‘Beyond the Beige’ Grants to Improve Anchorage Façades and Spaces

The largest grant in the first batch goes to the Anchorage Park Foundation: $30,000 to create open-air art experiences at, initially, Tikishla Park and Kiwanis Fish Creek Park in collaboration with Alaska BookMobile.

Another mural is planned for The Guesthouse, formerly the Days Inn on Fifth Avenue converted into city-owned low-income housing. Anchorage Economic Development Corporation and Alaska Mural Project received $23,000 for a 1,100-square-foot “Welcome to Anchorage” sign to greet inbound traffic.

Another project on Fourth Avenue will decorate the fencing around Block 41, the former site of the Fourth Avenue Theatre, now mostly bare foundation while being redeveloped into mixed-use commercial space. Property owners Peach Holdings received a $10,000 grant, together with Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, to create an outdoor gallery for forty artworks.

The fifth grant of $12,000 goes to the Northeast Community Council for bike racks sculpted in animal shapes, to be installed at parks in that part of Anchorage.

“The hard work of the entire project selection committee has ensured that the first round of Beyond the Beige awards exemplifies the spirit and vision of the program,” says LaFrance. “This is just the beginning.”

The grants are administered in cooperation with the Anchorage Community Development Authority (ACDA), which also facilitates the Great Streets loans. “Receiving a grant is different than receiving a loan, of course,” notes ACDA Executive Director Mike Robbins. “Because you have to pay one back.”

Beyond the Beige opens a funding channel primarily for nonprofits; the Great Streets program remains open to applications. A business owner can borrow up to $25,000 per unit at 5 percent interest and has up to sixty months (or five years) of low monthly payments. Business and building owners can combine funding to perform intended façade improvements.

Improving storefronts was the top-ranked recommendation of the Project Anchorage Task Force during the previous administration. Robbins credits LaFrance with extending the idea.

“The mayor looked around and said, ‘Did we only have one color back in the ‘60s and ‘70s?’ Because every building downtown was beige,” Robbins says. “We can make Anchorage a brighter, better place to live. We can make the city more vibrant during the winter.”

He points out that the state’s 1% for Art program is for beautifying newly built public works, whereas the loans and grants retrofit existing business and nonprofit properties. The projects awarded were chosen by a committee made up of Robbins, ACDA staff and board members, staff from the mayor’s office, and the Municipal Arts Advisory Commission.

“Public art does more than make things look better. It really brings energy to our streets, it supports local artists and small businesses, and it draws people into Downtown,” Robbins said at the grant announcement.