Baldwinsville grant application

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Application to state for $100,000 grant to create and install artful signage in Baldwinsville, NY, promoting the village's ties to the Erie Canal.

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Project Description (include location, what will be planned, issues/opportunities/expected outcomes) Syracuse-based Erie Canal Museum and 40 Below Public Arts Task Force, and City Lore in New York City, are developing a proposal to collaborate with the village of Baldwinsville to create History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville (henceforth referred to as “History Happens Here”), a trail of artful signage that highlights the first person stories, histories, and imagery on the town of Baldwinsville and its relation to the Erie Canal, past and present. The signage will include QR codes linking to a web exhibit highlighting the town’s history, making it accessible from mobile devices. The art trail will mark the now paved-over Baldwinsville Canal, which connected the Erie Canal with local businesses in the 19th century. The signs will also link a number of the village’s waterfront parks and properties, as well as the town’s burgeoning entertainment district, which includes the amphitheater on Paper Mill Island Park. The town will install the sculptural markers, which will be designed by local residents with guidance from the members of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force, City Lore and Baldwinsville-area artists. The markers will be based on a series of town meetings, or charettes, and will incorporate interviews and oral histories with village historians and local residents. Our goal is to customize the artful signage so that it reflects the distinctive character, history, personality and aesthetics of Baldwinsville. Our aim is to galvanize the village and surrounding area with a program that involves local youth as well as older adults in researching the region’s folklore and history. The resulting program will tangibly contribute to the revitalization of this waterfront town as a tourist and local entertainment mecca. The project emerges from three developments which coalesce in this initiative: 1. Revitalization of Baldwinsville. The Department of State approved a major Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP) for Baldwinsville. The LWRP, which is currently in progress, is enhancing the riverfront Central Business District (CBD) with improved downtown parking, redesigned streetscapes, maximized water views and expanded residential development in the upper floors of waterfront properties. The LWRP will soon add new life to the CBD by replacing the abandoned village fire hall with a new waterfront civic space that will host special events and recreational activities. Residents and visitors will be able cross a pedestrian bridge connecting the Marble Street section of Paper Mill Island to the revitalized East Genesee Street corridor, and they will be able to take advantage of new bicycle rental shops and boat docks to gain access to the forthcoming north and south shore promenades. These pathways will provide opportunities for strolling, relaxing and taking in the view, as well as learning about local history at the History Happens Here place-markers. In addition, the village currently

owns several key shoreline properties along Lock Street, for which they are soliciting redevelopment proposals. 2. Collaborations between City Lore and the Erie Canal Museum. Over the past five years, the Erie Canal Museum has partnered with City Lore on a series of projects relating to the history, culture and revitalization of the Erie Canal. These include an 2008 NEH-funded teachers’ institute that centered around the canal, a series of short oral history videos produced for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor (http://eriecanalway.org/v2/videogallery/canal-stories/), and a forthcoming documentary film directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Wagner, and funded by both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The documentary, Hard Times: Boom and Bust on the Banks of the Erie Canal juxtaposes two key eras in the Canal’s history: first, the era from the opening of the canal in 1825 through 1875, a time when the pioneering waterway made New York City a world port and the nation’s center of commerce, creating cities along its route from Buffalo, to Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany; second, the era from 1945-2000 and the loss of industry in many of the cities and towns along its route, an era in which tugboat captains, lift bridge operators, lock tenders, and local residents tell of tough times, and bitter experiences. Juxtaposing 19th and 20th century eras, the film ends with a look at the 21st century canal, declared a scenic byway in December 2000, and now an engine that seeks to use the cultural heritage of the canal as a resource for tourism and development, in the hopes of creating a second revitalization, parallel to the creation of the canal itself. 3. City Lore’s Place Matters Program. City Lore in collaboration with the Municipal Art Society initiated Place Matters (www.placematters.net) in 1998 to recognize places the anchor traditions, sustain communities, tell the city’s history, and keep New York distinctive. Current initiatives include the Census of Places that Matters (see www.placematters.net), with more than 750 nominations from the public, recently mapped online through a new partnership with the GIS firm ESRI. In 2003, Place Matters organized a design contest that called for innovative, interactive ways to mark places in New York City. The charrette and competition welcomed submissions from professional and amateur designers, historians and urbanists. We received scores of “beyond the brass plaque” entries including View-Master 3D installations, postcard dispensers, Metrocards printed with places that matter, and signage with an iconic representation of the site (a giant safety pin for punk-rock legend CBGB). Winning entries were exhibited in the galleries of the Municipal Art Society. In 2006, we published Hidden New York: A Guide to Places that Matter with Rutgers University Press. In 2007, we mounted an outdoor exhibit marking places that matter on the Lower East Side. See http://www.placematters.net/files/pdfs/marking.pdf. Two years ago, our “Community Tool Kit” went online, and we launched a new iteration of the web site. Last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with our permission, took “Place Matters” as its annual theme. City Lore’s new grant, History Happens Here from the National Endowment for the Arts, is designed to position us to be able to work with cities, towns, and communities to assist them in implementing collaborative place-marking and place-making projects. When

