The popular Melrose District continues to add new art elements to the shopping area—even ones that are also functional.
The Community Alliance of Seventh Avenue (CASA) hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 21 for new M-shaped bike racks located at The Curve at Melrose apartments, at 6th Drive and Glenrosa Avenue.
CASA is a partnership between the Seventh Avenue Merchants Association (SAMA) and the four adjacent neighborhood associations—Grandview, Pierson Place, Carnation and Woodlea-Melrose. CASA facilitates projects that improve, beautify and unite the community, for the benefit of people who live, work, shop and dine in the Melrose District.
The free rack is “city approved” and professional grade. More bike racks are available to interested businesses in the Melrose District. Contact Gary LeBlanc at 602-222-9369 or garyleblanc1@cox.net for more information.
Members of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture (POAC) examine color proofs of the new poetry panels (submitted photo).
Also on April 21, The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, in collaboration with the Public Works Department, presented a special National Poetry Month celebration at the intersection of 7th and Glenrosa avenues. This event debuted a brand new public art installation of poetry and images about sustainability in support of Reimagine Phoenix’s efforts to recycle 40 percent of household waste by 2020.
The current artwork incorporates poems by Jenai Longstaff, Devin Pope, Nadine Lockhart, Paul Morris, Joel Salcido and Jake Friedman. The poets were selected from a pool of over 65 submissions. Each poem was inspired by ideas for a more sustainable environment through recycling, gardening, composting, and reusing the waste that goes to city landfills. Graphic designers (Amanda Harper, Elisabeth Populo, Nicole Norgren, Daniel Sagadraca, Ryan Fickenscher and Dylan Millsap) with Canary Studios designed the large scale poetry panels to provide an eye-catching neighborhood feature and a fully-accessible public street gallery.
The Melrose Curve Public Art project has featured over 35 Arizona artists, and 20 poets since it was initiated in 2004.
