Category: What’s So Great About Lawrence

Susan Tate, director of the Lawrence Arts Center, told Rotarians on March 18 that Central Rotary’s bike rack project is a microcosm of the Ninth Street Arts Corridor Project, currently in the planning stages in Lawrence.

“What Rotary has done for biking and walking has a deeper connection than just a practical way to store bicycles,” she said.  “Creative place making is a new term,” Tate said, “that is sometimes criticized but is a way of getting urban design to incorporate art in the community.

“It’s not just a statue on a corner, but design of an area that is art itself and encourages use by those who live there, including walking, biking and using facilities.”

The Lawrence Arts Center team, headed by Margaret Weisbrod Morris, chief program officer, received a $500,000 grant from ArtPlace America that they wish to use to work on the art district on ninth street that stretches from New Hampshire St. to Massachusetts.

The Lawrence Arts Center has already worked on projects that build education and exhibits. Now, beginning with public workshops in April and a citizens’ advisory committee convening in March they want to start plans for a creative place.

“The city commissioners said if we got the grant, they would commit $3 million to the project,” Tate said. “We got the grant but there are shadows in that picture now. Part of those shadows are the controversy over the Rock Chalk Recreation complex and the voters’ defeat of a new police station. The makeup of the city commission will be changing and we don’t know how new commissioners will feel about the commitment.”

The Art Center has set up a team that includes well-known urban designers and engineers, an artist, conceptual urban landscape designers, an east Lawrence historian and a multi-media art technician.

“However,” Tate said, “nothing will happen until we’ve gotten the city’s commitment and input from the grass roots through our workshops.”

Kristin Scheurer, executive director of the Lawrence Senior Center, says she loves her job and the people she works with.

“It’s challenging,” she said in her presentation on April 16 to Central Rotary members “because the population of senior citizens is changing as the ‘baby boomer’ generation reaches retirement age.”

People born before 1928 are a generation of savers, she said. They survived the depression and World War II. They value health care and a safe environment.

The new retirees, born around 1946 and after are looking for a gradual transition. Many of them want to work part time, maybe find a second career. They’re not slowing down, want to be physically active. They know how to use facebook and twitter. They travel, are even open to relocation, and want to pursue hobbies.

“Which means,” she said “that the board of the Senior Center is preparing to look at the marketplace, at trends that will attract the boomers, at what this generation will need.

“We,  want to increase awareness of the challenge, gather community input and share resources with other agencies. Lawrence provides a great deal of what this new group wants: social and intellectual choices, physical activities, access to the arts, entertainment and competitive sports, being close to an airport.

“We have a vibrant retirement community already,” she said. “Now our strategy is to retain current retirees, make services available, and work to incorporate wants and needs, such as transportation, counseling, and information on health care. The board at the senior center has a strong vision and is working on a marketing campaign to attract those retiring.

“It’s an exciting time and I feel blessed to be doing this work,” she said.