local stakeholders participate in “ground-up” place marking projects, both the process and the product foster a sense of identity, a sense of connectedness and pride in place. In turn, citizens are empowered to leverage social capital, community assets are created, and economic development fostered. This NEA grant will supply part of the matching funds, with Baldwinsville supplying in kind support for the project. Why Baldwinsville? 1. Center for Regional Economic Development. Baldwinsville is poised to become a beacon in the statewide effort to revitalize the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. A village with a population of 7,500, Baldwinsville is part of the several larger towns with an overall population of 36,000, and it draws large audiences from Syracuse, a few miles away. With nationally recognized hotels and the boutique Red Mill Inn, hospitality is one of Baldwinsville’s most important industries. The town boasts the beginnings of a major entertainment district by the Canal with five restaurants, numerous pubs, an amphitheater, and marina. The 3,100-capacity amphitheater on Paper Mill Island regularly attracts international stars including Ani DiFranco and Bela Fleck. Baldwinsville’s Lock 24 was the first lock to go into service during construction of the New York State Barge Canal. Now celebrating its 100th birthday, many consider it the most active lock on the canal. It is still the premier stop for boaters who can get power and mooring for $5.00 a night, and it is a significant stop along a bike path that runs the full length of towpath on the Erie Canal. Baldwinsville is home of the iconic B-ville Diner, a landmark eatery that has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 60 years. Legend has it that the new owner tried to close the restaurant on a recent Christmas day, but he was unable to find the key because it had been so many years since the building had last been closed. He hasn’t made the mistake of trying to close on Christmas since. 2. Vibrant History and Culture. The publication of “Greater Baldwinsville” as part of the Images of America series (Arcadia, 2010), written by revered local historian Sue Ellen McManus, is a testament to the village’s rich and venerable history. The centrifugal pump was invented in Baldwinsville in 1864, and village engineers are interested in highlighting the local industrial history by showcasing its working centrifugal pump, which is currently in storage. Te project team will explore the possibility of including this in the sculptural marking project. In addition to editing “Greater Baldwinsville,” McManus, widely considered the expert on Baldwinsville history, is the director of the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum, an exhibition space and ever-growing archive that collects and curates historical artifacts that tell the history of Baldwinsville, from its Onondaga tribal roots to its 21st-century economic and cultural renaissance. McManus and the museum are eager play a major role in the History Happens Here process. 3. Active Community Outreach by the Baldwinsville Library. The Baldwinsville Public Library serves Baldwinsville’s youth, teen and adult populations by providing readers and researchers alike with a well-stocked collection of primary ands secondary sources, free internet access and word-processing, spreadsheet and database programs, which are available at public computer consoles. In 2010 the

