How art can be a catalyst for holistic community well-being in Mansfield

In the days that I have been immersed in SXSW, I have had the opportunity to choose my own path in what sessions and lectures I attend.

I was fortunate to be asked to make this journey in order to bring back ideas for how “Mansfield is a place where creative expression is an engine of cultural and economic development,” but I think that I’m coming back with something else entirely.

Hear me out…after attending sessions with some of the brightest minds in our country:

• Our nation’s Poet Laureate Ada Limon and Dr. Laurie Glaze, director of Planetary Science for NASA, spoke about the intersection of science and art and why they are sending a poem to Jupiter’s moon. 

• Esther Perel and Trevor Noah talked candidly about human purpose and laughter.

• Keynote speakers on International Women’s Day including Katie Couric, Erin Haines, Brooke Shields, Meghan (Duchess of Sussex), and Nancy Wang Yuen, discussed systemic and cultural shifts for women.

• I heard about the impacts and opportunities of A.I from the V.P. of design for Microsoft, and the principal designer for AI/ML Adobe, and more sessions on A.I. with professors from around the globe (I also talked with terrifying robots, but that’s another story).

• Advancing Social Justice and Economic Opportunity was a phenomenal session with Melanie Campbell, president and C.E.O. of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Alphonso David, president and C.E.O. Global Black Economic Forum; and Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

• I also attended sessions on Accessibility, Systemic Failure, Non-Obvious Thinking, Archiving and Preserving Culture, and Bridging the Gap between Art & Well-being.

All sessions were led by experts, professors, and industry leaders who are out there doing the work. My notebook and brain are overflowing. 

After listening to such a diverse and unique collective of individuals speak about all of these important topics, I found many commonalities:

• Our mental and emotional landscapes have been affected by a loss of human connection.

• Society is facing social atrophy by technology (the thing that unites us instantly, but prevents us from actually talking to each other).

• We are missing out on interracial and intergenerational friendships that help form communities.

• Fifty percent of us will face mental health challenges in our lifetime, and the rates of addiction have steadily increased. We know that this is hitting us where we live.

• There is a rise in loneliness, anxiety, and depression. There is also isolation in our physical landscapes.

• Many disabilities are invisible, the disabled community is the most diverse community, and one that any of us can join at any time.

• We need curiosity, equity, diversity, inclusion, and access.

• The arts offer the connecting thread. Art does something to us; if it didn’t, we would’ve abandoned it years ago.

True accessibility is physical, financial and emotional. What we bring to a space as individuals affects how we experience and use the space.

Imagine new design paradigms that create spaces that heal and restore. The simple shift of sitting on a U-shaped bench brings us in relation to another person and removes the ambiguous loss of someone not truly being present.

We can look at our community through a new lens, where everything is still there, but we see it differently. The person isn’t the problem, the built environment and how we are utilizing it is what needs to change.

What do we need in Mansfield to generate a sense of wellbeing, safety, efficacy, belonging, and representation? With small changes we can bridge the integration between what is available, and what could be available. 

I had the opportunity to visit a community park that is in the construction process. The park is on church land that was formerly an abandoned parking lot with nothing but asphalt, and they decided that instead of selling the land, they could do better.

There was no green-space in the rural neighborhood for children to play or people to rest (also can we de-stigmatize rest?). A circular design was chosen with wide paths, sustainable plantings, tree canopy, accessible and modular seating, and natural elements to encourage spontaneous play and interaction. There are areas for shade from the hot Texas heat, and food trucks will be parked on the street.

They are achieving all of this, while utilizing existing chunks of concrete from the site to create labyrinth elements, and old curbs to step down the water run-off system. Standing in the space, even while still in process, made me pause and take a deep breath.

I am returning with a new lens for looking at art as a catalyst for holistic community well-being in Mansfield. The arts have been providing healing since the beginning of time. Art has a way of touching us in a way that nothing else can, and is completely individual. Providing spaces and experiences that create a sense of ease and wonder can actually change our community. 

This incremental innovation of utilizing public art, reimagining spaces, building on the well-laid plans in place, and focusing on what can be possible, could quite literally transform us in the next five years. Like many, I believe that we have the ability to be a true destination city in the center of Ohio if we pull all of the moving parts together to create a big picture of what we are, find and modify the connections, and work together. 

In the end Mansfield will become a place where “creative expression is an engine of cultural and economic development,” but we have to start with a people-focus first. Art has a way of reaching people where they are at. Our people, in our community, where we live and work and go to school need these changes to happen.