An Arts + Culture Campus on our Downtown Riverfront

Proud to be Honored

John Kirkscey, MAP's developer, and designer Mario Walker in Washington D.C. for AIA's 2017 Emerging Professionals Exhibit.

John Kirkscey, MAP's developer, and designer Mario Walker in Washington D.C. for AIA's 2017 Emerging Professionals Exhibit.

We're thrilled to announce that Memphis Art Park and its designer Mario Walker of Self+Tucker Architects have just been honored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Washington D.C. Just 33 projects from around the U.S. were chosen for the 2017 Emerging Professionals Exhibit in order to celebrate our nation’s rising generation of architecture and design professionals.

This year's 33 "Citizen Design" projects "tackle equity, access, ecology, and sustainability with contemporary design solutions." According to Kathleen M. O’Donnell, Manager at AIA”s Center for Emerging Professionals, “Memphis Art Park stands out because it’s a great solution for the riverfront area that focuses on community building and showcases the arts.”

 

Re-establishing Memphis as a Thriving Hub of Arts & Culture

Memphis Art Park (MAP) proposes to create two community art centers and an outdoor art park on a public campus along the downtown Memphis riverfront. MAP would beautify, connect and bring dynamism to the neglected Front Street Promenade—our city’s front doorstep.

Memphis Art Park will serve as a creative incubator and an integrative forum for our city’s emerging filmmakers, musicians, dancers, performing artists, visual artists, entrepreneurs and other local creatives. The facilities throughout MAP’s downtown campus will also provide Memphis artists with an intimate yet high-profile showcase space, so locals and tourists alike will be able to enjoy our city’s emerging arts & culture amid spectacular views of the mighty Mississippi River and Downtown. 

Memphis Art Park aims to nurture the soulful, artistic, and historically-innovative creativity already inherent to our city’s DNA. MAP would help catalyze our citywide renaissance, keep it local and authentic, and help re-establish Memphis as a thriving hub of arts and culture.

Memphis Art Park: Integration > Collaboration > Inspiration > Innovation

The 21st century will belong to the distinctive city, and entrepreneurial artists...are key to that future.

“How Cities Can Nurture Cultural Entrepreneurs” by Ann Markusen

 

Memphis Art Park in the press

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Invest in Yourself, Memphis

After decades of depression, Memphis finally finds itself in the early stage of a renaissance. We're also blessed to have before us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake so many of our most prized public spaces. Yet Memphis is once again the poorest large metro area in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. How we go about finding the right solutions for Memphis at this defining moment will determine how authentic, inclusive, and sustainable our renaissance will be.

Tale of Two Plans

Earlier this month, city officials unveiled a massive plan to revitalize downtown's promenade with a music venue, an outdoor cafe, art installations, pop-up retail, and more. The city's plan for Memphis Fourth Bluff looks incredibly similar to John Kirkscey's Memphis Art Park plan, which he began developing nine years ago.

Memphis consultant to propose art center renovations for Cossitt Library

Six years ago, local filmmaker and startup consultant John Kirkscey came up with a $20 million idea to renovate Cossitt Library as the Memphis Art Park.

That's not the idea he'll present to the City Council Tuesday. Instead, it will be a scaled-down version that would cost about $1 million of private funds.

"It's a way to have your cake and eat it too," Kirkscey said.

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