Austin Parks Foundation (APF) is pleased to announce our latest ACL Music Festival Grant awards to parks across Austin! So far this year APF has granted a total of $85,500 to fund improvements and amenities identified by community members and park adopters. These grants are in addition to the millions that APF invests in our parks each year.
Using ACL Music Festival funds, APF awards two types of grants to community groups: Neighborhood Grants ($500 – $5,000) and Community Impact Grants ($5,000+). Neighborhood Grants are designed for small-scale community-initiated park improvements while Community Impact Grants are designed for large-scale park improvements.
In addition to these grants, ACL Music Festival Funds go toward capital projects, It’s My Park Day, year-round Open Workdays and unrestricted funds for the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department park projects.
This year’s grant projects range from nature play to trail improvements to shade and a few things in between! Take a look at what’s coming to a park near you.
Spring 2024 Community Impact Grants:
Steck Valley Greenbelt: Trail Improvement ($17,000)
Steck Valley Greenbelt is an undeveloped park in northwest Austin with informal trails made by park users over the years. When trails are not planned but are created by foot traffic, they do not work with the park’s ecology and can often hurt or damage it.
Park users at Steck Valley identified specific needs and received APF Grant funding to address multiple needs: widening or redirecting trails, creek crossings that help to mitigate erosion, and clearing out brush and invasive species.
In collaboration with Watershed Protection and Austin Parks and Recreation, the necessary project approvals were obtained and Texas Conservation Corps was able to complete the much-needed trail work this summer!
The community played a huge role in the success of this project and continues to do so as they steward the park with regular volunteer projects and active usage.
Grand Meadow: Community Garden Amenities ($42,000)
Grand Meadow Neighborhood Park is an undeveloped park in southeast Austin that, as the name suggests, has been nothing more than a meadow since its acquisition by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department in 1998.
Although beautiful in its natural state, in 2022 the Friends of Grand Meadow applied for and were awarded Design Services from Austin Parks Foundation. This led to the creation and official adoption of a concept plan for the park. The concept plan calls for various amenities including a community garden and food forest. APF was able to grant funding to help these projects grow.
Grand Meadow will get their community garden and food forest started with a fence, shed and seating around the garden space.
Heritage Oaks Neighborhood Park, Ron Rigsby Pocket Park and Walnut Bluffs Trail Head: Nature Play ($26,500)
Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) is a national initiative that seeks to create more equitable and abundant access to nature in cities by seeking to ensure that a connection to nature becomes an integral part of city priorities.
In order to achieve these goals, the CCCN initiative works to activate parks and greenspaces through nature play programming by installing nature play into spaces across the city. Austin Parks and Recreation Department, with the help of CCCN, identified several parks located in nature deficient areas of Austin in need of natural materials for play: Heritage Oaks, Ron Rigsby and Walnut Bluffs were among the parks in need.
APF was able to help fund this project to add nature play elements to these spaces, Heritage Oaks and Ron Rigsby are yet to be finished but Walnut Bluffs is complete and ready for play! The addition of nature play will help increase children’s care for nature and support healthy development.
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- Walnut Bluff Trailhead
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- Walnut Bluff Trailhead
We hope you’ll keep an eye out for these improvements to take shape over the next year – you can already check out the new nature play elements and trail improvements!
Looking to take a tour de grants projects? Check out these five grants projects that we’ve completed over the last year (and keep an eye out for future UMLAUF plans and renderings!). These grants were awarded in 2023.
Spring 2023 Community Impact Grants:
Pastor Edward Clarence Craig Jr. Neighborhood Park: Kiosk ($29,000)
This park was established in 1975 as the first in the Dove Springs neighborhood – it was originally known as Franklin Neighborhood Park.
In 2018, the park was renamed to honor the legacy of a man who embodied true community stewardship: Pastor Edward Clarence Craig Jr. Thanks to Pastor Craig’s dedication, and help from the community, this park serves as a vital link connecting the rich history of the neighborhood with its vibrant present.
The addition of a kiosk at Pastor Craig’s has helped to advance and develop the sense of community in the neighborhood.
UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum: Preservation, Expansion and Unification Plan ($25,000)
The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum pays homage to the work and home of Charles Umlauf. This beautiful garden and museum allow park goers to take a glimpse into the life of Charles and Angie Umlauf – but it doesn’t tell their whole story, yet.
In order to bring Charles and Angie Umlauf’s original vision for the property to life, UMLAUF needed to develop a plan. APF granted funds to contribute towards the development of a Historic Preservation, Expansion and Unification Plan.
The development of this plan will help improve access and expand the use of the sculpture garden and museum grounds while preserving and incorporating the adjacent 1.93-acre site where the Umlauf’s home and Charles’ studio is located.
The Historic Preservation, Expansion and Unification plan looks to allow guests to venture up to the Umlauf’s private garden, the artist’s studio and other assets.
Fall 2023 Community Impact Grant:
Armadillo Neighborhood Park: Removal of Invasive Plants and Trees ($10,000)
Armadillo Park is a South Austin gem.
Its three acres are full of trails, natural areas and much more! The Friends of Armadillo Park received funding to remove poison ivy that was growing into trails (the poison ivy was a safety concern for park users of the two and four-legged variety!).
Along with removing the poison ivy, contractors were able to remove invasive plants and trees that needed to be extracted from the space. TFhe extraction of these invasive plants led to a safer experience for park goers, neighbors and native Texas plants!
2023 Neighborhood Grants:
Parque Zaragoza: Shade ($6,000)
Parque Zaragoza, located in East Austin, was historically the only park for Hispanic Austinties through the city’s redline policies: this is acknowledged and honored throughout the park and recreation center.
This park has an active park adopter group. The group saw a need for shade and with the help of APF applied for a Community Placemaking Grant from Projects for Public Spaces.
The Amigos de Parque Zaragoza were awarded the grant in 2023. Thanks to this grant, native trees have been planted all around the playscape. Trees have innumerable positive effects – one of which includes shade. These native trees will one day provide shade throughout summer when temperatures soar.
Walnut Creek Metro Park: Mulch ($2,500)
In February 2023, a winter storm froze many parts of Central Texas impacting parks across Austin. Walnut Creek Metro Park was covered with ice which led to the ground being denuded and native plants, trees and grasses being harmed. APF granted the community mulch to help the ground recover and re-grow.
