The Conway School and it”s partner, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) will receive an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), one of only 51 such grants awarded nationwide. A portion of the $100,000 grant will support the Conway School in it”s work with ISDA and the Ajo community in creating a new master plan for the historic town center of Ajo, Arizona, a former mining town in the Sonoran Desert.
Paul Cawood Hellmund, Conway School Director, said “This project will allow the Conway School to work with ISDA and Pima County (Arizona), in helping Ajo residents develop and implement ideas for reknitting the heart of the town back into a more fully functional public place.” The NEA-funded project will be the fourth to take Conway graduate students, faculty, and alums to the Sonoran Desert. “With applications still being accepted to our graduate program for the fall, there is an opportunity for even more students to participate in this vital work in Ajo.”
Previous teams of graduate students have helped the town of Ajo in developing plans for town-wide food security and also landscape renovation of the town plaza (see sketches above left and below right). In March 2011 a group of Conway alums, students, and residents of the Pioneer Valley participated in a week-long design workshop in Ajo, addressing a range of important landscape planning and design issues.
“I am proud that Pima County will be working with ISDA and the Conway School on this visionary project,” said Sharon Bronson, Pima County (Arizona) Board of Supervisors. “This is a very special grant and a real affirmation of ISDA and the strides the Ajo community has made in the last 10 years.”
ISDA Project Manager Maria Gmuca explained that in Ajo the focus is on the creative use of public space and the community’s involvement in revitalizing their town center. She said “Town residents will be invited to participate in public meetings, community design workshops, and a community review of the final plan. Stronger linkages between these historic spaces will be envisioned through landscape elements, signage, and public art. Work under this grant will improve the look and function of the heart of Ajo’s town center through design.”Our Town is the NEA’s latest investment in creative placemaking, through which partners from both public and private sectors come together to strategically shape the social, physical, and economic character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.
The International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) was incorporated in 1993 as a tri-cultural organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the environment, culture, and economy of Sonoran Desert Communities.
