place?'," Landivar-Simon says.  "Nobody's quite sure exactly where it is."

This spring, the community will partner with the Mill Creek Watershed Council to build a rain garden at the corner of Vine and Township, and new gateways into the village are expected by June.

Businesses are also getting in on the beautification effort.

Along Vine Street, the Omaha Paper Stock Company plans to landscape around their recycling plant, and Duke Energy is in the process of removing nine inactive power poles and some unsightly redundant wiring.

Landivar-Simon says that partnerships help make a community vibrant.

"Residents are becoming part of the rebirth of Elmwood Place," she says.  "It's an opportunity to reconnect."

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Catalina Landivar-Simon, senior planner, HCRPC