Baldwinsville Public Library received a $244,517 Public Computer Center grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Baldwinsville was one of thirty libraries across New York State to receive this federal stimulus grant through the New York State Library, which provided more than 860 computers to 30 libraries and five mobile training centers across 41 upstate New York counties. As a part of this grant, the library expanded hours to open at 9:00 a.m. Monday through Friday. The library also offers a wide variety of engaging educational events and programs. From open writers’ groups to film screenings to courses like “Computer Skills in the Workplace,” the Baldwinsville Public Library offers myriad opportunities for residents to develop literacy, cultural fluency and vocational skills. The Library is also an outstanding repository of materials pertaining to local history, community planning and public art and design. Library staff will support History Happens Here participants in developing historical and genealogical research skill by guiding them toward unique and useful resources like photographs, maps, diaries, directories and newspaper articles. Explain what makes your project a regional economic priority History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville will contribute both to economic development and community revitalization in these eight ways: 1. The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council’s Five-Year Strategic Plan (“The Strategic Plan”) lists the revitalization of the region’s urban cores, main streets and neighborhoods as a priority goal. History Happens Here will be developed in concert with the municipal administrators implementing Baldwinsville’s LWRP. Place-markers along the waterfront, the Baldwinsville section of the Barge Canal and the former Baldwin Canal will draw bikers and boaters and other tourists to explore the small town. The engaging, informative and aesthetically unique signs will improve visitors’ experiences, and will help to draw other tourists, as well as new residents and business owners, to the revitalized Central Business District. 2. According to the Strategic Plan, tourism is a $1 billion dollar industry in Central New York. The Baldwinsville section of the Barge Canal, with Lock 24 and Paper Mill Island, is a unique asset that attracts tourists to the region. Literally building on of these foundations, History Happens Here will provide Baldwinsville’s visitors with self-guided tours through which they will learn about the relationship between the town’s historic significance and its contemporary culture. Central New York is also powered by a highly skilled, highly educated workforce, and features a unique concentration of highereducation and research institutions. This suggests that day tourists from Central New York and the greater Syracuse Metropolitan Area (SMA) will be attracted to an educational signage project like History Happens Here, whose engaging stories will contribute to Baldwinsville’s economic vitality by compelling visitors to continue meandering through the CDB. As tourists will stop to read the signs and experience the embedded oral histories at their leisure, they will have ample time to take in sights along the Canal and patronize the village’s restaurants, shops and other businesses.

3. The Strategic Plan encourages adaptive re-use. Many of the History Happens Here place-markers will highlight and be installed on Baldwinsville’s existing infrastructure. The project will motivate Baldwinsville’s officials to pursue adaptive re-use as a major redevelopment strategy, which will also help the town maintain it’s unique aesthetic and physical characteristics. History Happens Here also aligns with Central New York’s Region-Wide Waterfront Revitalization Strategy, which asserts New York State’s commitment to helping to create waterfront projects that leverage local investments in revitalization. 4. This public signage project is just that – of, by and for the public. Our uniquely collaborative approach merges best practices in community art and public history by engaging local Baldwinsville stakeholders in socially resonant civic discourse. Residents will participate in the village’s revitalization by learning how to strengthen and sustain art and culture’s central role in civic life. Through researching Baldwinsville’s cultural and physical landscapes, conducting interviews, and participating in public design charettes, residents will galvanize one another, the village and the surrounding towns to take greater pride in place. By knowing more about the past, participants will reinvest in Baldwinsville’s future as a center of sustainable art and culture. 5. Baldwinsville already boasts the Oswego-Oneida National Register Historic District, as well as multiple individual National Register listings. Through History Happens Here, Baldwinsville residents will create a census of places that matter to them. The project will encourage villagers to explore additional National Register nominations, which, if pursued, can contribute to the village’s resurgence. In addition to being a source of honor, nomination to the National Register can provide income-producing properties with opportunities for historic renovation tax credits. The Erie Canal Museum and City Lore both have strong working relationships with the National Park Service, which administers the National Register, and the State Historic Preservation Office, which maintains the State Register. In addition to nominating architecturally significant sites to the State and National Registers, City Lore has also successfully nominated socially and culturally significant places to both programs. 6. The Strategic Plan states that the Central New York region must increase Pre-K-20 educational attainment, and “retain the human and social capital required for industry to grow and remain competitive” (pg.5). Working through anchor institutions like the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum and the Baldwinsville Public Library, History Happens Here will engage high school and college-age students to develop public literacy and leadership skills. Moreover, the project will provide training in historical research, written and verbal communications, conducting interviews, and graphic design, and participants will gain important experience with community advocacy and planning. By working directly with area-based historians, artists, graphic designers, fabricators and civic leaders, and by collecting stories from employees of important regional industries, students will be exposed to the wealth of career opportunities available in their own backyard. The program may counteract regional “brain drain,” the self-perpetuating cycle that forces young people to flee Central New York because of the lack of cultural engagement and employment opportunities.

