ArtPlace, a Chicago-based public-private collaboration working to revitalize cities and towns across the country through support for local arts projects, has announced grants totaling $15.4 million to forty-seven projects nationwide.

Organizations in urban and rural areas received grants for projects that will use art to help revitalize rural communities, accelerate transit-oriented development, develop civic brand stories, spark redevelopment, strengthen local economies, and activate public space. This year's grants also will support the development of artist live/work spaces, the integration of art and design into creative "citymaking," and the use of art to help communities imagine new futures.

Chosen from a pool of more than two thousand applicants, this year's grant recipients include Paradise Garden Revival in Summerville, Georgia, which was awarded $445,000 to restore and rehabilitate the studio and garden of American folk artist Howard Finster; the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, which received $350,000 to design and prototype exhibits for its future home; and the Flint Public Art Project, which was awarded $250,000 to bring together visionary practitioners of contemporary art, design, and architecture with local artists, residents, and institutions on a series of public art installations, performances, educational programs, and urban designs that re-imagine the Michigan community.

"In cities and towns across America, ArtPlace is investing in dozens of innovative local projects to build more vibrant and diverse urban and rural communities," said Ford Foundation president Luis Ubiñas. "This work is part of a national creative placemaking movement that, we believe, will have a profound and lasting impact on the health and well-being of communities throughout the country."

For a complete list of the 2012 ArtPlace grant recipients, visit the ArtPlace Web site.