Lexington, KY - In recent years, many in Lexington have demonstrated a fondness for ideas and various approaches to “visioning” a strategy for their city’s future. Results have ranged from the Legacy Trail to the growth of downtown entertainment. The granddaddy of them all, former mayor Jim Newberry’s “Destination 2040” project, harnessed the brainpower of some 3,000 city residents to produce 90 proposals for change and the vision statement: “Lexington will be one of the world's great midsized cities by striking and sustaining a brilliant balance of dynamic urban living and a matchless rural setting."
The latest effort is set for the week of April 28 - May 5 when thousands of blank Post-it notes will be creatively placed in the lobbies of The Government Center, 5/3 Building and 333 West Vine Street.
The Post-it note designs will be created by students of The Lexington School and will pose the questions, “What will you be when you grow up?” and “What will you do to make Lexington the best it can be?”
Co-curators Theo Edmonds and Marnie Holoubek hope responses to the these questions will be added by you.
Edmonds is a local artist and Creative Development Director of the critically acclaimed, Brooklyn-based Residency Unlimited. Holoubek also is a local artist, advocate for the arts, and community activist best known for her work in making the Legacy Trail a reality.
They developed the show to integrate education, business and government communities with an artistic process that inserts a fun, thought-provoking exercise about our future, and our community’s future, in the daily work place. The challenge, they say, is to see that even a Post-It note can be an inspirational tool rather than a task reminder.
“This project demonstrates the ability to bring artwork to the workplace through unconventional practices, and hopefully bring about unconventional results. As a curator, often we fall into the rut of putting a show together ‘the way it’s always been done’. This is a real departure and one that is exciting and has been enthusiastically received”, said Edmonds.
After installing the artwork, middle school art students from The Lexington School invite everyone to come downtown to any of the three locations, choose a blank post it and complete the sentence “When I grow up, I will____” said Chuck Baldecchi, Headmaster of the Lexington School. “This project is a perfect opportunity for students to engage the business community in a fun and creative way. And, clearly, it demonstrates how important the creative process is for enriching our entire life experience, not just in an art studio.”
For those people who want to participate in the project, but aren’t able to make it to one of the three downtown locations, comments and ideas can be added via the Facebook page of Lexington’s Real Estate Company, the project’s lead sponsor. The address is: www.facebook.com/LexingtonsRealEstateCompany.
“The reason we’re so excited about this project is that it democratizes the visioning process for our community”, said Phil Holoubek, president of Lexington’s Real Estate Company. “This visioning process is open to everyone. It is simple. And, most importantly, it’s fun. We hope to see some great ideas, ones that can be implemented to improve our community, come out of this process.”
This project is supported by Mayor Jim Gray and LFUCG, Lexington’s Real Estate Company, The Coleman Group, The Webb Companies, Marnie and Phil Holoubek and The Lexington School.