Bloomberg Grant to Transform Camden Lots to Public Art Space

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's charity is awarding $1 million to a public art project in Camden, that will help clean up illegal dumping sites in the city. 

The project — "A New View" — will use the funds to transform nine lots around the city into public art installations with sculptures and murals, as well as a space to hold concerts, readings and other live events.

The lots are currently strewn with litter, like discarded television sets, car tires and other debris, said Kimberly Camp, one of the project's three curators. Camp grew up in Camden and said she remembers when the city was filled with diverse businesses and people.

"There weren't spaces outside of junkyards where people would dump things, because it was a thriving city with a very stable middle class," Camp said. Following decades of economic decline and a plummeting population, the block she grew up on went from having a tailor, a library, a drug store and a street full of residents to just one other person living there and no businesses.

All the vacant space has proved a magnet for illegal dumping and according to Mayor Francisco Moran, it costs the city about $4 million a year to clean up. 

"A New View," aims to deter illegal dumping, but Camp said the project has a broader mission to engage Camden residents, and provide a bit more beauty in their daily lives.

"When you culturally empower people, the next step is political empowerment," she said. "When you allow people to see the beautiful parts of life through music and dance, and the visual arts, poetry; they usually want more."

Organizers will finalize plans and recruit local artists to contribute over the next few weeks, Camp said.

Camden competed with more than 200 other towns and cities across the nation for five grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Other winners include projects about climate change in Anchorage, AK; a commemoration of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Coral Springs and Parkland, FL; food access in Jackson, MS; and the Black Wall Street historic district in Tulsa, OK.