Coaching success stories: Hackensack murals, Englewood historical exhibit

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

If you are in Englewood, NJ, you could see an exhibit about the city's long history and success in sports at the historic Mackay Park gatehouse.  Go 15 minutes west to Hackensack, and you can see an outdoor gallery of murals on Main Street.

Both projects stem from community coaching and team building provided by The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking (NCCP).

In Englewood, the sports exhibit runs through December 13.  NCCP was contracted by the City of Englewood to prepare a vision plan for Mackay Park, the city's largest and most central park.  Since its founding in 1906, Mackay Park has gone from being a woodsy escape for weekend picnics to something more like an outdoor sports complex. Several residents wanted the vacant historic Gatehouse at the park's north end to become a museum.

Members of Englewood's Mackay Park Vision Plan
Leadership Team in a visioning exercise

On behalf of the City, NCCP helped to build and coached a diverse team of neighborhood residents, city staff and park users to develop the team.  NCCP invited members of the Englewood Historical Society to join the team. Through the team-building process,  diverse team members developed several ideas for programs and physical improvements to the park. The historical exhibit is among the first of what is hoped to be several more community-oriented activities in the park.

In Hackensack, NCCP, in partnership with the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, provided community coaching to Creative Hackensack.  This team, which is completing a creative placemaking plan, involved as many as 40 people from throughout the city.

Hackensack muralists meeting.  Image source: Main Street
Business Alliance Facebook page

The team developed a number of short term projects. The first one now being completed is the set of murals along a construction site on Main Street in the heart of its downtown.  The team took an innovative approach to its first mural project.  With an asset-based orientation and a goal to make art accessible to as many Hackensack residents as possible, team members saw 32 wooden panels at a construction site as a set of canvases.  Working with the property owner, the foundation and City organized a call for artists in June, and contracted with five artists to complete murals.

As the new building behind the murals is constructed, and the boards are no longer needed for public safety, the murals will travel throughout the City to inspire more creative activity.

In December, NCCP will begin working with the Glassboro Partners -- a partnership of the City of Glassboro, New Jersey and Rowan University, on community coaching to develop a creative placemaking vision plan.  The first community event will be from December 1, from 4:30 to 7:30, at the Rowan University Art Gallery, 301 High Street in downtown Glassboro.

Community coaching is available to any individual community within two hours travel (by train or car) of Newark, New Jersey.  Coaching services are available elsewhere in the United States if a minimum of five communities are involved.  Learn more about community coaching.

A finished mural by Lissane Lake. Image source:
  Main Street Business Alliance Facebook page