One of the keynote talks was given by Ellen Dunham-Jones from Georgia Tech, who along with June Williamson is the author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs. This is about turning abandoned big box stores into libraries or churches, redeveloping dead malls, or -- in the most extreme cases -- tearing up the asphalt in the places that never should have been built and returning the land to wetlands or parks or to farming. She pointed out that the suburban redevelopment that's now being done isn't really urban -- there are "urban streetscapes with suburban parking ratios" and some of the "instant urbanism" isn't very appealing from the pedestrian vantage point -- but it's still a big improvement over what was there before. There was time for a couple of questions from the audience. After the failure of T-SPLOST, what's the best option for the city? She suggested that Fulton or Fulton and Dekalb Counties try for a 0.5% sales tax to support streetcar development. Does redevelopment of the suburbs lead to diversion of investment and redevelopment resources from the city? She acknowledged that it possibly could, but she couldn't come up with an example where it had, and could identify plenty of examples where it hadn't.
The second keynote speaker was Mike Lydon, from Street Plans, who is author of the tactical urbanism guides that have collated and disseminated many ideas from around the country (and few from outside the United States) on improving the urban environment through small-scale and often temporary changes. Seeing what a neglected commercial block could be, with sidewalk cafes and art galleries and a farmers' market and bicycle lanes, can be the catalyst to lead to long-term changes being made. Some of the tactical urbanism approaches could work in suburbs or small towns, but many of them are too small-scale to have any impact on the sea of asphalt that Ellen Dunham-Jones was describing. After having stumbled across the tactical urbanism booklets after attending Atlanta Streets Alive a few months ago and some thinking since about what kind of small-scale changes we could make in our neighborhood, it was a real treat to hear him speak.
As much as I enjoyed the keynotes, I think the most memorable moments for me came during the panel discussion that opened the afternoon. Living Walls is about street art, giant murals painted on the sides of buildings or on underpasses, occupying that sometimes uncomfortable space between between vandalism and publicly commissioned public art, and (more provocatively, I thought) between decoration and advertising. The panel included Courtney Hammond, Outreach & Education Supervisor for the Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, and Lisa Tuttle, public art administrator for Fulton County, along with two Atlanta artists, Lauri Stallings and Karen Tauches. Karen Tauches introduced herself by saying, "I grew up in the suburbs, and I never quite got over the experience." She made the point that we tolerate advertising in the public space in a way that we don't tolerate public art. We act like we have no control over the billboards and signs on our streets and in our neighborhoods, but public art (sanctioned or not) is held to completely different standards of acceptability by the public.
They discussed the role of public art in creating public spaces, and several times the example of Millennium Park in Chicago came up. The picture is below is from our trip to Chicago last month. We love Millennium Park, and part of the reason we love it is Anish Kapoor's wonderful reflective sculpture Cloud Gate, that draws you in and reflects you -- and the skyline -- back out. It is irresistible.
Lisa Tuttle told a story about attending a conference for public art administrators in Milwaukee (no doubt a registration fee and name badge kind of conference) and as part of the conference they took a field trip to Millennium Park. She said her group, in business clothes and with name tags on, was near the fountains in the park and a man approached her and asked what group this was that was visiting the park. She said they were there as part of a meeting for public art administrators. He replied, and gestured to indicate the park, "I just want to say thank you for this."
Of course we don't have a Millennium Park in Atlanta. Someone made the point -- I don't remember who -- that in Atlanta we don't have a lot of great public spaces, and we have "fractured communities." Can art help rebuild those communities? The murals done for Living Walls aren't in my neighborhood; they are in poorer parts of town, places that I don't go. Can the kind of art work that Living Walls created help strengthen those neighborhoods? The final word of the session came from a woman in the audience, who said she is active in the planning activities in her neighborhood, but no one asked her if she wanted a mural with multiple 22 foot tall images of a nude woman painted on a building there. The mural, she says, is marvelous, and has provoked meaningful discussions among neighborhood residents and within families and she is so glad it is there, and hopes that schoolchildren can come see it with their art teachers. She believes it is a wonderful gift to the neighborhood. "I'm glad they didn't ask me," she said, "because I probably would have said 'no.'"
The maps showing the locations of the murals and the names of the artists who created them are now posted online. I can't wait to go see them.
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