City receives international parking marketing award

The International Parking Institute (IPI) presented the City of Greenville with a Parking Matters® Marketing & Communications Award at the 2016 International Parking Conference & Expo in Nashville, TN last month. The City was one of three winners of distinction and was recognized for its student art installation at the Poinsett Garage. The other two winners were the Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia and EasyPark in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Parking Matters® Marketing & Communications Award is one of IPI’s newest awards and is designed to recognize outstanding parking-related marketing, public relations and communications programs and campaigns. The winning programs will be featured in the July issue of The Parking Professional, IPI’s monthly magazine.

The Poinsett Garage’s art installation was sponsored by the Greenville Youth Commission, which first discussed the idea with the City’s Arts in Public Places Commission as a way to involve schools and local artists in a project to bring public art downtown. The original paintings, which depict Greenville landmarks, were created by art students from Greenville High Academy, Christ Church Episcopal Upper School, Legacy Charter School, Wade Hampton High School and JL Mann Academy, and are on permanent display at the TD Convention Center. Professional prints of the paintings were hung on each floor of the Poinsett Garage to help visitors remember where they parked.

The Arts in Public Places Commission provided the funding for the project, and the Youth Commission developed the theme and assigned each participating school a subject for its painting. Greenville High’s was the Peace Center, Christ Church’s was the Liberty Bridge, Legacy’s was Fluor Field, Wade Hampton’s was the Greenville Zoo and JL Mann’s was the downtown skyline. The Youth Commission provided each school with materials for the project and the option to collaborate with a local artist. For those schools that chose to do so, the Youth Commission provided a stipend of $150 for the artist.

According to Brittany Moore, the parking sales and marketing manager, the artwork has been a big hit with both locals and visitors. “While we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the paintings from our customers, who say they do help them remember where they parked, we’ve also heard from countless people who say they just enjoy seeing colorful artwork in such an unexpected place,” said Moore. “IPI is the world’s largest association of parking professionals, so to be the only U.S. winner in this category is an enormous honor for us and for the Greenville community.”