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Artists: Suzanne Lacy (CA), Susan Leibovitz Steinman (CA), & Yutaka Kobayashi (Japan)
A collection of ‘public interest’ artworks in collaboration with the Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council.
THE WATERSHED
Elkhorn City (EC) sits on the banks of the Russell Fork River, a tributary to the Big Sandy, whose watershed starts higher in Virginia, and flows downstream to the Ohio, where its waters join the Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico, and eventually, the Atlantic Ocean. How EC cares for its river affects a wider world.
ASSET BASED PLANNING
The community of Elkhorn City has ambitious grassroots plans to develop a sustainable economy via “green tourism.” Above town, world-class rapids cascade through the Breaks—the “Grand Canyon of the South.” A sizeable multi-state audience of kayakers, campers, and hikers visit Breaks Interstate Park
annually. The newly built Pine Mountain Trail ends nearby. If EC could connect to these nearby assets, its dream of green tourism seems tantalizingly possible.
The EC waterfront was a park-in-waiting, hemmed in by asphalt parking lots. A peeling sign listing native
birds and unprotected birdhouses constituted a “bird sanctuary.” Assets were an attractive historic red caboose (an ersatz “visitor center”), river viewing decks, and easy access to the river. With intervention, a revitalized riverfront could become habitat to butterflies, birds, fish, and an inviting site for human
recreation and wildlife viewing.
ENGAGING COMMUNITY
Traditionally active in unions, politics and churches, area residents readily supported the project, painting 400+ tiles in schools and public events, helping install murals and plants, building the park, and giving help in kind. Teachers collaborated. Students propagated plants in classrooms and planted them on
field trips. Community-wide planting days turned into tile workshops, barbeques, and social events.
At spring breaks and summer vacations, college interns from Los Angeles’ Otis College of Art & Design helped to collect river stories, pour concrete, clean the riverbank, paint blue lines and murals, and assist high school and elementary school ecoart and ecology workshops.
THE ART PROJECT -- ELKHORN CITY RIVERWALK: THE BLUE LINE TRAIL
The artists’ plan focused on local experience of the land—as a site of heritage and as a generator of regional wealth—and the river—as an indicator of ecological health and a moving force that connects them, upstream and down, with the rest of the country.
Metaphor and unifying concept emerged: a CIRCULAR WALKING TRAIL to connect riverfront and Main Street, knitting together natural and built environment. With our extremely limited funds,
cheap, dramatic intervention was needed. Striking graphic lines, signs and signature walls painted vivid blue with house paint refer to river, sky, and railroad history. The 12’x25’ RIVER HERITAGE
QUILT TILE MURAL commands major visibility for the Trail, anchoring place, pride, and identity.
Components:
1. THE BLUE LINE TRAIL—artist designed signage. Walkers are visually drawn around the trail by recurring graphics: 3” wide x 12’ to 20’ long blue lines, “The Blue Line Trail” text, and one
iconic painted tile--a blue river-like line. Square numbered blue signs orientate walkers to their Trail location.
2. Revitalized RIVERFRONT PARK:old PICNIC TABLE with students’ painted
• An artist-designed HABITAT GARDEN with 30+ species of native plants and trees, created with student and resident help, supports native butterfly and bird life.
• The garden reestablishes a permeable riparian zone to filter storm runoff from encroaching asphalt.
• Collected personal river memories are sandblasted on five unique SCULPTURE BENCHES made of local quarry stone and concrete.
• Existing riverfront BIRDHOUSES were refurbished and painted blue.
• BLUE LINES edge refurbished existing wood VIEWING DECKS
tiles of butterflies.
• INTERPRETIVE MURALS: Otis students’ tile mural next to the garden identifies its native flowers; and view deck interpretive signs identify native birds, fish and butterflies that may
be spotted along the riverfront.
• MOUNTAIN SAYING MURAL: On an unsightly concrete trailside bridge abutment, Otis students painted a simple blue and white mural reading, “The Rivers Make the Mountains. The Mountains Make the People.”
• Asphalt section next to the caboose removed and planted.
3. TRAIL MURALS:
Celebrating local history and ecology, ceramic tiles painted by local students and community residents take center stage in a series of prominent murals designed by the artists dotting the Blue Line Trail. On Main Street, working from archives, Otis students created a “photo album” mural of by-gone buildings; and another mural under the bridge (above).
4. TOURIST BROCHURE—“WHERE NATURE MEETS CULTURE.”: With help from a pro-bono professional graphics designer, artists created a sophisticated new tourist brochure for Elkhorn City that features a colorful trail map, with artists’ and archival photos of Trail artworks,
local citizens, and opportunities for enjoying local cultural events and green eco-adventures.
5. WEBSITE: www.elkhorncity.org/artsandculture documents the project.
SUCCESS
The project’s success has attracted grants, awards and growing support from institutions and regional
artists. A National Park Service Rivers & Trails Technical Assistance grant is fostering trail building from
Pine Mountain and the Breaks through EC to downstream communities. A Louisville artist has initiated
another EC mural. A Public Art Master Plan provides a stable format to invite more art projects along the
Trial to fulfill the town’s dream of forging a unique regional identity and a greener economy.
A Commonwealth of Kentucky 2005 Earth Day Award honored EC for promoting sustainability, citing
The Blue Line Trail and “Where Nature Meets Culture.”
FUNDERS: Creative Capital, Appalshop, KY Foundation for Women, Otis College of Art & Design, Pike
County Tourism Board, EC residents and others.
WEBSITES:
www.SteinmanStudio.com
Susan Leibovitz Steinman’s projects meld art, ecology and grassroots activism to revitalize blighted
natural and cultural landscapes. She is editor/co-founder of WEAD, Women Environmental Artists
Directory.
www.suzannelacy.com
Suzanne Lacy is renown for large-scale urban-issue public participatory performances and published
writings on artists’ roles in shaping public agenda. She is Chair of Fine Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.
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