Creative Placemaking

• Bloomington Citywide Creative Placemaking Plan and Appendices
• South Loop Creative Placemaking Plan and Appendices
• 2025 Creative Placemaking Work Plan
• South Loop History Report
• Murals Policies and Procedures
• South Loop Public Art Map
• CreativeMN Bloomington Arts and Culture Impact Report

Download the free Otocast App on your smartphone to access the South Loop Public Art Audio Tour and take a self-guided tour to learn more about the art and artists.

• Use the location-based app to find and interact with over 35 public art points of interest in the South Loop.
• Detailed descriptions, photos, directions, and audio clips, including artist interviews, tell the stories behind the artwork you visit.
• Visit 10 public art locations and receive a badge and a prize package. (Limited prize packages are currently still available!) 

Information:

• Spanish
• Somali
• English
• Vietnamese

View this playlist on YouTube

Mural design concept details, by Sandy Spieler and Tara Perron

Creative Placemaking is partnering with local artist Sandy Spieler and Dakota cultural educator Tara Perron (Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ), to create a stunning four-sided mural and install a living Indigenous Garden at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge trailhead shelter.

The mural will reflect themes of home, kinship, water, and healing, drawing on Dakota culture and local voices. Nearby, the garden will feature native plants and showcase traditional seed-saving practices—connecting land, culture, and community.

The mural and garden are part of Bloomington’s newly approved Citywide Creative Placemaking Plan to infuse public spaces across the city with beauty, identity, and community connection. Inspired by its surroundings, the project seeks to bridge cultures, time, and place through shared stories and living art. Thank you to Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge for their support. 

Installation will take place throughout summer of 2025. 

Learn more and see progress photos at blm.mn/ocab-mural

Previously, we hosted an on-site engagement event, participated in community meetings and met with stakeholders to gather feedback about how to develop this vacant lot located at 2255 E Old Shakopee Rd, next to the new Fire Station #3. The most popular ideas included native landscaping, a community garden, and seating. After gathering feedback about draft designs, the site design included these components and was under construction in 2023. Artful banners were created through a cyanotype process, by Sheila Novak and Dakota artist Erin Genia. They collected different elements from the natural world such as plants, and incorporated the traditional Dakota symbol Anpa O Wičahnpi, which is the morning star symbol, to awaken wonder, and to reflect this place as Dakota homelands.

Learn more about the cyanotype banners by artists Sheila Novak and Erin Genia. 

Plots opened in spring 2024, with parking reserved in the Hometown Church lot. Learn more about the City's Community Garden plots. 

The goal of Hometown Poetry is to celebrate art and literature and integrate it into our communities, highlight the talent of Bloomington writers, and bring a sense of surprise, delight, and contemplation to pedestrians. Sidewalk stamps and creative sign installations will display the poems of Bloomington residents. Learn more and view a map of installed projects. 

The WE Mural was curated and produced by Ua Si Creative. Artists: Andrés Guzmán and Xee Reiter, City Mischief featuring Thomasina Topbear and Tom Jay, Marlena Myles, Martzia Thometz, Reggie LeFlore, and Ua Si Creative.

Ua Si Creative coordinated the artistic team members who completed a series of murals located on two walls surrounding an Xcel Energy substation facing American Boulevard and 30th Avenue South. Installation took place throughout August and September, 2021, with a Sunset Block Party to celebrate the completion. Learn more about the WE Mural here.

View ‘A first look at South Loop’s WE Mural’ and the ‘WE Mural Sunset Block Party’, by the City of Bloomington.

Thank you to the following partners for their support: Forecast Public Art, McGough, Metro Transit and Xcel Energy.

The Goldfinch, by artist Donald Lipski will help create a more distinctive sense of place and identity, while providing an opportunity to surprise and delight those who live, work, and visit South Loop. The design was inspired by the 250+ migratory birds that pass through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The theme of flight and migration was also an element when considering the diverse population of South Loop and the nearby international airport. The sculpture is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Killebrew Drive and Old Shakopee Road, near Refuge trail heads, and next to a trail connection. The community was previously invited to vote on which local songbird should be represented, and American Goldfinch was the clear winner. This project was installed in December, 2021.

