A drive-thru city
LT: Let’s talk about the Lawrence community, could you tell me about the people that live in this area?
JB: The Fort Ben Cultural Campus is actually on the property owned by the City of Lawrence and this project, the Fort Ben Cultural Campus, was a collaboration between the city and Arts for Lawrence who had a vision to bring this placemaking destination to our city. Lawrence is a city of about 55,000 residents. It is very diverse culturally, racially, and economically. The City of Lawrence actually has the highest income as far as ZIP codes go and the lowest income as far as ZIP codes in Marion County, therefore there is a very broad range of income in this small city. We also are one of the most diverse cities in the state in terms of racial diversity. Because of this, we wanted to create a place that would serve all and be a place for our diverse community members to come together and engage with one another.
In the past, Lawrence has been known as a drive-through community. You would drive through Lawrence to get to Downtown Indianapolis, or you would drive through Lawrence to get outside of Indianapolis. We wanted people to come here and stay, so the Fort Ben Cultural Campus is designed to do just that. The Musical Swings, of course, is the star of the Campus to engage community members.
Access to a creative life
LT: What were your goals in bringing the Musical Swings to this specific public space?
JB: It’s great to see the diversity of community members that come out to the Swings: young, old, black, white, you never know who you will meet sitting next to you on the Swings, making music with you, but once you come out and enjoy the Swings and start talking to the person next to you, you’ve made a new friend. It’s really remarkable. I am a huge advocate for the arts. Arts for Lawrence offers programming in visual, performing, and literary arts, and the Fort Ben Cultural Campus has enabled us to bring all of that programming into one big destination. We believe that the arts are a way to bring joy, to bring healing, to build economic development, therefore the Fort Ben Cultural Campus was designed to do all of those things. In our opinion, art is a very important aspect to the community. We try to break barriers to make sure that everyone has access to an arts experience and a creative life.
A destination
LT: Now that the Musical Swings are here to stay, what are you observing on-site?
JB: Arts for Lawrence and Daily tous les jours have something in common and that is that we want to connect with our community. Arts for Lawrence’s mission is to connect arts and community to inspire everyone everyday. Our vision is to have a destination for our diverse community members to come together to experience the arts, to have a platform for creativity, and to engage in a joyful and creative experience.
Therefore, we’re ecstatic that our community is embracing these Musical Swings. It is the draw to our Fort Ben Cultural Campus. When the temporary Swings were here we did a lot of surveying for the 4 weeks they were here and we discovered, through 630 surveys, that we had over 65 central Indiana ZIP codes represented. We know that over 50% of the people that came to the Swings either came from someplace else in Lawrence (a restaurant or a store) or were going someplace else in Lawrence, so we know that it has helped our economy.
It is really fun to hear the buzz through social media, through walking down the street, through coming out to the Swings and seeing new people there, that everyone is talking about them, that everyone is talking about going to Lawrence to visit, not to drive through, but to visit, the Musical Swings.
