303 ArtWay
As a consultant to the City of Denver and Urban Land Conservency, a public/ private partnership, I facilitated on site community engagments with the Park Hill Neighborhood to determine what the Community thought about the propossed multi-modal art themed 9 mile transportation and bike lane system named the 303 ArtWay project. I conducted art centered community engagements, impromtu conversations on the street, stakeholder meetings, and events with residents, business owners, students, parents, and occasional visitors of the Park Hill Neighborhood. The goal was to understand first, if the community was interested in exploring this type of a multi-modal system and second, what the community’s vision might be for an art-themed, multi-modal urban trail that connects paved walkways and bike paths through the Park Hill Neighborhood, with a larger vision to expand through the city.
The proposed trail would highlight the visionaries, artists, leaders, and community activists who have brought so much life to this unique and diverse neighborhood and will function to knit together geographically diverse neighborhoods through capacity building and stewardship methods that are fundamental to the project processes as the 303 ArtWay winds its way through the city of Denver. In essense capacity and stewardship was baked into the project development as one neighborhood stewards their resident artists through project development, and then stewards as a hand off to the next neighborhood as they move through the development process. This ensures each neighborhood’s agency regarding artistic contributions, aesthetics, finances, and location. Capacity building, stewardship, community empowerment, and a regional support system between neighborhoods and neighbors was established.
Several community art events made space for neighbors of all ages to come together to discuss specific needs, wants and visions surrounding the proposed project. Centering the nieghborhood as the drivers of the project, every resident, 9-5 professional, and occassional visitor participated in informing design ideas, and processes.
The community engagement documentation formed as an executive final report, was used to support a project bond measure.
Students were shown how to create a fence "drawing" with fabric, and were supported to make their own creations. Divided into teams, these elementary school students invented stories, images, and words with multi-colored fabrics and a chain link fence.
Elementary school fence project including the proposed project name.
A community leader and business owner, this resident designed the mural as a language of positive affirmations for the neighborhood, and as a way to re-claim a "dead" space visible from the elementary school.
Neighbors participated in the weekend mural painting event. Free and open to the public, music, dancing, food, beverages, paint and tools were provided. Seen here: one community participant discusses his painting ideas with a younger participant.
Community artist elder came out to participate in the mural creation. As a benefit of the community engagement process, neighbors get to know those they may not have met, like this artist who has a robust art career and studio in the neighborhood.
Neighborhood students helped prepare the wall surface for the upcoming event. The engagement process fosters ownership and agency.
The finished mural maintains the reclamation of a local hang out space. The weekend painting and music event included the entire neighborhood, and facilitated dialogue between neighbors, the neighborhood and the design group.
History telling community project. Participants were welcome to draw, paint, write, etc. on an 8x10 canvas. These personal community histories were created at the community resource center and presented to the neighborhood at their opening farmer's market day.
History project pieces installed on the exterior of community center fence for optimum accessibility. The location was chosen because there were no curb, street, or planting barriers between the installation and passers by.