Consider cultural neighborhoods
By Dave Hurst
© 2013 Hurst Media Works
Huntingdon is in a position that many communities would envy: Just a handful of miles
away sits Raystown Lake, which draws 1.5 million visitors each year.
But those visitors come to Raystown to boat the 27-mile lake, camp at the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers’ beautiful and spacious campsites, fish for massive striped bass, hunt
the lushly forested hillsides and mountain bike the flowing Allegrippis Trails. Trips into
town tend to be limited and usually have a specific focus, such as picking up some
necessity at a local store.
Which poses a problem to Huntingdon: How does the community attract more of those
1.5 million visitors into town to spend some time and money?
An arts group, a historical society, a library and a wellness group – all located within
Huntingdon’s 4th Street Cultural District – responded to that challenge by forming the “4
and More Cultural District” with a mission of promoting their neighborhood as a
destination for arts, entertainment, education, shopping and dining.
The Huntingdon County Arts Council, Huntingdon County Historical Society,
Huntingdon County Library and Huntingdon Health & Wellness Association are the
partners. Representatives formed a committee that plans “4 and More” activities and is
nested under Huntingdon Landmarks, Inc., a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to promote the
preservation and economic viability of Huntingdon’s historic landmarks.
The logo of 4 and More is a colorful pinwheel with “arts,” “history,” “wellness” and
“discovery” listed on respective vanes. Which hints at what makes this such an
interesting project: The partners find ways to blend their disciplines to provide engaging
programming.
They’ve sponsored “poetry posts,” for example, where people literally put their original
poetry on posts in their front yards; visitors walk around the picturesque district reading
the poetry. The four organizations also have hosted “Lunch and Learn” events, where
they take turns arranging for site-appropriate topics and speakers.
Their Summer Walking Tours, now underway, draw the disciplines together in a way that
also draws people from Raystown. For one hour every Wednesday morning through
August 14, free tours are provided with a different theme each week.
Past themes have included architecture, public art and Civil War history. August 7, the
subject will be stained glass; August 14, tour participants will explore river ecology.
Following the hour tour, participants are encouraged to spend additional time in
Huntingdon and to patronize its restaurants and other businesses.
Such walking tours embrace all of the partners’ missions by offering art, history,
education and exercise. Since the tours are held rain or shine, they also provide a nice
alternative for Raystown visitors, who may be looking for something else to do –
especially on a poor-weather day.
While most of our communities don’t face the challenge of trying to attract visitors from
a major recreation area, they should consider how to adopt the “4 and More” concept.
Many of our communities have a group of quality-of-life organizations that could become
a concentrated cultural district – or at least a cultural neighborhood.
In this context, “neighborhood” could be figurative as well as literal. Think back to
neighborhoods of the past: Neighbors knew each other, spent time together, shared
resources and helped each other out.
Embracing a neighborhood model makes more sense for most quality-of-life
organizations than competing, which is what they tend to do all-too-often now. If these
groups look upon one another as neighbors and work together, creative collaborations
and shared resources would enable them to come up with a wide range of new
opportunities that wouldn’t be possible to pull off on their own.
Everyone benefits from such neighborliness – whether the goal is to draw visitors or just
make the community a more-enjoyable place in which to live.
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For more information on the 4 and More Cultural District, visit
www.huntingdoncountyarts.com.