Mike Johnson '12
Week Seven
July 19, 2010
This seemed to be the week of press for the Cedar Rapids Downtown District. Monday was a monumental day for the district as we formally announced the certification of the Grant Wood Cultural District. In addition to providing tax historic credits to qualified buildings in the district, this distinction will also enhance the city's ability to promote the many attractions of this area. Among the district's attractions are the Iowa Masonic Library, the Scottish Rite Temple and the Carl and Mary Koehler History Center; the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, home to the world’s largest collection of Wood’s creations; Theatre Cedar Rapids and the Paramount Theatre; the restored Grant Wood stained glass window in the Veterans Memorial Building on May’s Island; the U.S. Cellular Center; as well as businesses, restaurants and nightlife hotspots.
Monday's presentation was of particular to me because of my interest in Grant Wood and the interplay of art and politics in communities. This internship, in addition to providing amazing professional experiences, has been a constant source of inspiration for future research projects. I have been checking out reading material all summer. At first my focus was on community-based mural projects and now that I have set one up, I want to expand and pursue research on how these community based art programs are having significant impacts on the communities in which they exist. Legions Arts located in the historic CSPS building of the New Bohemia cultural district of Cedar Rapids represents one of these programs. It is currently undergoing a five million dollar renovation project that will enable the organization to become more sustainable. John and Mel, the directors of that organization, have been a great source of help for me; their sage advice and library of interesting books were all helpful as I began to put together my community mural project this summer. I look forward to working with them in the future and I am excited to see how that organization takes off after renovations are completed.
The Cedar Rapids Downtown District also experienced a significant amount of press because of our substantial crowd at our last Farmers' Market. Our events director decided to make a few changes to the next market because of the continually growing number of market attendees. These changes were very small in the minds of all of us who had a hand in it, but we were more than happy to play the public relations game and brag about how our 15,000 crowds were forcing us to adjust. On Thursday afternoon I found myself calling vendors for a last-minute six a.m. interview with our marketing director Quinn and KCRG.
Holiday Lighting planning was well under way this week as I facilitated a meeting with potential installation companies about our needs. Working with a budget of almost $20,000 sounds like a lot but I am becoming increasingly aware of how little that money covers when looking at large scale projects like this. I enjoy looking for ways to save money and I am hoping that some of that will allow us to add a few more exciting things to the final project. The grant that I was able to secure for the mural project is allowing me another opportunity to balance another budget project. I am hoping that I will be able to save as much as possible so that I can pass along the savings to our organization’s overall budget.
I worked all day on Saturday manning our Farmers' Market and Drive In Movie, and I truly enjoyed it. It has been great to be able to have a part in putting on these popular events for the community. We had another great turnout to both and I am happy to say that it is all getting more and more comfortable. The people that I have had the pleasure to work with are making long days like that all the more worth it. Grant Wood would be happy to see how Cedar Rapids is coming back after the flood of 2008. He always believed that his work was helping to develop a community; this week proves it has.
Weeks Five & Six
July 13, 2010
It has been an incredibly successful few weeks for the Cedar Rapids Downtown District. Saturday, July 4th, we had our largest ever Farmers’ Market with 200 vendors and approximately 15,000 patrons. It has been a great experience to help put on such successful events such as this for the community. Getting up at 4 AM doesn’t seem so bad when you have such a successful event like we did on the 4th.
In other good news, I was notified this week by the Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation that my grant application for my community mural project had been approved. I was very pleased and relieved that we would have a funding source for putting on this event. This meant that I could finally beginning purchasing supplies and preparing for the community to paint the mural. I will begin the fun but tedious process of transferring her image with transparencies onto boards this week. Thankfully Mel and John over at CSPS have let me use their space until the building begins its renovation project in August. Our artist Rita Svaboda Tomanek has been an angel to work with again. After a few meetings with stakeholders, Rita’s final draft has been approved and it looks beautiful!
I have begin working with Vanessa on Holiday Lighting (already!), after I finally finished photographing and mapping out over seventy damaged light poles in the downtown area for the city to look at. Hopefully the city will be acting on that soon. Many of the poles are rusty and cracked with wires showing through as a result. Who would have that I would be lobbying city government on behalf of light poles!
I have also been working with Quinn on marketing events but the most exciting thing that has happened with Quinn in the last two weeks has been my opportunity to get involved with Conquer the Corridor. We had a brainstorming meeting with RJ and Kari Lammer last week about hosting an event on campus in September during the Weeks of Welcome. After juggling some ideas, we settled on jousting, or as I remembered: “That game from American Gladiator where people hit each other with red and blue sticks.” Luckily they caught my reference and we were able to figure out how to make it educational. After six weeks of this internship, I am beginning to feel like I am an imported Corridorian, just as our t-shirts will say!
Weeks Three & Four
I can hardly believe that my first month of my internship is almost over. Over the last two weeks I was able to really dig into my mural project. I have completed my first grant proposal. After having a grant writer from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation look it over herself, I am hopeful that we will receive the funding necessary to continue. While I wait for the funding, I have been working with the amazing artist Rita Tomanek on the design. Rita was one of the artists that I contacted about donating work to my Art Auction raising money for rebuilding flood damaged houses in Cedar Rapids. Rita is the most warm-hearted woman you will ever meet. I remembered Rita’s beautiful painting of Cedar Rapids and I knew she would be just the person to ask to help me with my community mural project. I asked Rita to create an image with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District’s tagline: “Bringing Downtown to LIFE” as its theme. And what she came up with is beautiful. She took her job as an artist seriously. I could tell immediately after she agreed to help with this project that to her, this mural would be a part of her legacy. I was so grateful for the tremendous amount of thought and care she put into every detail of that image. I cannot wait to see it up downtown and to have members of the community have their hand in its creation. I have devoted most of my energy towards the coordination of this project.
