Art Sparks A Rural Public Transportation Panel for Wed. Sept 6

Cooperstown NY— The public is invited to the final Art Garage program associated with its current exhibition, PASSAGES, Wednesday, September 6, at 5PM.

Rural Public Transportation: Challenges & Opportunities, will feature a panel of experts including planner, Anthony Swann-Marris (Mohawk Valley Economic Development District), research scientist, David Strogatz (Bassett Research Institute) and Stan Varghese, from Getthere, a rural mobility agency based in Binghamton. The gallery will open at 4:30PM with light refreshment and a chance to preview PASSAGES, the three-person exhibition which offers artworks in part inspired by artists’ subway rides (urban public transportation).

As seating is limited, reservations for the talk are recommended, although not required: call/text 315-941-9607 or leartgarage@gmail.com. Guests are reminded to park on the gallery lawns not on the town road.

The last day of the exhibition is Saturday September 9 when the gallery will be open, 11am-3pm. The Art Garage is located at 689 Beaver Meadow Road.

“Artists by nature think outside the box,” Art Garage founder and director, Sydney Waller, noted, “and the work they create can also inspire thinking outside the box,” explaining how the intersectional program came about. Petey Brown’s small paintings offer formal compositions of cityscape sunsets, framed by subway windows and sketched while crossing the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Helen Quinn’s towering silkscreens celebrate the rich variety of “fragments” that she observes as she travels back and forth to her home in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of the country’s most richly diverse counties. She offers a wide range of culture-specific items as well as markers of our times such as masks. A few of the ‘fragments’ she features gleaned from her observations include Sri Lankan cricket paraphernalia, traditional woven Tibetan aprons, bits of items marking Chinese New Year and Diwali, the Indian festival of – and a wide range of hairstyles and mustaches. The variety may be in contrast to what might be observed riding rural public transportation in Upstate New York. Anthony Swann-Marris will touch upon the history of public transportation in rural areas—how prevalent it once was before the age of the automobile, as well as some 21st century approaches he is working on. Both Getthere and David Strogartz will describe their respective perspectives and projects, particularly the challenges of getting to employment opportunities (Getthere) and the challenges older citizens in a rural area face when they can no longer drive.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

Anthony Marris-Swann, MVEDD (Mohawk Valley Economic Development District) grew up in rural Oneida County, “frustrated and perplexed by the lack of transportation options.” This experience helped inspire his passion for community planning and a desire to make places more livable for people of all ages and abilities. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Community, Environment & Planning from the University of Washington in 2018, with a focus on the intersection between transportation, housing and design. Working in municipal government in the suburbs of Seattle, he worked to bolster collaboration between transportation agencies to improve the service and efficiency of the area’s buses, trains, light rail and streetcars. Much of his work at MVEDD centers on improving access to public transportation in rural communities. He is committed to “reconnecting places that have lost virtually all access to public physical connectivity” and noted that “robust transportation networks are crucial to the health and well-being of places of all sizes”.

David Strogatz, Cooperstown, is a Research Scientist with the Bassett Research Institute (BRI), Bassett Healthcare Network. He came to the Institute in 2011 to develop a new research center, the Center for Rural Community Health, to address the challenges rural populations face, particularly for improving health and preventing disease. He was the founding director. Like NYCAMH (New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health), the Center shares a focus on rural issues, but not specific to farming and agriculture. He received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina and was on the faculty of Schools of Public Health in North Carolina and Albany, NY before coming to Cooperstown. One of his major projects at the Bassett Research Institute has been the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) Study, the largest naturalistic study of driving ever conducted to identify the predictors of continued safe driving (and the impact of driving cessation) in older adults. LongROAD enrolled nearly 3000 adults across five sites in the US. Strogatz led the effort at the Bassett site – by design the rural site.

Stan Varghese, Getthere- Stan works as a Transportation to Employment Associate with Getthere. Getthere is a mobility management agency based in Binghamton that addresses transportation needs in South Central New York. The organization works with individuals to get them transportation and its team members have a good understanding of the regional transportation landscape. Stan Varghese works with clients who need short term assistance to employment. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master’s in Social Work from Marywood University. He also works with colleagues who address transportation for clients who have healthcare appointments and need food assistance. He lives outside Binghamton.

The Art Garage, located “halfway between Bassett and Origins,” is open Saturdays 11am-3pm, and daily with a text or call to make an appointment: 315-941-9607 or leartgarage@gmail.com. Also see FB Instagram ArtGarageCooperstown. ### #wearecooperstown #thisiscooperstown