City of Decatur Cultural Arts Master Plan

The City of Decatur is a hotbed of emerging and stellar cultural institutions located five miles outside of Atlanta. As it continues to attract new residents and artists, the city has looked towards developing a funding strategy to nurture and sustain cultural activity.

With the benefit of international experience, Lord Cultural Resources was invited to spearhead a master planning process. We developed a public art initiative as well as strengthened regional arts networks. The plan also identified existing cultural assets to recommend adaptive reuse of present facilities; shared facility management across city- and non-profit-operated facilities; and recommendations for new capital projects. Additionally, the cultural master plan focused on developing partnerships with local educational institutions; sustainable collaborations with the business community; and identification of potential individual contributors. Our methodology comprised an extensive community engagement process, programming charrettes, as well as a thorough cultural asset inventory and mapping process.

The completion of a cultural master plan for the City of Decatur was deemed critical in achieving these key citywide objectives.

In 2016, Lord helped lead an initiative for public art to paint a mural on the MARTA overpass at West Trinity and Atlanta Avenue. Lord assisted the steering committee to short list five teams for interviews out of thirty-eight artists and teams who responded to the request for qualifications.