7. History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville will use local labor. All of the projects consultants are based in the Syracuse Metro Area, so in addition to providing job training for students, History Happens Here will create employment opportunities for local historians and regional artists. Youth participants and professional consultants will all receive stipends and honoraria for their collaboration. Additionally, their work will culminate in the creation of the creative place-markers, which will be showcased in a Baldwinsville gallery prior to installation around town. In Arts and Economic Prosperity IV, the fourth study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry’s impact on the economy, American for the Arts found that attendance at arts events generates income for local businesses. The gallery opening will be the “show” that draws residents and visitors alike to “dinner” in Baldwinsville’s CBD, where they will also patronize other local businesses. At very least, the gallery installation will be resume-enhancing for participants, at very best, they will receive contracts or employment with local firms and business owners. 8. History Happens Here will refine its model for working with other communities to uncover and strengthen cultural assets. This model will be adapted for projects in other areas of New York State, including Syracuse, home of the Erie Canal Museum, and Main Street grant recipients, Lyons Albion, and Lockport, which have expressed interest in initiating History Happens Here projects. Statement of Need Filmed for City Lore and the Erie Canal Museum’s forthcoming documentary about the Erie Canal, historian Wendy Wall of Colgate University expressed the role of the canal this way; I think in a lot of ways the story of the Erie Canal really reflects the story of the nation as a whole. If you think about the early 19th century the story of the Erie Canal is one of nation building, the industrialization of America, the market revolution, the incredible florescence of reform and religious movements that went along with that. And, of course, the opening of the west, with the immigrants who traveled westward on the canal. It represents in one locale all that energy and optimism that in some ways made America. If you look at the 20th century, it's the story come first circle. The story of the Erie Canal becomes one of de-industrialization, of an emptying out of population, of a movement to the sunbelt away from the rustbelt, of globalization and the impact of that on the American economy. But I don't think it's an entirely hopeless story -- because if you look at what's happening to the canal, in cities and towns all along its route communities are trying to make use of the canal in new ways. It’s now engine for tourism and economic development. So it's really a story of America re-inventing itself. In many ways, that is our story.

According to the New York State Department of Labor, economic recovery has been bumpy for the Syracuse area. However, the Erie Canal, which was declared a National Heritage Corridor in 2000, is now an economic engine that aims to bring tourist dollars to the region, giving villages, towns, and cities along its route new ways to create viable economies, sustain their businesses, and avoid the brain drain which results in young people leaving the area to find work. Baldwinsville is poised to play a significant role in the revitalization of the canalway corridor. Located in a lovely setting at Lock 24, and offering a large number of recreational venues, restaurants and pubs catering to boaters, bikers, and residents from the surrounding villages and towns, Baldwinsville is ready to harness its local economic and cultural assets and re-galvanize the region. The dynamic and innovative markers will further enhance the quality of life for residents, and help the village reach its potential as a cultural and entertainment destination. Describe the project, its priorities and the audiences served. How does it differ from or complement other programs in the community of field. Although some wayfinding signage exists along the Erie Canal corridor, most of it is simple brass plaques. The Erie Canalway National Corridor and the Canal Corporation are engaged in simple plaques to be placed along the route of the Canal, identifying places along the New York State Canal System. These markers will have either a two- or three-sided upright mount. One side of all markers will feature a map, and images and text describing the entire 524-mile long system. Sites with two-sided signs will feature community orientation panels with street maps, trails and points of interest within walking distance of the sign location (i.e. visitor centers, public libraries, police station, hospital). Sites with three-sided signs will have a third panel with historic images of the community and a birdseye view. Baldwinsville is not one of the towns slated to receive a sign featuring community history and a birdseye view. We are not familiar with any new innovative sculptural or artistic signage projects featuring oral history modules along the route of the canal. The model we are creating for this project, which engages individual towns or villages in creating artful signage that reflects the distinctive character of each site, has the potential to be applied at many of the tourist “nodes” along the canal, and to have a significant impact on revitalizing the communities along the canal. For this year-long grant, we envision a multi-phased project that will engage stakeholders from across greater Baldwinsville. The first phase involves working with local youth to develop community scholarship and leadership skills by harnessing Baldwinsville’s existing cultural assets. In the first two months of the project we will assemble and guide a team of community scholar interns (high school and college-age students) in taking a “Census of Places that Matter.” The Census project is modeled on City Lore’s own Place Matters Census, a grassroots survey of places that the public finds significant. City Lore began the Census in 1996, and it currently includes over 750 sites from across the five boroughs. The Baldwinsville Census project will contribute ideas and content to a town map that will anchor the final place-marking project. The map will identify all of the

