IF YOU GO

What: Imagining America Forum

Where: The Warehouse

When: Friday, 5 p.m.

How much: Free

Local organizations are calling on community members to literally change the way people see Syracuse.

Imagining America, together with CNYSpeaks and the New York Council for the Humanities, will hold a forum Friday at 5 p.m. at downtown’s Warehouse to discuss ways to make Syracuse a more culturally vibrant city.

Many different kinds of cultural expression will be explored, including gospel choirs, community gardens and different types of cooking, said director of Imagining America and Syracuse University professor Jan Cohen-Cruz.

Imagining America is a SU-based program meant to democratize the arts in cities around college campuses, said Greg Munno, project manager of CNYSpeaks, a local organization focused on using community dialogue to help improve the visual aspects of the city. The Creative City Forum will take the spirit of Imagining America and pair it with the mission of CNYSpeaks, Cohen-Cruz said.

‘We tend to live segregated lives. There’s not much pleasurable exchange across race, age, class,’ Cohen-Cruz said.

Maria Rosario Jackson of the Urban Institute, a national organization that collects data on social and economic issues, will talk for half an hour about her research on designing public spaces that can be used creatively. Issues, such as economic development, crime and safety, arts and aesthetics, parking and transportation, will be discussed.

Graduate student facilitators from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs will then break up into groups to discuss Jackson’s ideas to get people to see how relevant they are to Syracuse, Cohen-Cruz said. After the event, the student facilitators will conduct a group Q-and-A session.

‘We’re interested in getting people talking about what would make Syracuse a better place, a more inclusive, more vibrant, more artistic place,’ Munno said.

Kelley Wares, a freshman entrepreneurship major, said she thinks it will be beneficial to make downtown more colorful and exciting.

‘It’s kind of dull downtown,’ Wares said. ‘I’d like to see cleaner-looking buildings, more colorful.’

Maggie Chen, an undecided freshman in the School of Information Studies, said her impression of downtown was that it wasn’t as fun or exciting as New York City, her hometown.

Munno hopes these initiatives will be able to chip away at the feeling of deadness the city can sometimes have.

‘People want to see businesses, galleries and interesting things taking place in the street-level spaces that aren’t being utilized,’ he said.

Students have different ideas for making Syracuse more engaging.

Sean Silva, a senior finance and public relations major, lived in Syracuse during the summer. He said there were a lot of exciting events while he was in the city, but no one at the university was made aware of them.

Chen suggested adding more attractions for students to enjoy downtown. ‘I think, in addition to there being more student activities for us, it will bring us closer to the community,’ she said.

Lauren Kinsler, a Syracuse resident, said the area near the university and the hospitals used to be Jewish and African-American neighborhoods, complete with jazz clubs and other attractions. The areas were deemed ‘undesirable’ and were bought out to build Interstate 81.

‘Downtown’s kind of a weird place,’ Kinsler said. ‘It doesn’t feel like there’s much of a community connecting everything that is there. The big problem with Syracuse is that so many people, like myself, are temporarily here. Although people see the problems and would like solutions, it is difficult to become involved in solving them in a relatively small amount of time.’

Students are invited to attend the event and should not feel required to know about the city or about art to participate, Munno said. The goal of the initiative is to make Syracuse a better city in which to live and enjoy.

‘A great city is a place that, no matter what time of day,’ he said, ‘there is something going on to engage you.’

kjmarren@syr.edu

 

Published on September 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm