A Community Builds a Park

Bella Vista Park Renovation

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Bella Vista Park in 1998 was a sea of broken asphalt.  This is the story of a park that took seven years and $1.7 million to build. Getting the money was the easy part.  Getting to construction almost didn't happen.  Here is how the children, guided by a small neighborhood group, saved the day: Bella Vista Park Renovation.

Local Artists Bring Color and Fun

Sunflower Mural Project

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Pam Consear, local artist (and long-time beloved Bella Vista Kindergarten teacher) designs a sunflower mural for the 10th Ave steps of the park. The mural becomes an outdoor park classroom for environmental curriculum that features animal habitat, soil decomposition, plant life cycles and more!  See the great step-by-step photos of the process of turning "a smelly, graffiti-tagged, urban public park stairwell into a place worth walking through” on the artist's blog here.

_Children's Tile Art Project

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Conceived as an ongoing project, over 800 K-5th grade students and community members have painted ceramic tiles of birds, flowers, butterflies, trees, basketballs and dragonflies - "things we find in Bella Vista Park."  Led by local artist Pam Consear, the tiles were installed in the park seat walls, community plaza stage, up the steps to the school, and across the front of the school.  Bella Vista Elementary School alumni continue to discover their tiles (perhaps from Kindergarten!) when they visit the park.
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