places nominated through the Census, as well as the sites of the final designated placemarkers. During the second phase of the project, month three, the community scholar interns will share the Census “data” at a downtown story charrette open to all residents. Together, the assembled will determine the place-based narratives to be included in the place-marking project. This way, diverse stakeholders from across greater Baldwinsville’s various communities can identify both differences commonalities in their pasts, and together they can determine which stories, memories, myths and folk tales to present to the future. We anticipate that several of the places nominated to the Census will be located along the waterfront; others may be near, but not directly on the river, and still others will be related to the former Baldwin Canal. During months four, five and six, community scholar interns will work with Erie Canal Museum curator and folklorist, Dr. Daniel Ward, local historian Sue Ellen McManus and the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum to research Baldwinsville’s history and indentify community members with whom they will conduct oral history interviews. We hope that the Baldwinsville Public Library might be interested in collaborating with us as a resource for this project. Perhaps the research could also be displayed at the library as an exhibit or as the foundation for an educational curriculum. Dr. Ward, with the help of the scholar interns and adult volunteers, will interview citizens from diverse backgrounds so that the project is intergenerational and cross-cultural. Dr. Ward will work with youth and adult volunteers to transcribe and log the oral histories, which will be accessible as video modules embedded in the final place-markers. Next we will engage the town in a three-month design phase. First we will hold a foundational design meeting with the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force, a Syracuse-based artists’ consortium. With the help of local artists, City Lore and 40 Below will facilitate a series of development and refinement conversations, and together we will guide Baldwinsville’s participants in generating a creative and unique signage template that reflects local personality and aesthetic. The final implementation phase will include sign fabrication (including first-person stories and QR codes that link to video modules of the oral histories that were collected and chosen for specific signs). In month twelve, the orientation Census map and related place-markers will debut at a gallery exhibit, which that will also include documentation of the charrette and development process. The signs will ultimately be installed at locations designated during the charrette.

Organizations participating, indicating mission and background for each City Lore, Inc. Founded in 1986, City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs. We document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We work in four cultural

domains: urban folklore and history; community revitalization and preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself. City Lore in collaboration with the Municipal Art Society initiated Place Matters (www.placematters.net) in 1998 to recognize places the anchor traditions, sustain communities, tell the city’s history, and keep New York distinctive. Our most recent initiative is History Happens Here, which is enabling us to use the Place Matters models, experience and expertise to work with towns and cities in other parts of the country on community revitalization projects related to place. 40 Below Public Arts Task Force The mission of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force is to create public art and cultivate a culture of public art in Syracuse, New York. The task force serves as a catalyst for public arts that aim to identify, initiate, and integrate a variety of public art projects across the city. The task force is comprised of artists, community leaders, arts organizations, and interested volunteers who believe that public art is a powerful tool in community building. The two main goals of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force are: 1. to utilize task force members in initiating and creating public art projects throughout the city that aim to foster community involvement, beautify and add aesthetic interest to the city of Syracuse, promote a vibrant, desirable community in which to live, and increase awareness for the 40 Below organization of young professionals, 2. to support artists and community organizations who would like assistance in creating and promoting public arts projects. This is done through encouraging collaboration and targeting strategic partnerships across the city The task force also aims to provide networking opportunities for artists and community members to share their ideas. 40 Below was created to connect, engage, and empower young adults in Central Upstate New York to harness the collective strength of our communities to make positive changes, to build pride and hope in our communities, to spark a cultural renaissance that will put us on the “creative” map, and to make Central Upstate New York a more vibrant place to live, work, learn and play. 40 Below serves as a catalyst for action that seeks to implement its mission in concert with and in support of existing organizations.

Describe each organization’s role History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville brings together three organizations with complimentary skills. The Erie Canal Museum brings a commitment to the Erie Canal, its history, and its future (see www.eriecanalmuseum.org); City Lore and the Place Matters project brings an innovative commitment to place, place-marking and community engagement based on sound historical and cultural research and a commitment to stories and first person narratives (see www.citylore.org , www.placematters.net and, for an previous innovative marking program, http://www.placematters.net/node/4 ); and the 40 Below Task Force brings creative public artists committed to the newest technologies and

innovative ways of engaging the public through sculpture and art. (see http://40belowpatf.com/)

