Marion Public Library & Museum Courtyard

With the Community Placemaking Grant, Project for Public Spaces partnered with the Marion Public Library, the adjacent History Center, and its community members to transform their disjointed outdoor spaces into a welcoming, safe gathering hub for more educational opportunities and community-wide programming.

Libraries are essential places for communities, and especially for low-income residents that benefit most from their free resources, programming, and gathering spaces. This is true for the Public Library in Marion, Indiana, where 28.5% of residents live in poverty and there is only 27.3% English and Language Arts proficiency for children grades three to eight—nearly half of the Indiana state average. The Marion Public Library collaborates closely with the Marion Community School system to help close this gap by hosting literacy fairs and other community events like field trips, tours, and book clubs. 

With limited indoor spaces, the library saw opportunity in the outdoor spaces surrounding the library and its adjacent museum, including a community garden, a courtyard,and entryway. The community aspired to address the lack of paving, varied levels of concrete, and other obstacles that made the spaces difficult to program.

The Placemaking Process

In May 2024, the Marion Public Library team undertook a community engagement process to re-envision their courtyard space facilitated by Project for Public Spaces. This included a series of meetings with stakeholders such as library staff and the Friends of the Library, and a community workshop to uncover insights on what the space should prioritize. From these sessions, it emerged that people wanted to see the both courtyards become welcoming, flexible spaces for all that utilized color, plantings, infrastructural changes, and refreshed amenities to create an inviting and safe atmosphere. 

Drawing from the feedback, the Project for Public Spaces team created a design that expanded the Children’s Courtyard to include a play area, and installed amphitheatre seating to create more seating. In the main courtyard the team recommended the existing gravel be swapped out for artificial turf to increase the amount of usable space, and shade, picnic tables, benches and planting be added to the main courtyard to create an inviting entrance as visitors approached.

Additional Funding

The team at Marion Library and History Center were able to leverage their $100,000 Community Placemaking Grant into additional grant funds and donations. They gave their community an opportunity to support monetarily to the project by creating a fundraising campaign on Better World; the platform allowed individuals to donate to the project by “buying” individual items, in this case the amenities that fell out of the main priorities for the main grant, for the library’s courtyard. Donors could also contribute to an overall fund for the courtyard, painting of murals, or children’s programming. A local organization also funded the library’s benches through a Delta Ahead grant dedicated to improving outdoor spaces.

The Reveal

As the project neared completion and the furniture was installed in the courtyard, the library staff saw an increase in sitting and lingering, as well as a major reduction in litter in the outdoor space even before its official opening. In August 2025 the library unveiled the newly improved courtyard to their community by throwing a Courtyard Kickoff event, featuring a ribbon cutting ceremony, live music, food, and family friendly activities. This included an interactive stamp sheet, which took celebrants throughout the library to complete activities for a stamp on their “passport” for a chance to win prizes, encouraging people to linger outdoors and indoors. 

The library continues to improve the space as they receive more donations and implement more features.  In the future, the library plans to install artificial turf on the remaining uncovered section of the courtyard using library funds, and turn it into an interactive space with a permanent cornhole set.

‍Support Future Projects!

Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants enable US-based nonprofits and government agencies to address inequality of access to public places that serve community needs by working directly with local stakeholders to transform spaces or co-create new ones. We do this by providing direct funding, technical assistance, and capacity building facilitated by Project for Public Spaces. Learn more about how to become a Social Impact Partner today.

You can also support our work by making a donation. Every bit helps to bring public spaces to life!