AURORA | North Aurora’s Nome Park is slated to receive a major makeover over the next year.
At a regular city council meeting Nov. 23, Aurora City Council members unanimously approved the selection of local sculptor Reven Swanson to spearhead the creative component of an overhaul of the north Aurora park, which is sandwiched between Aurora Central High School to the south and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to the northeast.
Aurora City Council members Molly Markert and Marsha Berzins were absent and did not vote.
A panel composed of city staff, community members and a handful of Aurora Central students selected Swanson for the project from a pool of five artists earlier this fall.
The city’s approach to the Nome Park project has been different from many of its others in the realm of public art, in that exact plans for Swanson’s potential piece have yet to be decided. She will meet with a core group of planners starting next month, hold workshops with Aurora Central students throughout the winter, and chat with nearby community members for the next several months in order to begin fleshing out more concrete ideas based on their respective input. She said that the aim is to incorporate the community into the final product — both physically and figuratively.
Swanson will have a budget of $60,000 to work with on the Nome Street project. Funding will come from the Trust for Public Land and from a grant through the National Endowment for the Arts, according to city documents.
— Aurora Sentinel Reporter Quincy Snowdon contributed to this story.