You're invited: A party at midtown campus

The public is invited to a Midtown Moving Forward Block Party hosted by the Santa Fe Art Institute and its Midtown Engagement Partners. This is exactly the sort of event, with exactly the right organizations, that should have happened three years ago. Better late than never, one supposes. And it looks like a lot of fun. And important.

Despite its name, the art institute could be thought of as an architecture and planning think tank with a thread of arts running through it. With a 99-year land lease, its corner of the campus will always be relevant to whatever happens to the surrounding parcel. Its executive director, Jamie Blosser, an architect and urban planner by profession, is well-suited to co-lead this engagement process.

The city contracted with the University of New Mexico Design and Planning Assistance Center, headed by architecture professor Michaele Pride. She and Blosser knew criticism of prior engagements was that youth, lower-income residents, people of color and Spanish language-first Santa Feans were not engaged. They set out to change that.

They reached out to a variety of community leaders who represent a Santa Fe that isn’t seen enough.

And they’re throwing a party!

It starts at 10 a.m. at the Visual Arts Center, on the north side of the campus off St. Michael’s Drive, and runs until 5 p.m. The forecast says a perfect fall day. The first of four bands begins at 11:30 a.m. The organizers ask people to check in and take a short survey in English or Spanish in exchange for a meal ticket for free food.

Mayor Alan Webber is scheduled for short remarks around 2 p.m. It’s a political season but ought to be politics-free. Midtown is in District 4, so City Councilors Jamie Cassutt and JoAnne Vigil Coppler might be roaming around greeting neighborhood constituents.

The city is sponsoring the big day, but an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is helping subsidize the costs. Saturday’s event is not the culmination of the engagement process Pride is shepherding, but it’s a significant piece of the larger puzzle.

It will be especially relevant if there’s good turnout from those who care about the future of the midtown campus.

A February report is expected, with conclusions and possible narrative roadmaps suggesting development possibilities. The right voices are now leading and engaging. It is likely a development logic will come forward, modeled on the successes of the Tierra Contenta Corp. and the Railyard Corp., citizen-based development nonprofits empowered to sustainably develop long-term city assets without the encumbrance and vagaries of elected city politics.