Seeing Our City

Under the title "Seeing our City: The Art of Defining a Place," Reynolda House is hosting a series of free public forums, with talks by leading experts and local leaders, on three successive Thursday evenings in October. The forums are in conjunction with Reynolda House's new exhibition "Seeing the City: Sloan's New York." John Sloan's paintings present a unique opportunity to promote discussion about what makes a city interesting and beautiful. Is it the variety of people that make up its residents? Is it the architecture? Is it the natural parks and places where people can relax by the water, or artists and their creativity that add an indefinable spark to a city? Support for this series is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council and the J.C. Tise Fund of The Winston-Salem Foundation.

Members of the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Forums begin at 7pm, and a reception follows each forum. On October 9 the forum's topic will be "The Face of Our City: Architectural Characteristics, Unique Assets, and Conscientious Development." On October 16 the focus turns to "The Heart of Our City: Downtown Living, Diversity, and a District for the Arts." The speaker that night will be Dr. James Johnson, a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center, and professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority on urban development and social justice. A panel discussion that night will include representatives from Goler Community Development Corporation, the Downtown Arts District, and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.

Finally, on October 23 the series closes with the topic "Transforming Our City: Bridging Public Art and Public Works." The featured speaker this evening will be Frederick Gottemoeller, an architect, engineer, and author of the classic study Bridgescape: The Art of Designing Bridges. He is recognized for generating significant public involvement in conceptual engineering for major public works projects around the country. In 1998 Mr. Gottemoeller co-organized "Thinking Beyond the Pavement," the national conference that initiated the Context-Sensitive Design Movement. The evening's discussion panel includes representatives from the Public Art Committee of the Winston-Salem Arts Council, the Community Appearance Commission, and the Business 40 Project.