- By -Staff
- Around Town
Print 
The event opens with a 12:00 Noon Parade for the Earth on the Ithaca Commons, followed at 1 pm by a Forum on Exploring Directions for the Arts in Downtown Ithaca in the Tompkins County Library Borg- Warner Room. Everyone is invited to gather for the Parade at 11:00 a.m. Face painting, banners and special posters honoring the Four Elements (water, air, earth, fire) will be available, but additional costumes – especially animals and fairies – are welcome. Community organizations are encouraged to bring banners conveying their own Earth-related messages. The Parade will start from the Bernie Milton Pavilion at 12:00 noon.
The Exploring Directions Forum continues the exploration of a role for the arts in future downtown development which was launched last fall, as part of the DIA’s 2008 Art in the Heart of the City public art program.
Alastair Noble, internationally-rrenowned artist and former Cornell faculty member, will open with an overview of how artists working in public spaces are engaging sustainability themes. Kathy Bruce, whose bamboo and morning glory Graces were featured in Art in the Heart of the City 2008, will then draw on her own work to show how one artist might interpret Ithaca’s 2009 theme of Art for a Just & Sustainable Community.
The Forum will conclude with an exploration of possibilities for creating a dynamic future for the arts in downtown Ithaca. Specifically, panelists and participants will be asked to consider three key questions:
- How should the arts factor into thinking about re-doing the Ithaca Commons?
- What might ‘iconic art’ for downtown Ithaca look like?
- How can the Downtown Ithaca Alliance engage local artists and the broader community in making public art a more prominent part of downtown life?
----
v5i16