Reimagining Twin Cities neighborhoods

It's long been suggested that art and community development can improve neighborhoods, but some urban planners are now looking at ways to use creative development to allow people to design neighborhoods and spaces that speak to local needs and encourage social activism.

Candy Chang is one of those urban planners. Her art projects work to help community members learn to reengage with their neighborhoods, and with each other. Chang will be speaking at the Walker Art Center on April 26. She joins The Daily Circuit Monday to talk about creative development.

In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue is one such area that has been the focus of cultural development.

The Star Tribune wrote about the corridor plans last year, which include additional art galleries, public art and more residential housing:

"Downtown business leaders want to fill gaps between those theaters in order to form an arts corridor from the Walker Art Center to the riverfront. The key players cautiously, but frequently, invoke images of Broadway and Times Square in New York.

'We really want people to be continually drawn to the next block and the next block,' said Tom Hoch, president of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which owns the State, Orpheum, Pantages and New Century theaters. The NEA has provided them with a $200,000 grant to spend a year designing a plan to 're-invent' Hennepin."

Jack Becker, executive director and founder of Forecast Public Art and a member of the Plan-It Hennepin group, will also join the discussion. We'll look at unique ways to re-imagine our neighborhoods and reconnect with one another.

KERRI'S TAKEAWAY

Check out Plan-It Hennepin.

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