2007 Promising Projects — Nurturing Community Arts

A three-phase, $92.3 million campaign is underway at the John Ball Park Zoological Society as a part of a comprehensive facility improvement plan that, once complete, will dramatically alter the look and feel of the entire zoo.

The first phase is a planned 6-year, $29.6 million renovation and restoration that will showcase charismatic animals that naturally thrive in the local climate. Visitors will be thrilled to walk through forested paths and come face to face with gigantic animals including lions, tigers and grizzly bears. The new home for the grizzlies will be located just inside the John Ball Park Zoo's entry and includes trees, grass, a stream and pools to provide enrichment for the animals and up-close experiences for the visitor. The big cat exhibit will feature an ambling trail that gradually leads visitors along easy to maneuver walkways. New technology that uses embedded acrylic panels will allow views that are literally inches from the animals.

Established in 1891, the John Ball Park Zoo is the tenth oldest in the United States. The new exhibits are designed to raise the profile of this cultural gem while incorporating rich guest experiences and exciting educational opportunities to visitors.

Note: Although current challenges in the broader economy may alter the pace of improvement, the plan and the projects related to it represent an excellent example of broadly supported philanthropic investment in a public facility.

As a way to celebrate and commemorate Grand Rapids as the first city in the world to fluoridate its water the West Michigan Dental Foundation and the Fluoride Commemorative Committee launched a public art project. As plans for the construction of a new JW Marriott hotel nearby the site of a previous commemorative plaque on the Louis Campau Promenade were finalized, a partnership was struck between the hotelier and the project organizers and a site along the river and adjacent to the new hotel was selected for a new work of public art. The artist selection committee unanimously chose Dutch artist Cyril Lixenberg and his proposed work entitled 'Steel Water' a laser cut steel structure, painted blue, which rises 33 feet from the plaza in which it sits less than 100 feet from the river and main entrance to the hotel. Organizers were successful in raising both public and private funds to see the project through to its unveiling in September 2007.