Downtown Danville, like many small towns, tries to make summer lively. The streets fill with people for car shows with carefully preserved cars lining the curbs, their rumbling motors revving. Marchers at the July 4th parade wave flags, sing, and push lawn mowers. People chat while they listen to music in the park, walk around the artwork at art fairs or attend the annual Eugene O'Neill Festival at Taos House. Diners stroll the streets past the many restaurants that now occupy much of downtown. Art and good food has created a lively town.
This year the town has added some more public art to delight passersby. Displayed throughout the town are The Dogs of Danville Unleashed. As we strolled around the town one evening, we came acorss several of the hand painted dogs who look like they want to wag their tails and bark a greeting. They have been painted by local artists and will be auctioned at the end of summer to fund additional public art programs. To add to the merriment, pianos have been placed at two street corners. As we turned the corner, we heard someone playing Scott Joplin's ragtime music, a fitting song for summer.
As I walked the Iron Horse Trail, I compared Danville to some of the towns in the book, Our Towns by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, who spent five years flying to communities all over the U.S. to discover what brings a town in distress back to life. Many of the towns had universities or colleges within their boundaries which created a natural draw from outside the community. Others were too small for colleges but found ways to reuse old factory buildings for art events. Even without a college, local people willing to work for change brought together creative people and tastemakers who used arts to stimulate redevelopment. Our Towns is full of hope and worth a read.
What does your community do to encourage community spirit and the arts?
Read about James and Deborah Fallows' story in Our Towns. Check out their website at https://www.ourtownsbook.com
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| Molly Keen, Artist |
As I walked the Iron Horse Trail, I compared Danville to some of the towns in the book, Our Towns by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, who spent five years flying to communities all over the U.S. to discover what brings a town in distress back to life. Many of the towns had universities or colleges within their boundaries which created a natural draw from outside the community. Others were too small for colleges but found ways to reuse old factory buildings for art events. Even without a college, local people willing to work for change brought together creative people and tastemakers who used arts to stimulate redevelopment. Our Towns is full of hope and worth a read.
What does your community do to encourage community spirit and the arts?
Read about James and Deborah Fallows' story in Our Towns. Check out their website at https://www.ourtownsbook.com
Thanks for the great book recommendation, Martha--such an interesting topic. Love the dogs, too!
ReplyDeleteThey are fun to see. They will be up for auction shortly.
Deletefrom Mary by email: So fun to see some dogs on your post that I haven’t seen in town, what a nice touch. I enjoyed your blog, it made me smile and thankful that I’m so lucky to be a part of this community.
ReplyDeleteThe dogs make me smile. I hope they do them again next summer.
DeleteI love the public art. NOLA has similar public art. Here, there are a lot of free concerts in the park--all summer long--and then Jazz in the park starts tomorrow. I've seen some public art downtown, but it's not as extensive or uniform as the art I've seen in larger cities.
ReplyDeleteI agree that public art makes a difference, especially in big cities where so much isn't pretty. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, Chandra!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog what a wonderful site! Thank you for including me on your post. I really appreciate your mindfulness you took time to give credit to artists. Thank you thank you :) <3 Molly Keen
ReplyDeleteThank you, Molly. I really appreciate your comments. I try to credit artists because so often we are taken advantage of. I loved walking around Danville to find the dogs.
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