Mural artists, well-known local storytellers and 3-D projectors will display different parts of downtown Phoenix’s history on Dec. 11 for the Phoenix Phabulous Experience at the Phoenix Center for the Arts.
Bill Shover, Ryan Tempest, Pat McMahon and Bob Boze Bell are some of the many guest speakers who will share stories of different time periods of downtown Phoenix from as early as 1867 to the projected future.
“The vision of this program, the Phoenix Phabulous Experience, is it’s a spectacular community storytelling experience in downtown Phoenix,” said Carol Poore, the president and executive of the Phoenix Phabulous Experience.
“We are in such a crossroads of developing a new downtown where people want to come and get involved and that they’re excited about the new things going on downtown,” Poore said. “I felt that this was a perfect time to try and create a program that really is focused on civic engagement and placemaking.”
Jim McPherson was one of the many people who worked with Poore as she worked to make this event a reality.
“It was a really interesting concept she came up with,” he said. McPherson is good friends with Poore and with several of the guest speakers who will be part of the storytelling segment.
Poore planned on using technology to express the importance of downtown Phoenix’s history through eye-catching digital murals that will be projected on buildings in downtown with 3-D projection mapping.
“Wouldn’t it be spectacular if we could have a free, easy, low-maintenance opportunity to have a story being shared without going into an auditorium or having people who can’t afford a ticket be restricted from seeing something spectacular?” Poore said.
The 3-D displays will range in size and theme and will be mapped on various buildings downtown close to the event. The digital murals will feature pictures and designs from eight different time periods of downtown Phoenix, along with a ninth period — the imagined future.
Poore said she wants the digital murals to be similar to other free attractions that go on in other states, like the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.
“I thought, ‘What if we could create our own fun, famous experience that creates spectacular pride?’” Poore said. “So as I started to research how we could we showcase our city, our past and our heritage, I started researching technology.”
The speakers Poore chose for the storytelling segment all have a personal connection to the time period they will be sharing.
Bill Shover is one of the speakers participating in the event. He will be speaking about the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, as he experienced those times.
“I’m a part of the past,” Shover said. “I was at the Republic and the newspaper for 47 years, so I have a lot of history of the era that she wants me to talk about.”
Poore encourages members of the audience to speak during the open mic segment of the event and share their stories that relate to any of the nine historical time periods discussed at the event.
The Phoenix Phabulous Experience will be free and open to the public at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 11.
Contact the reporter at bcsteine@asu.edu
