Garrison Commons park set to open Aug. 1, murals festival artists to soon be announced
by July 16, 2016 1:03 pm 562 views
Leaders of 64.6 Downtown held a party Friday evening to celebrate the soon-to-be opened Garrison Commons, a free-admission park in downtown Fort Smith that will include a food trailer managed by a family that has operated restaurants in the city since 1893.
Around 100 people gathered Friday evening in the Propak Logistics corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Smith to learn more about the park. 64.6 Downtown, the group behind the downtown murals festival formally known as the Unexpected Project, organized creation of the park with the blessing of property owner Zemira “Sam” Grimm.
The park is built on what was a vacant lot next door to The Popped Popcorn Company. A building on the site was razed following a fire.
John McIntosh, executive director of 64/6 Downtown, praised the Grimm family for their willingness to make the park a possibility.
“She (Sam) wanted to make sure that what we did there really represented quality,” McIntosh told the crowd of about 100 gathered for the event.
The park will include local food trailer service Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, a stage towards the back of the lot for live music and entertainment, and a projector system for free movies at night. The food trailer will be operated by Joe Caldarera, son of Tom Caldarera Jr., and part of the family that owns Taliano’s and Emmy’s German Restaurant in Fort Smith.
“I’m proud to announce I will be opening the food trailer at Garrison Commons Park in August 2016,” Joe noted in a recent Facebook post. “It’s in honor of and inspired by my great grandfather, Salvatore. An Italian immigrant from Sicily who arrived in Fort Smith in 1893. He would eventually own and operate many food related business’ in downtown FS until his death. He became known as Fort Smith’s most prominent Italian immigrant.”
The park will be available for events, with booking initially managed by McIntosh. (He can be reached by e-mail: [email protected])
THE NEXT MURALS FESTIVAL
Steve Clark, head of Fort Smith-based Propak Logistics and the initial energy behind the Unexpected Project, said the new park resulted from the “collaboration of so many people and so many organizations across the city.”
Clark also praised other groups – to include Ales for Trails and organizers of the upcoming Peacemaker Music & Arts Festival – working to improve the quality of place in the region.
He also said 64.6 Downtown is working to prepare for the next gathering of artists for the second annual murals festival planned for Sept. 2-11. The inaugural festival was held September 2015 in downtown Fort Smith with more than seven well-known international street and urban artists painting or creating large and unique murals on several buildings in the area. Vhils, an artist from Portugal, created the large mural on the northern end of the Garrison Commons park.
64.6 bills the event as a “10 day art initiative bringing world-class art to Fort Smith.”
“It will be a world-renowned group of artists coming to this city to bless it with fantastic works of art,” Clark told the crowd.
McIntosh and festival coordinator Claire Kolberg said they are working on final details and the artist list will soon be announced.
THE DOWNTOWN PUSH
The murals festival and Garrison Commons are just part of what 64.6 Downtown wants to see happen in the area.
The Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District (CBID) has thrown its support behind a “Propel Downtown Forward” initiative undertaken by 64/6 Downtown. CBID members voted in May to contribute $50,000 to the hiring of a downtown planning consultant and act as a strategic partner in the effort.
64/6 selected Dallas-based Gateway Planning Group to conduct the study expected to cost around $258,000. 64/6 Downtown had as of May raised $85,000 in private funding prior to their presentation to CBID, and has submitted several grant applications to also help pay for the study.
According to 64.6 officials, Gateway will address the best use of public and private dollars and offer different recommendations for funding improvements downtown, as well as focus on connectivity to the downtown area (i.e. traffic patterns, trail systems, and how best to connect downtown to the rest of the Fort Smith region).
No timetable has yet been set for completion of the study.
