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Middlesboro, Kentucky © Levitt Foundation
At the heart of thriving Main Streets are vibrant public spaces that unite people of all ages and backgrounds and enrich community life. And what better way to activate public spaces than through the power of free, live music?
This year, five Main Street America members — Main Street Batesville, Main Street Fort Smith, Gallup MainStreet Arts and Cultural District, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, and Middlesboro Main Street—received creative placemaking grants from the Levitt Foundation. This grant program, the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards, offers nonprofits in small to mid-sized towns and cities $90,000 multi-year matching grants to reimagine underused public spaces and create community-wide destinations through free outdoor concerts. Learn more about how these communities are leveraging their Levitt AMP Music Series to bring new life to their downtown and accomplish their Main Street goals.
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Batesville, Arkansas © Levitt Foundation
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Batesville, Arkansas © Levitt Foundation
Levitt AMP Batesville Music Series Presented by Main Street Batesville
Batesville, Arkansas
Batesville — Arkansas’ oldest city, founded more than 200 years ago — is home to 10,000 people in the White River valley of the Ozarks. As Executive Director Maggie Tipton says, quality of life is at the center of their work — “and that is where the Levitt comes in.”
“Without Levitt’s partnership and that funding piece, we never had the budget to be able to produce something like this for our community,” Tipton says. “Going into our second year with Levitt, we can really sense the impact that it has made with the people that live in our community… it is great to be able to see the same familiar faces every single show.”
When Main Street Batesville first applied for a Levitt AMP grant in 2022, they were aiming to energize their community by hosting a lineup of diverse music genres in Riverside Amphitheater, which sat empty most of the year. Now, as they make their way through their second season, Riverside Park is filled with locals and visitors alike enjoying free, live music. The park’s prime location on the banks of the White River is central to all of Batesville’s neighborhoods, and half a mile from downtown Batesville and Main Street.
Levitt concerts have also activated the wider Batesville community to become more civically engaged. When local organizations ask for engagement or input, it is often folks who attend Levitt AMP concerts who volunteer to share their time, ideas, and energy. In the first half of the spring 2024 series, Levitt AMP Batesville hosted the Humane Society and had a dozen adoptions take place during the concerts. For its fall 2024 series, they are partnering with Lyon College and the local University of Arkansas Community College. Both schools participate in a food pantry to help combat food insecurity for students and ensure they have healthy meals throughout their college experience.
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Fort Smith, Arkansas © Levitt Foundation
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Fort Smith, Arkansas © Levitt Foundation
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Fort Smith, Arkansas © Levitt Foundation
Levitt AMP Fort Smith Music Series Presented by Main Street Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Nestled along the Arkansas River with a population of almost 90,000 residents, Fort Smith, Arkansas, credits Main Street Fort Smith for reenergizing its downtown over the last 17 years. In 2019, recognizing a need to provide accessible and engaging entertainment experiences, Main Street Fort Smith (then known as 64.6 Downtown) applied for a Levitt AMP grant to foster belonging and pride within the city.
Riverfront Amphitheater, home of Levitt AMP Fort Smith, resides at the core of this dynamic landscape. It is tucked between the Fort Smith National Historic site, a skate park, a dirt-biking park, and the U.S. Marshals Museum, and surrounded by nature and the diverse culture and local shops of Main Street.
Main Street Fort Smith Executive Director Amanda Hager credits the Levitt AMP Music Series with generating renewed interest in its Main Street by attracting folks who may not typically go downtown. Once people come for the concerts, they are impressed by the array of shops, beautiful nearby parks, and opportunities for social connection.
The momentum can be seen through new developments to build additional biking and walking trails to enhance pedestrian safety and an increasing number of new merchants and businesses making plans to open a storefront downtown. One of these businesses is Vinnie’s Pies, which started as a food truck and has been a staple vendor at Levitt AMP Fort Smith concerts. Earlier this year, they opened a restaurant downtown. Three years into the series, Hager credits the support of these developments to the growing audiences at the Levitt AMP series. “Levitt is helping us generate excitement about downtown… it is the biggest promotion that we do.”
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Gallup, New Mexico © Levitt Foundation
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Gallup, New Mexico © Levitt Foundation
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Gallup, New Mexico © Levitt Foundation
Levitt AMP Gallup Music Series Presented by Gallup MainStreet Arts and Cultural District
Gallup, New Mexico
Sitting along Route 66, nestled among red rock mesas and sandstone bluffs, Gallup, New Mexico is rich with natural wonder and local Native American culture. Gallup MainStreet Arts and Cultural District brings together all segments of this high desert town of 22,000 to foster civic pride, promote economic vitality, and preserve and develop the cultural and historical resources of downtown Gallup.
In 2019, Gallup MainStreet applied for the Levitt AMP grant to bring new life and community pride to the downtown. Gallup is the only incorporated city of McKinley County, which serves multiple Native American reservations. At the time, many youth and families, especially on the reservations, had very little reason to come downtown. Since receiving the grant, the Levitt AMP Gallup Music Series has connected locals and visitors from all walks of life while bringing economic vitality to the community. “We have seen that 25% of our attendees go to local downtown restaurants before, during, and after the concerts,” says Executive Director Michael Bulloch.
And the numbers aren’t trivial: averaging about 500 people per concert, this summer, their biggest turnout was 1,000 attendees. “I think people are starting to see that downtown is a really great place for entertainment, shopping, and dining. We have seen an expansion in people feeling good about the community and wanting to support downtown more,” says Bulloch.