Person City Lore Staff Dr. Steve Zeitlin; Molly Garfinkel Erie Canal Museum Staff, Dr. Dan Ward Natalie Stetson

Brendan Rose, 40 Below Public Arts Task Force Lock 49 graphic designers and Website development team Village of Baldwinsville Tim Baker , Chief Engineer; Joe Saraceni, Mayor

Responsibility • Coordinate and plan steering committee meetings; • Lead cultural survey and oral history interviews; • Plan and implement town meetings and charettes; • Collaborate on design of place markers; • Maintain the web exhibit beyond the grant period; • Provide matching funds for the project. • Collaborate on the cultural survey and oral history interviews • Lead the documentation team, including logging and transcribing tapes; • Attend and participate in all the steering committee and planning meetings; • Conduct surveys of town residents and participate in discussions on the placement of the markers. • Lead the design team planning and implementing the place markers • Consult on the web site, the QR codes, and the interface between the markers and the web site accessible via the markers; • Participate in the all the steering committee meetings. • Design the web exhibit which includes historical and contemporary images, oral histories, first person narratives, maps and way-finding tools accessible from the Place Markers; • Participate in all steering committee meetings. • Create blog to be administered by scholar interns • Install the place markers in key locations identified in the town meetings in collaboration with the village; • Maintain the signs during and beyond the grant period; • Attend and participate in all steering committee meetings • Preside over all town meetings and charettes for the project.

How does the project relate to the organizations of partners mission City Lore This project is loosely based on City Lore’s Place Matters project, which documents and advocates for neighborhood sites that anchor traditions, preserve history, sustain communities and keep our cities distinctive. At the heart of the project is the Census of

Places that Matter, a grassroots survey of places in the five boroughs that the public finds significant. The Census was created to broaden the ways that preservation is understood and practiced in New York City. It was first published as a paper document in 1998, and it has grown into a digital registry linked to an interactive map. The rich histories of the Census sites are now overlaid on a compelling, visual analytical tool. Together, the registry and the map offer a multi-pronged, alternative approach to identifying, celebrating and preserving places that matter to the people and communities who love them. Today, the Census includes over 750 sites nominated by the public. Place Matters because it is the physical dimension of our lives, and home for our traditions and memories. All of us have become attached to buildings and locales that create beauty, mark events of historical and cultural importance, and serve as a locus for community gatherings and neighborhood identity. Place Matters because the loss of cherish local establishments and landmarks diminishes the city, especially if the loss could have been prevents. Place Matters because all of our lives are enhanced by living in places where the natural and built environment articulates its rich layers of history, memory and story. City Lore and Place Matters work closely with communities to discover, interpret, celebrate and protect the places that matter to them. Place Matters is committed to helping New Yorkers act on behalf of places of history and cultural tradition. The Census can be a resource and/or organizing tool to initiate actions such as: community care and maintenance of sites; protection and preservation; and commemoration and interpretation through walking tours, public art, exhibits and other educational programs. 40 Below Public Arts Task Force The 40 Below Public Arts Task Force have implemented numerous projects around Syracuse, including Arterie, a painted two-block stretch of road alongside the Erie Canal Museum that aims to celebrate the historical relevance of the Erie Canal and bring tribute to the lasting effect the Canal has had on Central New York. Lipe Art Park is a formerly abandoned train yard located along West Fayette Street in the Warehouse District of Syracuse. It is now the city’s first art park and public green space open to the community for personal recreation and public gatherings, and for the development of, display, performance and appreciation of all forms of art, in order to facilitate public/community engagement with the ecological and cultural life of the city and beyond.

What is the Artistic Vision of the project The folklorist and sociolinguist Dell Hymes described the artistic enterprise as shaping deeply felt values into meaningful forms. History Happens Here aims to bring artists together with prominent folklorists, local historians and the B-ville community. Our artistic vision is to use the arts to bring the histories and stories that make B-ville distinctive to life. We aim to create a series of beautiful place markers that tell those stories in such a way as to inspire the community, attract visitors, and support an

economic and cultural resurgence for the region. The artful signage, which incorporates public art and sculpture, will help restore the canal, once a vehicle of economic resurgence for NY State and the nation, to its rightful place in the consciousness of New Yorkers as a scenic byway and an essential stop for anyone seeking to understand and enjoy this nation’s history and culture.