Bloomington Ribbon, by Kao Lee Thao. Photo credit: Kao Lee Thao

In the Creative Spark program, we invite artists and others to propose and implement creative ideas within the South Loop. Stakeholder panels have reviewed and selected projects that enhance and activate South Loop and engage residents, workers, and visitors in creative ways that could be temporary, experiential, semi-permanent, or permanent. 

2021 selected proposals were sculptures all installed in the Bloomington Central Station Park area:

• "Kalopsia" bench, by Daniela Bianchini
• "Blooming Ribbon," by Kao Lee Thao
• "Street Seat," by Greg Mueller
• "The Hand Sculpture" by Safa Sarvestani and Shirin Ghoraishi
  • Hand Sculpture Information & Artist Bios

2019 selected proposals:

• "An Owl's Perspective," a temporary 3D sculpture in the shape of a great horned owl, to be installed at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Visitors helped construct this sculpture during the Urban Birding Festival. Artist: Gail Katz-James.
• Summer Music Concert featuring Hailey James and The Tuxedo Band, at Bloomington Central Station Park. Coordinated by Reflections Condominiums social committee.
• Free standing temporary "pop up" murals, located at Bloomington Central Station Park. Artist: Rock Martinez.
• Bloomington Cultural Festival, at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Coordinated by Together Bloomington.

Please download the free Otocast App to access our South Loop Audio Tour and view project images and information.

ARTBOXES consist of wrapped utility boxes in designs by local artists. Some also include sculptural elements. These creative, exciting, and appealing objects of art create a free outdoor gallery and enhance the district’s character and vitality. 

As many other communities have discovered, transforming utility boxes into vehicles for artistic expression has produced several benefits: reducing graffiti, beautifying neighborhoods, improving walkability, and creating elements of surprise and delight.

Completed ARTBOX projects are by the following artists:

• Patrick Liu
• Ray Klempka
• Taylor Lund
• Leon Currie
• Rock CYFI Martinez
• Ron Brown
• Keren Kroul
• Daniel Natural, Ocean Blue Tattoo
• Teresa M. Cox
• Erik Sletten
• Jesse Golfis
• Mandel Cameron
• Olivia Novotny
• José Rebollo
• Robyn Brower
• John C. Gerber
• Shakuntala Maheshwari
• Luis Fitch
• Leah Yellowbird

Please download the free Otocast App to access our South Loop Audio Tour and view locations, images and information for all Artboxes.

Bloomington and Artistry worked with artists Nancy Musinguzi and Adam Davis-McGee/AxS GRNTD on a virtual Augmented Reality (AR) Tour of the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge over Long Meadow Lake (9898 Old Cedar Ave S, Bloomington).

Within the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, visitors will be able to unlock exclusive AR experiences available for immediate use in Snapchat. This AR Tour is an informative and entertaining experience inspired by the legacy and surroundings of the bridge. Some of the themes include historical information and dates, selfie wings highlighting local birds and butterflies, and flags representing the diversity of Bloomington. The project was installed in November of 2019.

Learn more in this interview with Adam Davis-McGee.

The City of Bloomington commissioned a mural on the retaining wall that runs alongside State Highway 77/Cedar Avenue and faces Old Cedar Avenue and Wright’s Lake Park. This mural is part of the City’s neighborhood emphasis program in this area, and the City and our partner Artistry’s creative placemaking efforts. We worked with GoodSpace Murals to produce the Seasons of Becoming mural, due to their artistic expertise, extensive experience, community engagement process, and bilingual staff.

Three design visioning sessions in 2017 and 2018 inspired the design, a design presentation collected feedback, and seven painting parties took place in May and June 2019 throughout Bloomington, where the community helped paint on canvas sheets later adhered to the wall. Students from Valley View Middle School participated throughout the process, including a photo shoot where they served as models for the mural, and a ribbon cutting celebration in October 2018 to commemorate the completion of the mural.

View videos of the process and celebration.

James Brenner designed and installed Convergence, a sculpture in the roundabout at the intersection of Lindau Lane and 28th Avenue near Mall of America. Brenner also designed the landscape surrounding the sculpture, which was unveiled August 20, 2015. Convergence is a landmark in a developing corridor that intersects pedestrian, automotive, and light rail traffic. The LED lighting illuminates the sculpture at night, and represents the three primary stakeholders of South Loop - residents, workers, and visitors.