Help Design the Future “Coal Avenue Commons”

By Rose Eason, Executive Director of gallupARTS

As writers, artists, and musicians know, downtowns are the heartbeats of a community. Downtown is where the energy is, where creativity resides, where the people are, and where possibility lives. And Gallup’s downtown is full of possibility.

Hopefully you heard the news that the City of Gallup, in partnership with gallupARTS, received a $150K “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, matched by $150K in local funding, for a creative placemaking project to redesign Coal Avenue as an “event street.”

Let’s break that down:

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING

First, what in the world is “creative placemaking?” Creative placemaking is an economic development strategy defined by two core principles: artist involvement and community engagement. It is a way to ensure that design and development do not happen in a vacuum, but rather, are rooted in the culture of a place. Through creative placemaking, artists become problem-solvers, putting their imaginations to work to reinterpret and reconceptualize spaces. As they engage the broader community in their efforts, they spark widespread creativity, opening the doors to new ideas and different directions. Ultimately, creative placemaking is a way for the entire community—artists, residents, business owners, property owners—to work together to shape the unique downtown they want to live, work, shop, eat, visit, and play in.

EVENT STREET

Second, an “event street”—is that what it sounds like? Yes and no. An “event street” isn’t a prescribed concept; it can be almost anything in service of the best interests of a community (see above: “creative placemaking”). For Gallup’s downtown, the general idea is to create a pedestrian and business-friendly environment (without closing the street to traffic!), to facilitate community gatherings and events like ArtsCrawl, parades, music festivals, and farmers’ markets, and to express the immense beauty, history and culture of our community within two blocks of Coal Avenue. What we’re after is more than simply an “event street,” it’s a “Coal Avenue Commons.” In fact, that’s what we’ve named this project. Creating a Coal Avenue Commons is an important part of an overall strategy to develop a multi-block, walkable area throughout downtown, stretching from the Courthouse to Rt. 66 and beyond.

GET INVOLVED

In order to have a successful creative placemaking project and produce an inspired and smart plan for a Coal Avenue Commons, we’re counting on you, the community, to participate. You are invited to share your ideas, inspirations, visions, concerns, questions, and insights in multiple ways over the course of this design project, which launches this month. Here’s how:

Ongoing: Visit www.coalavenuecommons.com or follow us on Facebook @CoalAvenueCommons. See what we’re up to and share your thoughts! This Month (April): • Tuesday, May 1st: Kick-off Event - 6:00pm / El Morro Theatre • The public is invited to help get this “If you don’t have a project off the ground with a celebratory and informative launch party. • Friday, May 11th: Focus Group Meetings (by downtown, invitation only) you really don’t have anything. It’s Coal Avenue Commons: In One Word Imagine your ideal future downtown Gallup: what one word captures your vision? Post hard to build your word to the @ArtsCrawlGallup or @ a community around parking CoalAvenueCommons Facebook pages, or e-mail it to artscrawl@galluparts.org by May 5th to have it included in a graffiti mural lots and visualizing everyone’s contributions, painted subdivisions.” by local artist Bear Mescale. The mural will be – Ed McMahon revealed at ArtsCrawl: Pop! on May 12th 7:00 – 9:00pm. from

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown.” – Tony Hatch “Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder.” – Stephen Chbosky

“People talk about wanting amenities— downtown is the amenity.” – Jack White “Uptown is for people who have already done something. Downtown is where they’re doing something now.” – Andy Warhol

A Coal Avenue “event street” was identified as the community’s #2 project priority through the Metropolitan Redevelopment Plan. This design drawing (from that Plan) imagines only one possibility for the street’s re-design. Through the Coal Avenue Commons project, we’ll work together to develop a shared vision and the ultimate design!