Our project encompasses several political dimensions. They include the following: Lafayette’s involvement with the land development leading to increased expansion concerns, decisions regarding the structure of the addition, the subsequent role artists will play in the addition and any relevant legislation and policy for the reconstruction. These aspects comprise the political context and will shape the discussion that surrounds the bridge expansion project, leading to a larger, overarching exchange of ideas between Lafayette College and the Karl Stirner Arts Trail.
Figure 9: Aerial view of surrounding land near KSAT (McGuire, 2016)
The full extent of the KSAT expansion encompasses both the renovation of this bridge and the development of the land across the river for the extended trail path. The scope of our project is to conceptualize what form the addition to the trestle bridge might take, while also assessing what legislation or zoning policies are required for the implementation of the addition. Our team is not involved with the land acquisition and subsequent development; however, we are working under the assumption that ownership will be controlled by KSAT in conjunction with the City of Easton’s Public Works Department and with support from the College through research, student involvement, and community engagement projects.
KSAT and Lafayette College’s Relationship
Lafayette College and the KSAT have a close relationship which is apparent through the trail’s current configuration of their board and advisory committees. There are four separate groups involved with KSAT: KSAT Inc. Board of Directors, the KSAT Arts Advisory Council, Lafayette College Advisory Group, and Friends of KSAT. The Lafayette College Advisory Group includes thirteen professors and faculty members across eleven departments. Two Lafayette art professors, Jim Toia and Edward Kerns, serve on the KSAT Inc. Board of Directors as Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively (Karl Stirner Arts Trail, n.d.). Friends of KSAT, a 10-member board as of 2017, is a group of volunteers that assist in trail clean-up and other events.
This positive relationship between the Karl Stirner Arts Trail and Lafayette has resulted in a number of collaborative projects, such as previous Engineering Studies capstone projects relating to the trail’s potential foot-bridge additions, and the interactive musical playground that was implemented in 2018 (Cohen, Kong , Malloy, & Sangster, 2018; Bart-Addison, Geraghty, Kyler, & Rack, 2016). The musical playground installation became a success after three years of work in the capstone class and also in another course called Sustainable Solutions (Sanchez, 2018). Its quick implementation was made possible, in part, by Friends of KSAT advocating for the project. In the future, we think whoever carries on this bridge addition project should seek assistance from this group in getting the brunt of the work off the ground. The relationship between the college and KSAT has been beneficial for the artistic and cultural enrichment of the Easton community. It has also provided a powerful learning experience for Lafayette students, as resulting projects have mostly been successful.
Lafayette has preliminary plans to use land across from the bridge on Bushkill Drive as an environmental studies satellite facility. The college will likely be heavily involved with these development efforts, which could exacerbate concerns over Lafayette’s expansion. Although its involvement with the trail has represented a positive involvement within the Easton community, Lafayette’s expansion plans have provoked negative outrage and opposition from outspoken neighbors of the college (White, 2018). “The mixed-use project [on McCartney Street] has sparked two big concerns among residents: They said they have no idea why Lafayette buys property and they don’t know how much more it wants to own in the future” (Tatu, 2018). The Easton community might oppose Lafayette managing a project away from campus that does not directly have to do with the school. These concerns will probably have no measurable effect at this early stage of this bridge project, but it could possibly impact future continuations or other efforts to renovate the bridge. Thus, it is a relevant, political consideration that should be acknowledged by future key players in this project.
Considering Lafayette’s plans in the area, it is appropriate to extend the emergency phone system, similar to the Blue Light System, from campus onto the trail. This decentralized security system uses a network of telephone terminals placed at strategic points around Lafayette’s campus to quickly connect people in need of help from Public Safety. “The phones are equipped with red emergency buttons for direct connection to Public Safety for police, fire, or medical emergencies and a keypad for dialing any campus number.” (Emergency Phones, n.d.) This emergency phone system works well for providing the ability to contact an authority and giving the area in which they are located the appearance of protective oversight. Over the course of the trail’s existence, there have been several accounts of crimes including burglary, gunfire, and deaths in the surrounding area. KSAT could benefit from implementing Lafayette’s iteration of the Blue Light System to encourage use at odd hours of the day while maintaining a sense of visitor safety greater than what the trail presently has without any system in place. This suggestion might serve as an adequate olive branch to quell concerns raised about Lafayette’s increased involvement in that area.
