Thursday, June 1, 2017
Normal: Using Street Banners to Display Public Art
Normal already has great opportunities for displaying art in public places, but the Holland Area Arts Council in Holland, Michigan, has come up with some creative ways to use local artwork on banners displayed along the streets. Some banner projects focused on a theme (like bicycles) while the current banner project resulted in images of details from around Holland. A banner project like this would be a nice way to showcase many different aspects of our town!
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Normal: Applying Human Ecology Locally
Thriving Cities
uses the human
ecology framework to view cities as a “web” of interconnections. They
divided this web into six dimensions called endowments. It is then possible to
examine a city, or in this case, the town of Normal, in terms of each
endowment:
Normal has
great educational institutions, including the public school district,
private schools, and support for lifelong learning. There
are also opportunities for direct involvement in local education by serving on
school boards.
Normal offers many volunteer
opportunities and a chance to serve on the Human Relations Commission.
There is
fantastic support for local artists at the University
Galleries at Uptown Station, and the Joe McCauley Gallery.
The Sugar Creek Arts
Festival is an annual event bringing artists and visitors from across the
country and the Sweet
Corn Blues Festival also gives everyone the chance to enjoy the arts along
with tasty sweet corn. The Harmon
Arts Grants support local efforts in the arts and Make Music Normal is an
annual festival bringing people together to enjoy music. Normal has also
invested a great deal of resources in careful planning for the attractiveness
of Uptown Normal,
and public parks and green spaces are kept in very good condition by the Parks and Recreation staff.
Normal has a
very stable economy, with good support for local/small businesses. The town is always
welcoming of new
businesses.
The Normal Town Council provides
easy access to all government information on the town’s web site (agendas,
minutes, and live coverage or recordings of meetings) and residents can view the
complete budget on the
town’s web site. The
American Democracy Project at Illinois State University motivates students
to be active, involved citizens. There are also strong neighborhood associations
throughout Normal.
There has
been a significant
effort in Normal to build with environmental stewardship in mind. Also, wind energy is
being utilized and there is tremendous involvement in recycling locally. The Ecology Action Center is the
local resource for information about environmental efforts.
Normal also
encourages physical health through maintenance of its portion the Constitution
Trail as well as through other Parks and Recreation programs and facilities. And
to keep the local college population healthy, Normal participates in Bloomington/Normal Community Campus Committee’s efforts to encourage responsible alcohol consumption.
These are just a few examples of how Normal addresses each of
these dimensions.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
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