‘Love Asheville’ mural collaboration coming to 68 Haywood

 'Love Asheville' mural collaboration coming to 68 Haywood 

 From food trucks to a play under the stars, temporary uses and events have continued this summer at City-owned property at 68 Haywood St.

Soon a new temporary public art piece will be installed on a portion of the wall surrounding 68 Haywood — one that shows we’ve got spirit, creativity and we love Asheville!

Public art is among the interim uses the Haywood Street Advisory Team recommended for the property. As the City continues to work toward planning for permanent uses for the adjoining Page Ave. and Haywood St. City-owned properties, temporary use of the properties is available the public. This includes the Elder & Sage Community Gardens at 33 Page Ave. and a Mobile Vending Food Truck Pilot Program at 68 Haywood St. In June, 68 Haywood played host to a traveling musical play by the American Myth Center, “The Ballad of R & J.”

As part of this creative mix, an ad-hoc committee including representatives from the Haywood Street Advisory Team, Downtown Commission and Public Art and Cultural Commission cultivated plans for a temporary mural that will be painted on panels to be installed on a wall of 68 Haywood Street walls that reads “LOVE ASHEVILLE.”

Each of the 13 letters of the Love Asheville Mural are being uniquely designed by a different local design agency or graphic designer, with the overall theme reflective of Asheville Grown’s brand and on-going campaign to support local businesses. Coordination with the designers is being led by Jenny Fares of Sound Mind Creative and Asheville Design Salon. Contributing designers are: 828 Design, (Tom Petruccelli), Atlas Branding, (Taylor Sutherland and Lisa Peteet), Curve Theory, (Reggie Tidwell), Dena Rutter Design, Element Advertising, (Matt Levin). Gigantic, (Scott Smith), Harkness Design (Marc Harkness), HNYCMB Creative (Tim Scroggs), Homestead (Eric Pieper), Image 420 (Brent Baldwin), Martha Skinner & Sophia Arbelaez, Novus Architects (Sydney Gilmore), Project 13 (Richard Norris) and Sound Mind Creative (Jenny Greer Fares).

The mural is expected to be completed in September with a launch party to follow. Also at that time, a public survey will be launched to get feedback on temporary uses over the past year at these properties.

Happening Now
The City has opened 68 Haywood Street for public use and seeking temporary programs, events and activities to take place on the site.

The primary goal of opening the site for temporary uses is to activate the space, which would otherwise be vacant, on an interim basis while next steps towards long-term planning and implementation are underway.

A Request for Expression of Interests (RFEI) was released on June 2, 2017 for individuals or organizations interested in organizing regularly scheduled pop-up programs on the site. The deadline for submissions was June 26, 2017. Here are the resulting activities.

More information and updates from the organizers:

Asheville Grown Business Alliance: Venture Local Fair (website)

US Cellular Center: Fan Fest (website)

Latino Advocacy Coalition (website)

Buncombe Partnership for Children: Adventure Play (website)

Skunk Trunk: Bazaar Bazaar (website)

Land of the Sky Association of Realtors: Affordable Housing Fair (website)

American Myth Center: The Ballad of R&J (website)

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church (Car Show Flyer)

People’s Park Foundation: Recreational and educational activities (Facebook page)

More Information 

The site is now available for special events through the City’s existing outdoor special event permitting process.

Outside of times when it is permitted for Outdoor Special Event use, the site is open to the public daily for passive/recreational activities, or for use by Mobile Food Vending (see below) from 7 AM - 10 PM.

Following City Council approval on December 19, 2017, a new Mobile Food Vending Pilot program was created for the calendar year 2018 to further encourage use of the site, with a simplified application process for use by mobile food vendors including food trucks. Permit holders may have access to the site on a first come, first serve basis when the site is not permitted for an Outdoor Special Event. The application form is available here.

In addition to temporary uses at 68 Haywood Street, a temporary community garden is now in place at 33-35 Page Avenue This is one of several sites included in the City’s new Community Garden Program as part of the Asheville Edible’s Initiative.

There will be opportunities for the public to offer feedback during the course of the year in order to inform the next phase of temporary uses on the site, as well as long-term planning as that process moves forward. More information about long-term planning is available here.

For more background and information, visit the City of Asheville’s webpage about 68 Haywood Temporary Uses. Or contact Asheville Downtown Development Specialist Dana Frankel at DFrankel@ashevillenc.gov.