Acknowledging Lafayette’s desire to expand near the bridge raises questions of ownership, the site’s planned use, and the need for structures connecting it to other areas. The Director of Public Works for the City of Easton, Dave Hopkins revealed that KSAT currently owns the bridge and the land across from the trail, while the Department of Public Works will manage the bridge renovation and addition once the project progresses to that point. He noted that the property acquisition is still in motion and “will occur before 12/31/19” (Appendix 1). It is difficult to specify an exact timeline at this moment so early on in this endeavor. Eventually the property will be purchased, funding will be secured, and then the focus will shift towards design. The limitations of the addition’s structure will come into play here.
Selecting Artists and Works
Our designs either make the bridge into a work of art in and of itself or transform it into a multi-purpose space for exhibitions or installations. The ramifications of these designs as they pertain to the decision of artistry falls within the political context. Our designs are conceptual outlines of the themes, values, and facets of history to be considered when creating work for this creative trestle space, or work that will become the space itself. Once the project and acquisition have progressed, the Karl Stirner Arts Trail’s Board of Directors should consider whether the bridge addition should be a standalone work or a shifting exhibition space. Once decided, the next choice will be which artist(s) will design and finalize the specifics of the space.
Our team met with Jim Toia and Ed Kerns to discuss the board’s process for acquiring artworks to display on the trail and selecting artists to feature. Typically for public organizations, art procurement processes take the form of a competition where artists submit work to be judged against one another. Professor Toia explained that KSAT’s art procurement operates more through individual selection rather can competition. Usually, the board will identify a space on the trail in need of a sculpture and then search for an artist or specific work — with expressed values and principles that are well-aligned with the trail — in order to fill that space. Other times, members of the board might stumble across a sculpture or an artist they feel the trail would greatly benefit from, so they contact them to procure and display it. In both cases, the artist and artwork are specifically selected to be presented within the trail rather than the trail accepting submissions from any multitude of artists in the hopes of being chosen. In either case, after the artist or work has been identified and interest in the trail on their end is confirmed, then it becomes a question of funding. This means funding becomes a back-end consideration that is acquired through grants and private donors on an as-needed basis. The question of funding is discussed further in the economic analysis section of this report.
Ultimately, the artists and laborers that the KSAT Board employs will have the final say on the exact appearance of this bridge. However, their future creative freedom will be limited by the impending decisions made and will culminate in the selected range of artistic choices made available to applicable participants. This is to say that any decision made regarding the form of the bridge addition will impact the resulting artistry of the bridge itself or the artistry available through the bridge’s role as mini-museum or metaphorical pedestal. Virginia Abbott, an artist from Bucks County who proposed an idea in a competition held by KSAT thought the voting process was “‘really nicely done for the community…because they’re having the local community vote on what goes onto the trail. It’s their property, so it’s what they’re going to end up seeing’” (Gordon, 2015). According to Toia, the trail is “‘a living museum. It’s something that will continue to change so that every time a viewer comes, each season there will be new work to look at’” (Gordon, 2015). Our team envisions a bridge design that will be a permanent addition to the trail and maintain an everlasting reflection of the heritage of the surrounding land despite the fleeting nature of some other exhibits.
Although the KSAT Board has an extensive history of curating artists and works to display, if they seek other sources of information in excess of this document to guide them in their development of this new bridge addition, there is a consulting firm local to Easton that specializes in creative placemaking. Metris Arts Consulting is a company that evaluates art installations and their impacts on the local community. Their research primarily focuses on gathering data and creating metrics that allow them to “address the potency of creative expression to embody and motivate change in the context of community development, civic engagement, and justice goals” (Kidd, 2019). This interaction between the viewer of an artwork and the work itself should be aspired to if this bridge and the eventual creative space it becomes is going to benefit the community at large.
To read about the technical analysis of our project, click here.