While I was in the office the last two weeks, most of my time was spent helping out in the office with various tasks. I frequently add events and contact information to our website, call people on our vendor waiting list about openings at our season’s farmers’ markets, call for event confirmations, and email vendors with paperwork. Because event programming is only one arm of our organization, I also have been able to attend several very interesting meetings. The Downtown District has two boards that it operates under and I am very fortunate to be able to attend these often very interesting meetings. My meetings thus far have ranged from listening to the cities’ flood czar, hearing a presentation about a potential bandstand at Greene Square Park, discussing our new role managing the parking system downtown, meeting with downtown real estate owners about how to create our strategic downtown, and discussing ordinances about street vendors (which taught me that my lemonade stands as a child were always against the law).
I was also able to help run to very successful events. At my first Cedar Rapids farmer’s market I was put in charge of Greene Square Park and helping set up the non-profit booths. We had volunteers and staff walk through the streets once every hour with counters to guess how high are attendance was and at that event, we recorded our highest total ever: 13,000 patrons. It was a great seeing downtown at its busiest and made me hopeful. I will be the first to admit that Downtown and Cedar Rapids in general lack the energy of other cities but that does not mean that there are not people wanting and trying to improve that every day. I am excited to be working with a youthful, motivated, and talented staff who is trying every day to improve the downtown and truly bring it to life. This internship is teaching me the value of community and the importance of action. It is good to be working to provide first rate programming for this community and know that I had a hand, however small, in its success. Just last night I brought my friends out to help me with parking and trash duty at the Downtown Drive-In Movie. Another example of a successful event, where the community is able to come together and enjoy downtown at its finest.
Week Two
Over the weekend I went home. In addition to seeing family and catching up on sleep, I spent some time thinking about the possible projects that I could take the lead on. In the first week, I spent most of my time listening and asking questions. On the first day back I laid out an idea for the July 17th farmer’s market: a community mural project that would take place in Greene Square Park where members of the community could contribute to the making of a new mural that would be painted on 15 luan boards and then bolted to an old billboard.
After just finishing a research project on public art during the apartheid in South Africa for my African Art class, building a mural seemed like the perfect way to enhance the aesthetic of downtown while bringing members from the community together. The people of Cedar Rapids may have more political rights then the people of South Africa did, but there is still that same desire to build something beautiful and meaningful for their community. Unfortunately with any great idea, there are obstacles: supplies and talent have a cost attached. I look at this as a challenge that only requires a bit of resourcefulness. I am applying for community grants this weekend through the Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation and Alliant Energy. If neither one of those grants comes through however, I have contacted artists who are passionate enough about this that they are willing to help me for free. And I am hoping that an email requesting paint, boards, brushes, and other supply donations will help the project be realized. I have finally settled on an artist, Rita Tomanek. She was my largest contributor for my art auction benefit last winter and produced an amazing painting of downtown Cedar Rapids. I will be meeting with her on Monday night to go over how we are going to incorporate new buildings and create an image that can be produced my members of the community. In addition, the current owners of the mural location would like to see their Anderson building featured prominently in any mural of the city. In short, many things will be have to come together before this can become a reality. I am extremely excited for this opportunity.
I would call the mural project my favorite task, my co-workers would call it my “sexy” project. This week I also spent time updating our volunteer opportunities on the United Way website, calling people on our vendor waiting list to fill vacancies for the upcoming June 19th market, updating our website event info, adding contacts to our email list, taking photos of a property we purchased and are currently redeveloping, and meeting with coworkers about future long-term projects for the summer. This weekend I will be going over the tasks and determining want else I want to tackle. Overall, another great week that has me eager to go to work on Monday!
Downtown District: Week One
A big thanks to Doug, Vanessa, Mallory, Quinn, and Jill for making my first week at the Downtown District such a great success! The majority of my first week was spent shadowing these five in the office and out at their meetings. Although I was hired on as Jill’s events intern, the team at the Downtown District team wants to give me experience with all other parts of the job as well.
This week I was able to help Jill get ready for the first Farmer’s Market of the summer season. They are expecting over 10,000 attendants. Farmer’s Markets are held the first and third Saturday morning of every month through September. There will be about 200 venders at each market this summer season. For the first market I helped Jill prepare the street for the venders by marking off and numbering each vender location. The City closes off several blocks of the downtown for this event so we are able to utilize the sidewalks and the entire street. In addition to produce there will be a variety of other things sold by venders. Each market also has entertainment and an activity in the city park.
One of the tasks that I have been given for the summer is organizing an activity and coordinating an entire Farmer’s Market on my own. I am currently in the process of organizing a community mural project for the July 17th market. I was able to get the names of artists who would be interested in helping with the project and will be selecting one shortly. Because their time and skills are valuable I am also in the process of applying for a community grant through the Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation and/or sponsorship from Alliant Energy. The goal of the mural is similar to the community picture created every year the Mount Vernon’s “Chalk the Walk.” An artist will provide the basic structure and design for the mural and members of the community will be able to fill in. By doing it in the park on boards rather than directly on the wall, I will be avoiding liability issues with ladders. I am very excited for this project. I recently researched community murals in South Africa during the time of the Apartheid for my African Art class ninth block. While doing that research I was exposed to the importance that murals can have, especially for communities with few limitations to other means of expression. Thankfully citizens of Cedar Rapids have more human rights than those during the time of the Apartheid, however, I think most can agree that the downtown would benefit from the beautification a community building resulting from a mural. The theme for the Downtown District is “Bringing Life Downtown.” It is my hope that this mural and my summer internship will help fulfill that goal.