The Chesterton Branding Leadership Corporation (CLBC) is excited to announce the launch of a community-wide project to designate an Arts and Cultural District for the Town of Chesterton.
This project was developed by a CLBC team who attended Creative Convergence, a two-day workshop in Fishers, Ind., in November 2024.
Creative Convergence was offered by the Indiana Arts Commission, in partnership with the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business, specifically to train municipalities to embed arts, culture, and creativity more meaningfully in economic planning.
Teams were encouraged to forge municipal partnerships, to work across the public and private sectors, and to foster an effective grassroots engagement process.
The Chesterton team is comprised of Chesterton Art Center Executive Director Hannah Hammond-Hagman; Jayde McAloon, owner of Pieces of Jayde; Rebecca Riley-Vargas, owner of Three Moons Fiberworks; and, representing the Town of Chesterton, Public Affairs Liaison Kevin Nevers. All four serve on the Board of Directors of the Chesterton Branding and Leadership Corporation, an independent 501c3 organization whose mission is to create and support a vibrant and thriving historic Downtown Chesterton community.
The Town of Chesterton’s CLBC team has received a grant award of $10,000 specifically to map a Chesterton Arts and Cultural District which highlights and promotes Chesterton’s unique and vibrant arts organizations, creative businesses, studios, galleries, and cultural and historic assets.
Paramount to the success of this project will be input from the public, which the CBLC will be collecting at a series of five monthly gatherings, beginning in March. Everyone with an interest in inventorying and mapping Chesterton’s artistic, cultural, and artistic assets is invited to attend one or more or all five gatherings.
The first of these community gatherings was held Tuesday, March 11, at the Chesterton Arts Center, 115 S. Fourth St., Chesterton.
Subsequent information gathering sessions will be held at Chesterton High School in April; Chesterton United Methodist Church on Saturday, May 17; Westchester Public Library on Saturday, June 21; and Riley’s Railhouse on Monday, July 21. All community gathering information is available at www.visitchesterton.org
Mapped site selections collected from the community gatherings will be assessed and culled to propose a specific Arts and Cultural District to be presented to the Chesterton Town Council in the fall for local designation through resolution. Grant funds will also be used late this year to issue a request for proposals to design and fabricate way-finding sculptures or plaques to visually represent the new district.
For more information on Chesterton’s Arts and Cultural District initiative, visit www.visitchesterton.org