Your City, from Gritty to Pretty

Posted on October 14th, 2019
by Nocturne

Your city is going from Gritty to Pretty with help from the Downtown Halifax Business Commission (DHBC)! Starting in 2015, DHBC introduced the Gritty to Pretty program to award a limited number of grants for placemaking projects in Downtown K’jipuktuk/Halifax. Since then, we’ve seen more than a dozen projects completed throughout the downtown core, stretching from the waterside of Brunswick Street to the Halifax Waterfront and from the Cogswell Interchange to the South end of Barrington Street. These projects contribute to DHBC’s beautification efforts to make Downtown Halifax welcoming to locals and visitors alike - and they’re scattered throughout the city for you to enjoy during Nocturne!

Take a peek at some of the successful (and probably familiar!) grant recipients from the past four years:

The Pearl

Freak Lunchbox

Blowers Street

Argyle Street

Check out projects #227-232 in Zone 2 - Downtown Halifax for all of the new 2019 Gritty to Pretty projects, including:

  • Corner of Prince and Barrington Street (Daisy)
  • Penny Lane Mural on the Eastern wall of the alley at Blowers + Argyle St, 5222 Blower St
  • Rio Abajo Rio: The River Beneath the River on the side of Blois, Nickerson, and Bryson Building, 1568 Hollis St
  • Five art installations at MetroPark, 1556 Hollis St
  • Parametric Bench at Rogers Square, 1626 Grafton St
  • Public Xylophone at Grafton Park, 1537 Brunswick St

And an exclusive online project listing #234 includes all past Gritty to Pretty installations. And we’ve created a handy Google Map (which you can find in poster form at DHBC headquarters: 1546 Barrington Street) to help you find all the Gritty to Pretty projects!