Background of the individuals who developed the artistic vision Molly Garfinkel is the Director of City Lore’s Place Matters project. She is an architectural historian with interests in cultural conservation, urban history, historic preservation, exhibit curation, museum education and public arts. Molly has a masters degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia, and a bachelors degree in art history from Wesleyan University. Prior to joining City Lore, Molly researched, reconceptualized and redesigned “Centuries of Making Change Work,” the permanent introductory exhibit for the Sandy Spring Museum in Sandy Spring, MD, and she is looking forward to publishing an online exhibit about New York City’s vernacular architecture in the summer of 2012. Brendan Rose is an artist with interests in architecture and community arts. Brendan completed his masters degree in architecture at Syracuse University, where his thesis work explored architectural competency based on the architect’s capacity to collaboratively execute full scale design work within urban environments. He has completed several public art projects Syracuse while serving as a co-chair of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force. Brendan also served as the Syracuse Public Artist in Residence, wherein he worked with Syracuse University Industrial and Interaction Design students and community participants to create a public art sculpture that sits above the Onondaga Creek along the newly developed Armory Square section of the Creekwalk.

Role of artists in the project Brendan Rose and members of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force will lead Baldwinsville residents in a series of five town meetings/charrettes over a three-month period. First they will lead a foundational design meeting with the town wherein they will present their past work and ask community members for ideas for the Baldwinsville place-markers. 40 Below will then facilitate a series of development and refinement conversations in which they will guide Baldwinsville’s participants in generating a creative and unique signage template that reflects the town’s history, folk traditions and unique aesthetic. They will also lead scholar interns in creating mood boards and sketches based on the town meetings/charrettes, which the interns will share at each subsequent meeting, and which they will display at the project’s culminating gallery exhibit. Students will be able to use these development schemes in their own portfolios.

We will work with Syracuse-area artists and fabricators to design and fabricate the final place-markers.

Use of technology in the project – and technical and staffing capacity for its use Lock 49 is a graphic design, and website design and development firm based in Syracuse. Lock 49 will design the History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville logo and website, and it will administer the website during the grant term. The website will be a critical component of the project, as it will serve as the online home of the place-markers’ oral history video modules. Lock 49 has extensive experience with website development and administration. As such, Lock 49 will also be working with the artists and place-marker fabricators to ensure that the QR codes linking the signs to the web-based video modules is properly implemented. Lock 49 will also create a blog that scholar interns will use to document the project’s progress.

Who is responsible for administration with roles and duties Erie Canal Museum, City Lore, Brendan Rose Involvement of the governing board The programming committee of City Lore’s Board of Directors Plan to leverage additional resources including in kind services & public-private partnerships. Fees or wated paid to artists and outside consultants Strategies for outreach and marketing to communities. Detail the diversity and target groups In addition to creating a project website and blog, Lock 49 will create promotional materials, including a project logo, programs to be distributed at town meetings, the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum and the Baldwinsville Public Library; fliers to be posted around greater Baldwinsville, and decals that can be affixed (and easily removed from) to shop windows; and business cards for the History Happens Here: Beeline to Bville scholar intern team, which they may also add to their portfolios. Lock 49 will create a project blog to be administered by the scholar intern team. The Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum, the Baldwinsville Public Library, the Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce, the Village of Baldwinsville, the Erie Canal Museum and other local organizations will help to promote the project by sending eblasts and posting the project logo on their websites.

