AN ARTFUL VISION COMES TO LIFE

Se Abq Revitalization Effort Makes The Streets Safer For Pedestrians

At long last, something beautiful graces the long stretch of wall on Louisiana Boulevard bordering the NM Expo between Lomas and Central. Neighbors got new hope when Artful Life’s International District Youth Team, partnering with ABQ Vision Zero, sent around surveys in 2020. Artful Life is an organization touting community revitalization “through the beauty and power of collaborative art.” Vision Zero is a traffic camera program that went up around the ID last August. This past April, after community-building and outreach, a team of artists—youth and adults from the International District and other parts of Burque—started painting under the partnership.

The intersection of Central and Louisiana is among the most dangerous for traffic in the city, explains lead artist Andrew Fearnside. “The Expo was built as this big square. And straight roads with lots of lanes mean people drive faster.”

“Transit justice is what we’re talking about. The less money you have, the more likely you are to be a pedestrian or use public transit. Because the International District has a history of impoverishment…in terms of streetlights and improvements…we have more pedestrians, and more people getting killed [by street traffic].”

Research shows that art can help. “Public art is like the trees and the streetlights. It makes people feel more connected to their place, and thus to drive with care, and to care about pedestrians.”

Community involvement was important to the team. Project manager Kathryn Fearnside says, “Four people from the community were both artists on the mural and are in it. This is their neighborhood. That level of participation is tremendous. And all the youth artists really made it community-engaged.”

The reaction from the neighborhood during the project was “100% honking and thumbs-up out the window.” An Albuquerque Fire Rescue crew driving by gave their approval, too.

Though the design is joyful, the team also imagined it as a memorial to the many who have died on these busy Southeast corners. The ghosts on the colorful road are a way to represent the afterlife. Kathryn muses, “There are these human pedestrians, and you’re one of them, but there are all these enchantments around you. It re-enchants the world. So, the death of these people is memorialized through this enchantment. We’re talking about the spirit realm.”

You can read more about the mural local youth artists put together in the QRs:

Artful Life/Vision Zero Mural Abq’s Vision Zero