Coonalpyn sits on the busy Dukes Highway, 165km southeast of Adelaide, population 215. An average of 5000 cars zoom by each and every day, but given no good reason to stop, they mostly didn’t. Until Creating Coonalpyn.
This evaluation was commissioned in 2016 by Coorong Council and Country Arts SA to establish the impact of a suite of public artworks instigated by a small town under threat of disappearance.
Creating Coonalpyn has been an immense success—somewhere near a billion social media hits, an increase in people stopping in their 100s every day—and in the 1000s at peak times—an increase in main street trade in the vicinity of 200-300% and a suite of new public artworks that engage people on a number of levels.
But the less public story is deeper under the skin—in the community where the people go about their daily business—where the pulse indicates the blood is pumping more rapidly through the community vein.