The variety of promotional materials is meant to reach and engage multigenerational, multicultural audience members. The paper promotional materials will reach senior citizens who do not have smartphones or internet proficiency. As keepers of traditions and memories, their involvement in this project is critical for grounding the place-marker narratives in history. The project blog will target youth participants. The decal will enable scholar interns to recruit their friends and peer to participate, and the blog will help them keep their friends, parents, teachers and prospective employers abreast of their day-to-day activities related to the project. Rather than ask the scholar interns to keep a journal or log of their participation, the blog format provides a fast, dynamic and immediately gratifying forum for record-keeping, progress tracking, and, of course, bragging about discoveries and accomplishments. The business cards will help the scholar interns take steps toward building confidence as community history advocates and experts. The cards will help them make the psychological transition from acting as students in the library and behind the blog, to acting as employees-in-training while conducting interviews and making presentations at town meetings/charrettes. The decals will identify when places are nominated to the Census, and will serve as badges of pride for property owners or business proprietors. They will let business owners know that the community appreciates their contributions to the town. They will also serve as a daily reminder that the project is underway and can only succeed with input and inspiration from the community. Finally, for as long as they remain posted in the nominated sites. the decals will encourage community members to think about their relationships to place. The place-markers themselves will serve as the final, and penultimate, marketing material for this project, and for the greater Baldwinsville area. When they are installed around Baldwinsville they will remind residents and indicate to tourists that Baldwinsville is an creative incubator that can sustain local culture and history, while also innovating on the tradition of public signage projects. Describe the primary audience for this project and why it is important to that audience The primary audience for this project is Central New York’s resident population. The NYS Department of Labor reports that last year (2011-2012), regional job growth has been inconsistent. Few major sectors, including professional and technical services, administrative and support services, and wholesale and retail trade, have accounted for most recent job gains, while local manufacturing, natural resources and construction and education and health are still relatively weak. In terms of average weekly earnings, the leisure and hospitality industry is weakest of all. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Syracuse Metropolitan Area’s population is approximately 663,000 people. This is a large number of people who would benefit from a project like History Happens Here, which can catalyze regional pride. The Central New York Region, and Baldwinsville in particular, have many cultural assets in place that could be better harnassed to stimulate economic growth, particularly in the leisure and hospitality industries. Greater Baldwinsville is an ideal place for the History Happens Here project because the population is small enough to hold productive town meetings, but large enough to offer a variety of perspectives. The population is not so demographically

fragmented that a public art project like ours could become contentious, but neither is the town monolithic enough to preclude interesting conversation and debate. Residents’ ancestries include Irish (20.9 percent), German (20.7 percent), English (19.1 percent), Polish (6.7 percent), French (5.8 percent) as well countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. There are also a significant number of residents of Native American heritage. This diversity suggests that there are a great range of stories, as well as cultural and artistic traditions to be documented, celebrated and maintained in Baldwinsville. Arts. Entertainment and recreation industry jobs are the least commonly held in Baldwinsville, but Americans for the Arts asserts that nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry’s generated $135.2 billion dollars of activity in 2010. This activity supported 4.13 million full-time jobs and generated $86.68 billion in residential household incomes. The greater Baldwinsville area’s cultural assets could contribute greatly in revenue to local, state and federal governments. This potential should inspire residents to invest in the local arts economy, and it can empower local youth to remain in the region rather than seeking opportunities elsewhere. As the Strategic Plan notes, “the region has looked to leverage its large student population by placing new emphasis on the retention and attraction of young talent to the region.” (pg. 14). History Happens Here will offer high school students with job and leadership training. Noting the region’s low high school graduation rate, this project can also compliment local education support initiatives by providing informal opportunities to enhance research and other academic skills. History Happens Here will demonstrate that learning can be fun and interactive, and it will provided scholar interns with numerous differentiated learning opportunities. The Strategic Plan identifies that, the region’s communities have prioritized the revitalization of historic and underutilized spaces into mixed-use corridors; sought to rebuild density in central business districts, including downtowns and village centers; and championed renewed investments in public spaces while embracing a vision of total community prosperity. (pg. 14) Through History Happens Here: Beeline to B-ville, the Baldwinsville community will fufill all of these goals. History Happens Here is a model sustainable development project because it simply harnesses and synergizes resources that are already in place. The town meeting and charrette programs can be applied to myriad other civic projects, and the Census can be an ever-growing, ever-changing catalyst for public programming. Having thrived despite being bypassed by the Erie Canal, the Greater Baldwinsville area has a history of modesty. It is time for individual scholar interns, as well as the wider community, to shirk their collective humility. Describe the project’s benefit to the community and general public. How will its effectiveness and impact be evaluated and assessed.

Following the grant period, we are planning to work in Syracuse . We are also in conversation with the three Main Street

Support materials list Resumes Budget Attachments Work Sample PowerPoint Marketing plan outlining communication and outreach strategies Listof the URLS: Erie Canal Museum: http://eriecanalmuseum.org/ City Lore: www.citylore.org Place Matters: www.placematters.net 40 Below Public Arts Task Force: http://40belowpatf.com/ Brendan Rose: http://brendanrose.com/ Lock 49: http://www.lock49.com/ Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum: http://www.shacksboromuseum.com/

Provide marketing and interpretive materials. – up to 10 samples Your Guide to the Lower East Side pamphlet Place Matters Awards postcard

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