“A lot of people in the community, when you say ‘connective corridor,’ they say ‘bus,” said Connective Corridor Director Robbi Farschman. “And SU students say it’s a bus for them.” Farschman hears that a lot: the reduction of a three-year effort to bridge the Syracuse University community the the city through arts and culture down to the red-wrapped Centro buses. “That shows me how we need to go about marketing the Connective Corridor,” she said. So, how does she describe it?
“It’s a movement to knit art and culture venues together in the community,” Farschman said. “And yes, there’s a bus that can get you there.” More visible change
The Connective Corridor was founded in 2007 when Syracuse University defined a culturally vibrant strip connecting the campus with downtown Syracuse and partnered with Centro to provide a free bus service along the region. As a result, the corridor has become the focus of grant funding, additional cultural development and the attention of the arts community as a bridge to finally join resurging downtown Syracuse with thriving SU campus. Since then, though, the CC has retained a reputation as a fancy name for a free bus route.
Farschman, who took the role as director of the Connective Corridor in June, said she understands why people still associate the entire effort with the buses. “It’s been the only visible vestige of the Connective Corridor for the last three years,” she said. But beginning with a small project this fall and continuing through 2011, the CC will become a much more recognizable part of the Syracuse landscape. Plans include improvements to East Genesee Street to make way for bike lanes, add landscaping and make the roadway more pedestrian friendly; a facade improvement funding program for properties along the CC route; a bike bodega and extensive streetscaping around the Warehouse building; and renovations to Forman Park. A major overhaul for the area between the University campus and vibrant downtown dubbed the Connective Corridor, Farschman hopes the changes will make the CC undeniably visible to the community. “My hope is a year from now, people aren’t saying ‘it’s a bus,'” she said. New face on the web
The CC is getting a major facelift on another level, too, thanks to responses to an online survey about the Connective Corridor’s website. “We got somewhere around 560, 570 responses in one week,” Farschman said. “We were thrilled.” The survey confirmed some of Farschman’s feelings about the existing site: that it’s boring, bland, and it needs a clickable calendar. The new site should be launched sometime around the start of the spring semester, she said.
For more details, visit connectivecorridor.syr.edu/quest.
Really, it’s more than a bus
“This is really about art and culture, and access,” Farschman said of the Connective Corridor. To back that philosophy up, the CC announced two new programs recently:
The Quest: Crack the clue, get free stuff
The Connective Corridor recently launched a new bimonthly scavenger hunt challenge called The Quest. A clue is released in every other monthly newsletter, leading quest-ers to a piece of public art, a local venue or an artist. The first 25 to submit the correct answer will win that quest’s prize. Try for yourself!
Quest Clue: Find the friendly piece of sculpture in the city that never stops waving at you.
Quest Task: High-five the piece and take a picture.
The first 25 correct entries received at [email protected] will win a nifty SyracUSE T-shirt.
Need an amp?
State grant money has allowed the Connective Corridor to purchase $75,000 worth of production equipment available to local artists and organizations to use for public performances. The inventory includes sound, lighting and projection gear. For a list of equipment available and to download the use agreement, visit connectivecorridor.syr.edu/equipment.