More than 80 members and leaders of the newly named Roosevelt Row Artists’ District gathered at The Nash on Thursday evening to celebrate the results of a visioning project that outlined future goals for the district.
The results of the visioning project were compiled into a book called “Roosevelt Row Artists’ District: Creative Placemaking in Downtown Phoenix.” The book was created by select members of the community and sold at Thursday’s event.
Cindy Dach, co-founder of the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation and a speaker at the party, said the new name for the artists’ district changes the focus from the galleries to the people.
“An arts district is where you have galleries … an artists’ district is where artists live, work and gather,” she said.
According to Dach, “creative placemaking” is a process in which artists have a hand in creating the community that they live in. The publication outlined some of those short-, mid- and long-term goals and highlighted the progress that has already been made.
“We are a community in the trenches, together,” Dach told the audience at The Nash. “And personally, I wouldn’t want to be in any other place at any other time.”
The new book named some of the defining moments of Roosevelt Row in the last few years, including last year’s Feast on the Street celebration as well as the expansion of the A.R.T.S. Program, which aims to fill downtown’s vacant lots with projects like the recently installed Hot Box Gallery.
The publication also shared the results of a yearlong survey that was sent out to various downtown neighborhoods around Roosevelt Row, including the Roosevelt and Evans Churchill neighborhoods and the Garfield Historic District.
The survey asked residents to name what changes they would like to see in the district. Many community members’ answers resembled each other: increasing the availability of nearby food grocers, increasing affordable housing and continuing efforts to improve walkability.
Finally, the book lists some of the projects the district has yet to accomplish. This includes creating consistent design standards, developing a plan for district public parking and implementing a property tax incentive.
Much of the funding for the visioning project, survey and book came from a $150,000 ArtPlace America grant awarded to Roosevelt Row CDC in 2012. The grant was to be used to “brand and visually identify Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row Cultural District,” according to the ArtPlace America website.
Leslie Lindo, co-founder and executive director of local redevelopment organization Project Rising, facilitated the visioning project by working with a group to oversee the survey and outline the book.
“There was really an interest in creating an identity to the artists’ district,” she said. “And really understanding what it was that the community was interested in having their identity be, for creating that sense of place. That’s really where I think the main inspiration came from.”
Lindo said that compiling all the survey results and community goals into a book format was better than just creating an online report.
“Now we have something that is really tangible, that people can have pride in and take ownership of,” she said.
Lindsay Kinkade, a community-based designer, set up a temporary design studio inside Combine Studios last summer to lay out the book. Her photography of various downtown Phoenix locations is presented throughout the publication.
“It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, although there was a lot of that,” said Kinkade, who moved to Phoenix about 2 1/2 years ago. ”But because we worked on it together, I think it never felt like the kind of work I don’t want to do.”
Most of the reasoning behind Thursday’s launch party had to do with the completion of the visioning project and publication, Kinkade said. Lindo added that the start of the visioning project was also based around Roosevelt Row’s emergence from the debilitating recession of the past few years.
“We started this process at the end of 2012, we were still kind of coming out and overcoming the great recession,” Lindo said. “So the question was, ‘Who do we want to be moving forward? How do we want to develop and express as we move forward?’”
Dach said the recession allowed the community to gain more control over the decision-making for Roosevelt Row’s future as it turned away “big-minded developers” who were speculating investment in the area.
“As hard as the recession was for people, and it was horrible, it was also something that helped a district like this,” she said.
Local eateries, including recent Roosevelt Row additions Sit…Stay and Pizza People Pub, catered the event.
“Because it is Roosevelt Row, it really is more about the networking and drinking than it is about the lectures,” Dach joked to the audience.
Although much of Thursday’s event was an opportunity for community members to meet each other and talk, Dach and Lindo spoke briefly about the visioning project process.
Vermon Pierre, board president for Roosevelt Row CDC, also spoke to attendees.
“Ultimately it adds up to people,” Pierre said. “(It’s about) creating a space for people to live, work, play and create.”
Contact the reporter at miguel.otarolaalfaro@asu.edu
