Tulips for Bentonville: Placemaking through Temporary Community Art

Tulips for Bentonville is a temporary tactical public art project designed by Dayton Castleman and commissioned by the developers of Oak One Townhomes. The artwork is intended to serve as a gesture of thanks to the surrounding neighborhood for enduring dust and noise during the downtown Bentonville development’s construction phase, and to celebrate Bentonville’s ongoing spring of urban transformation.

Situated adjacent to the disciplines of sculpture, mural arts, mosaic tilework, and digital media, Tulips for Bentonville is composed of 84 multi-colored tulip images rendered with colorful plastic snap-in pixels installed on the chain link fencing surrounding the Oak One Townhomes job site. Tulips for Bentonville spans over 400 feet of fence and is composed of over 18,500 pixels.

Six common tulip colors of orange, red, purple, pink, yellow, and white were selected for the artwork. Traditionally these colors are shared as gestures of gratitude, love, honor, friendship, joy, and empathy, respectively, and reflect a desire for helping build a neighborhood that exemplifies those ideals. The dual-sided nature of the artwork means that it is fully visible on the interior facing surface of the fence as well, providing a more vibrant and novel workspace for those engaged in the project’s construction.

“I’m interested in art’s ability to change a person’s perception of the world, especially in publicly shared space. Construction sites create a community tension point with their dust, noise, and traffic congestion, so our challenge was to use the job site to host something pleasant and fun for the neighborhood," says Dayton Castleman, Director of Creative Placemaking and Artist Lead at Rogers architecture firm Verdant Studio.

"Ultimately we wanted the people to be able to create the work, so we used the fence matrix to design a simple icon with a simple material, and turned the installation into a mini festival."

Because Tulips for Bentonville was conceived as a gift to the surrounding community, the project called for community activation. People of all ages were invited to participate in the installation of the work. Materials and installation instructions for each tulip were packaged individually, allowing community members of all ages to not only enjoy the completed artwork, but also to take part in making it. On a sunny afternoon in March, people of all ages attended the event, which featured live jazz, shaved ice, a petting zoo, face painting, and virtual tours of Oak One Townhomes. 

Alexandra Tirado-Wang, President and COO of Sun Group and developer of Oak One, concepted the idea for a temporary installation at the construction site after hearing Castleman speak about art and placemaking.

“Tulips for Bentonville sought to turn a banal construction site into a bright and joyful place that reflected the unique spirit of Bentonville," says Tirado-Wang. "We weren’t only trying to create a development that was intentionally crafted for the end user, but a place that had all community stakeholders in mind."

Castleman views the project as a launching pad for placemaking efforts across Northwest Arkansas.

"In a broad sense I’m interested in exploring opportunities for art to play a role in real estate development. Tulips for Bentonville demonstrated that with a little imagination art can shape community perception even before construction is complete."