The organizing committee for the forthcoming Town Branch Park has tapped on a diverse group that includes several high school students to ensure that the park meets the needs of the community. Rendering furnished
When Henry Clay High graduating senior Anna Baskin heads to college in the fall, she will be armed with a significant professional experience that few high school students can boast: having served on the official advisory board for a major city park.
Baskin was tapped last April to serve on the advisory board known as Town Branch Partners, a diverse group of 30 Lexingtonians tasked with ensuring that inclusion and access are integral to the design, programming and operations for the city’s forthcoming Town Branch Park. Baskin is a representative of the Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council (BYSC), a coalition of high school students from Lexington public and private high schools who are dedicated to sustainability issues.
Through a unique partnership forged between BYSC and Town Branch Fund – the organization that oversees the fundraising, design, programming and operations of the park – Baskin and other Lexington high school students have had the opportunity to lend their voices to important conversations surrounding the park, from programming and public art to inclusion and youth engagement. The student group was first introduced to Town Branch planners last year when the Fund was applying for a National Arts Endowment grant for a project called “InterACT in Town Branch Park — Arts, Culture & Technology”. During the process of applying for the grant – which ultimately awarded the park $100,000 for the project – Town Branch committee members invited students from BYSC to review the application and submit a letter of support.
“We had identified middle school and older youth as a target area that’s sometimes forgotten in these urban parks,” explained Town Branch Fund executive director Allison Lankford. “When we applied for the grant, we applied with that intention – youth engagement.”
The students made a big impression on Lankford and Town Branch Fund deputy director Hannah O’Leary. Even though implementation of the project was about a year away, they were eager to be involved with the project and asked what they could do to help, O’Leary said.
“We were really impressed with them, and said ‘Let’s think of other ways we could learn from the students,” O’Leary said. “The relationship just keeps growing and getting more positive.”
Baskin sees a direct relationship between sustainability and engaging teenagers and other youth with the park.
“Getting people to parks and having outdoor space where people can go and appreciate nature is a huge part of being a sustainable city,” Baskin said.
A primary element of the InterACT project is the implementation of an interactive art installation that designed specifically to engage youth. Over the past year, Baskin and fellow BYSC members Valerie Newburg and Hart Hallos (both Lafayette students) have been engaged with every step of the grant project, from community engagement to the artist selection committee. More than 180 artists submitted work following a request for qualifications for the project in 2018, with six finalists having been selected to submit site-specific proposals.
For Baskin, the experience to be given a voice equal to that of adults at the table of such a monumental city project has been fun and educational – and most important, empowering.
“It’s given me a lot of confidence to speak up in a lot of situations,” she said. “I know that our feedback is being heard and being used, and that’s been a really amazing process.”
Add your voice to the conversation!
LexArts Hop - Friday, May 17, 2019 // 5-8 p.m.
The public will have the chance to contribute feedback on the six finalists for the InterACT art project at this month’s LexArts Hop. The six artist proposals for the park’s art installation will be featured at three different gallery locations during the Hop: The Lexington Public Library Central Branch, The Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, and the Living Arts & Science Center. Representatives from the Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council and other Town Branch members will be on hand at the locations to help collect community feedback on the design proposals.