Planners Imagine Haitian “Urban Evolution”; Origins Emerge at Teton Art Lab
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Nicolai Ouroussoff’s March 31, 2010 article in the New York Times Arts Section brings to light a plan to reconstruct Haiti’s urban infrastructure by
breaking up the population of over-crowded Port-au-Prince into smaller cities. These compact towns, if realized, are termed “smaller urban growth poles,” and could dramatically change Haiti’s economic, social and political future.
If you haven’t already, you can click on the above link and read the entire article. If you are short on time, here’s a bare-bones synopsis:
- The new urban distribution plan centers on the idea that many smaller cities would be established in areas of Haiti least likely to be struck by natural disaster. Port-au-Prince would no longer be the dominant city. Currently, Port-au-Prince has almost no sewage treatment and its building code is “barely two pages long.”
- Ouroussoff says these plans, still being developed, already best early rebuilding plans post-Katrina and post-Tsunami.
- Haiti’s woes go back a century, when America began concentrating trade ops in Port-au-Prince, shutting down other existing Haiti ports. By 1960, François Duvalier shut down any remaining ports in a bid for total political control via a single power base.
- Over 20 years, the city’s population almost doubled, to 3 million people. The “effect of the shift was an urban disaster – one that has put more and more pressure on the capital while draining the provinces of economic opportunity.”
- The quake has made redistribution away from Port-au-Prince’s major fault line and its exposure to landslides and floods a logical step. Thousands of the city’s buildings were destroyed, practically leveling it, as the world has seen. Refugees have fled, moving to other regions
of Haiti. - Planners hope relocation services like hospitals and schools will encourage re-establishment of new urban centers. They propose organizing new buildings around public parks and the like, which would provide sorely needed civic center points. Similar plans would be applied to rural areas, with farms surrounding central core services areas. Public structures would be paid for by the government.
- Light rail is proposed. Earthquake debris (millions of cubic tons) would serve as shoreline landfill, that could be turned into parks.
- One planner noted that “We should think in terms of the city’s urban evolution rather than large-scale development.”
- Haiti planners need access to money and ideas; the University of Miami’s “new urbanism” proponents can advise.
- Ouroussoff ends his article by observing that “….a connection between good urban planning ideas and political realities on the ground was never made (in New Orleans). The best plans went nowhere. Let’s pray that doesn’t happen in Haiti.”
Item #2:
University of Wyoming (UW) Adjunct Professor Nathan Abel’s print exhibition Origins, on display at Teton Art Lab May 7-31, also includes prints produced by members of the UW Print Exchange.
Besides being an accomplished artist, Abel is able to write with languid beauty about his work. Working to connect with a father he has no conscious memory of, Abel incubates his native landscapes, giving them new life that exists in binary-colored melancholy.
“In a time when oral history is diminishing I cling to the histories passed on to me by family members. My interpretation of those memories exist between the unconscious and the conscious mind. Through my work I explore the common ground that I feel I share with my father whom I never consciously knew. I utilize the rural landscape (where I grew up and still feel the most at home) in juxtaposition with integrated personal archetypes. The images exist as a dialogue between memories of the old family farm, photographs my father took, and my own personal narratives.”
Through his printing process, Abel is building what he calls a “dialog of history.”
“Wyoming” connotes thoughts of vast, wind blown space. Memories, in pictorial and written forms, sift their way through the ages. Abel is a highly conscious artist, taking history seriously. This is the true road.


Are you a
happenings. Jeff was there and so was sister Ginny Newsom. It was a great party, held at in the barn-like structure on West Broadway that housed the former J.H. Muse Gallery.
So said Jeff Newsom of Driggs, Idaho, describing how he got interested in making telescopes. I thought that would be the subject of this story – I mean, is anyone else around here making telescopes? – no. Five minutes into my research and the full “scope” of what Newsom is doing and exploring began to crystallize and this little article became more of a humble introduction to a host of concepts and players, including, but not limited to:
well, the origins of everything. Spend a few hours with Newsom looking through his telescopes, and you may well become a convert, too. Jeff Newsom has made it possible for all of us in Jackson, Driggs and the region to look into deep space if we want to. Newsom engineered a visit by Dobson to Jackson Hole just a few years ago.
Soft Opening for Heather James Gallery
A friend passed along a recent local art “review” —perhaps “commentary” is a better word — concerning the closing of the Oswald Gallery.
“We are still surrounded by landscape paintings, of moose in front of the Tetons or Indians painted by white people. So obviously Americans prefer art that does not make us think but rather reinforces stereotypes and clichés.”
A huge benefit of
goes by Elizabeth, or Liz. We became friends in the ’60’s. We went to elementary school together, up in the hills of
About a year ago, out of the blue and after decades of not having a clue what had become of my childhood friend, Liz found me through Facebook. A miracle! Liz–I will refer to her as Liz from here on–had very recently lost Pam to lung cancer. If ever a broken heart jumped through a website it was Liz’s as she spoke of her loss and emotions.
Pam would have been just 61 a few weeks ago. These sisters had a powerful connection; they were best friends, continuously supporting one another.
After more than a year of mourning I finally approached my dear friend, pattern-maker Colleen. She helped me create garments I call Journal Skirts. I wore them to various functions
and my classes (Liz is pursuing a PhD). I used the journals for taking class notes, doodling, autographs, recording memories…. all sorts of record-keeping! After a while, people began asking me where they could purchase a skirt or journal; and that is when I knew Pamela was guiding me towards an idea that would help raise funds for cancer research.
World crises bring opportunity. In the wake of the
There are many relief organizations; do take time to research which charities you
feel use their funds in an effective and ethical manner. It’s difficult to know everything about organizations we donate to, but we do a disservice to ourselves and any relevant community when we take marketing efforts at face value. In today’s world, vigilance and accountability are of the utmost importance.
I’ve sprinked this post with a few images of Haitian crafts. Despite hardships we cannot begin to imagine, their art is full of joy. Sitting here in my Connecticut home, I am surrounded by paper mache butterflies, crafted in Haiti. Images courtesy of
Miga Rossetti’s
considered–creatures who can keep a neat house in a tiny circle, frenetic as each day might be. Materials include mixed media on board, including acrylic paint, natural materials and paper collage.
undulating vessels.
Lyndsay invited you to “Affordable Art Weekend with Oswald Gallery and LMC” on Friday, December 11 at 12:00pm.
This Christmas, please come for some good cheer and bargains — and to support the JHHS Rotary Interact teenagers who are selling great gifts to raise money to open a village library in
Wildlife photographer
A second deadline has been added to receive grant money from
Colorado landscape painter
the longest side. Submissions must be dropped off at Teton Art Lab (up on the third floor of the 
extent of SLAM’s effect on our local arts economy, but any slice taken out of our artistic family’s financial pie is a painful loss.
The
Rozman (Ceramics, Color and Design), Danielle Corriea, Daniella Woolf, Rebecca Stern & Bronwyn Minton (Encaustic & Photographic Processes), Dan Haga (Advanced Silver Workshop), Bob Smith (Wildlife Photography), Elizabeth Opalenik (The Figure in Motion) and Johan Hagaman (Sculpting in Concrete: From High Art to Yard Art).
other, (the dancer’s) performance illustrates the act of
A few months back–a few warmer, sunnier months back– toy photographer
mist, something that sounded much larger than the moose was splashing around. Unable to see, I’m going to wager it was a grizzly bear or perhaps a
From Planet Laramie: Nationally known, Colorado-based artist
counseling for small businesses, and the