Taking place in McKinley County Courthouse Square, the concerts have helped inspire local efforts to bring more shade to the public plaza, which is covered in hardscape with a few trees around the perimeter with a central circle used as a pit for traditional Native American Dancers. During the summer months, the concrete space can feel even warmer, which prompted Bulloch to reach out to New Mexico Main Street to create a conceptual plan to re-envision the Plaza with landscape and architecture revitalization specialists, incorporating input from the community. “I feel confident that we will be able to get these changes made in the next couple of years, and it is all because of having Levitt here,” said Bulloch.
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Harrisonburg, Virginia © Levitt Foundation
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Harrisonburg, Virginia © Levitt Foundation
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Harrisonburg, Virginia © Levitt Foundation
Levitt AMP Harrisonburg Music Series Presented by Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance
Harrisonburg, Virginia
“The Friendly City,” Harrisonburg sits between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountain ranges of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. With a population of over 50,000, Harrisonburg serves as a Refugee Resettlement Community, with immigrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and Syria calling the city home. Its local Main Street organization, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance embraces the town’s cultural diversity through welcoming, inclusive, and family-friendly events and programs.
Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance applied for the Levitt AMP grant in 2022 after completing an extensive public engagement process around developing a 20-year plan for the downtown’s future. Many residents asked for programming centered around diversity, and for the return of a beloved music series that ended in 2018. These concerts were a source of love and pride in the community, and the Downtown Renaissance was determined to bring them back.
Since receiving the Levitt AMP grant in 2023, the Turner Pavilion lawn (located adjacent to the city’s downtown) has become a mid-week retreat where people can catch up with friends, family, neighbors, and visitors. Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance Executive Director Andrea Dono says, “Everyone gets to come together and have a nice, relaxed evening. It has been great for our downtown… each week we see groups of chairs getting larger and larger.”
In its inaugural season, Levitt AMP Harrisonburg anticipated 600 people on average per show. By the third concert, they were attracting 1,000 people, with the largest show reaching over 1,600 people. And this past summer, the audience has only continued to grow, deepening relationships among members of the community and strengthening the cultural fabric of the city.
The series is also boosting local economic activity. Downtown Harrisonburg is home to over 35 locally owned restaurants, plus five breweries and a cidery. At each concert, attendees can get a taste of all that downtown has to offer through a rotating lineup of local food and beer vendors. These large audiences are the perfect place for local businesses to share their offerings with the wider community and generate excitement for those looking to expand their reach. “It is more than a concert series. It is more than live music. It really is economic development,” said Dono.
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Middlesboro, Kentucky © Levitt Foundation
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Middlesboro, Kentucky © Levitt Foundation
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Middlesboro, Kentucky © Levitt Foundation
Levitt AMP Middlesboro Music Series Presented by Middlesboro Main Street
Middlesboro, Kentucky
In the heart of Appalachia, Middlesboro, Kentucky is just a stone’s throw from Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. For nearly a decade, the Levitt AMP Middlesboro Music Series, hosted by Middlesboro Main Street, has been a gamechanger for the community. The town of 10,000 has witnessed the revitalization of a former vacant public space, the local farmers market, and the addition of new shops and restaurants along its Main Street.
Levitt Park, the site of the series, was for many years a vacant gravel lot where a Woolworth’s department store and soda fountain once stood. Powered by volunteers, aka “Levittones,” the Levitt AMP series has transformed this space into a lively, arts-filled destination for music and community, complete with a volunteer-installed lawn, donated permanent stage, and wall mural created by a local artist.
During its first season in 2015, Middlesboro’s Main Street had no retail stores, and only one restaurant. Now, Middlesboro is flourishing with local businesses and community pride, which Middlesboro Main Street Executive Director Celia Shoffner attributes to “bringing people downtown for free music on Thursday nights.” To create a festival-like atmosphere during Levitt AMP concerts, Shoffner and her team work with the city to close the street across from the park and activate it with vendors, food trucks, and a bouncy house.
This year, Levitt AMP Middlesboro won the local newspaper’s “Best Community Event” award. Shoffner is excited for Middlesboro’s 10th season, and 100th concert in 2025. “We want the entire season to be joyful and celebratory, looking back on an amazing 10 years of live free music on the lawn, honoring all it has given our small town.”
About the Levitt Foundation
The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation is a national funder working at the intersection of music, public space, and community building. The Levitt Foundation partners with nonprofits and changemakers nationwide to bring outdoor concerts to towns and cities across the country each year. In 2024, over 650 free Levitt concerts will take place in over 50 communities coast to coast. These concerts go beyond bringing great tunes and incredible artistry to people in communities of all sizes. The Levitt model of free outdoor concerts sparks joy, fosters connections, nourishes well-being, and boosts economic opportunity — strengthening the social fabric of America.
Over the years, the Levitt Foundation has supported Main Street organizations to realize the power of free music in public spaces. The cross-sector nature of the Foundation’s grantmaking — which includes supporting downtown partnerships, arts councils, social service organizations, and more — makes Main Street organizations a natural fit for these grants as they strive to advance shared prosperity, create resilient economies, and improve quality of life through place-based economic development and community preservation.
Interested in leveraging the power of free, live music to strengthen the social and economic fabric of your Main Street? Visit levitt.org to learn more about the Levitt Foundation’s grant programs, including Levitt AMP, Levitt VIBE, and Levitt BLOC. Applications will open in 2025, so stay tuned!
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