Infusing Boulder’s Neighborhoods with Creativity

What happens when neighbors come together to turn creative ideas into community experiences? Through the City of Boulder's Creative Neighborhoods Program, community members are bringing art, culture and connection to neighborhoods across the city. These projects advance two goals of the Boulder Arts Blueprint, Boulder's 10-year framework for arts and culture: expanding public art and creative activity across public space, and ensuring community members can access creative experiences close to where they live.

Managed by the Office of Arts and Culture, the Creative Neighborhoods Program provides funding for resident-led projects created in collaboration with artists. From murals and music to dance, storytelling and hands-on community art, these projects create opportunities for neighbors to connect, build community resilience and celebrate the diverse voices that make Boulder's neighborhoods unique.

For the 2026 funding cycle, the city awarded $30,000 to eight projects across Boulder's subcommunities. Funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis within each subcommunity.

Get to know this year's projects and discover the creativity coming to Boulder neighborhoods:

Southeast Boulder

Community Birdhouse Art Walk

A local woodworker will build 20 birdhouses for neighbors to decorate together at a community social event. Participants will take their finished birdhouses home to install in their yards, creating a neighborhood-wide "art walk" that brings creativity into everyday spaces.

North Boulder

Ruzo Coffee Mural

A mural by artist Chandler Condon at Ruzo Coffee will depict a Japanese tea farm surrounded by local plants and framed by the Flatirons. Sited on a publicly facing wall along Quince Street, the mural reaches neighbors on a stretch that many pass daily.

Central Boulder - Old North Boulder

Community Seed Shed

Woodworker Dennis Mulherin will build, and artist Nikki Nichols will paint, a hand-crafted "Community Seed Shed," complete with a bench and bulletin board, to bring neighbors together around a shared love of growing. The project will incorporate community design input and native-ecology education and culminate in a launch event. Once complete, the seed shed will serve as an ongoing gathering place for the neighborhood.

South Boulder

Marimba in the Park

On Friday, Aug. 21, an outdoor concert in Tantra Park will feature Supima Marimba, a Zimbabwean-style acoustic marimba band, inviting neighbors of all ages to gather for a joyful, picnic-style community event. The concert will take place from 5:30-7:30pm in the grass just south of Summit Middle School, near 46th and Hanover Ave in South Boulder.

Central Boulder

Puppets in Salberg Park

Artist Kristen Mylander will lead a puppet show series in Salberg Park, combining shadow puppetry with paper-mâché masks and props. Four shows will take place between this fall and late next summer. After each performance, children will have the opportunity to create take-home crafts, extending the creative experience beyond the show.

Central Boulder

Community Metal Sculpture

Sculptor Michael Deragisch will create a new metal sculpture celebrating the local community and the neighbors who live and gather around its future location, adding a unique piece of community-created art to the neighborhood.

South Boulder

Table Mesa Mural

Artist Nicole Cardelfe will paint a new mural to transform a shed along a heavily traveled school route in Table Mesa. The project will bring colorful, visible public art to a place experienced every day by students, families and neighborhood residents.

South Boulder

Dance in the Community

Local dancer, Mary Wohl Haan will present a dance exhibition featuring local dancers, creating an opportunity for Boulder artists to share their work and for community members to experience live dance in their community.

Looking Ahead

These eight projects demonstrate how creativity can bring neighbors together and make the places where we live, work and gather more vibrant and connected.

Applications for the 2027 Creative Neighborhoods funding cycle will open the first week of May.

Learn more about the Creative Neighborhoods Program, including eligibility, funding and how to apply.

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