A fine gift to give ourselves for centennial

The united city of Winston-Salem will mark its centennial in 2013. How to celebrate?

Do we mark this milestone with a one-time event? The largest parade in the city's history was at the 1949 centennial of the founding of Winston, which marked the birth of Forsyth County. The bicentennial of Salem in 1966 saw the creation of a theater performance piece, allowing the area's creative talents to pour forth in words and music.

Or do we use the centennial occasion to create a continuing reminder of the event among us? The county planted a sesquicentennial grove of trees in C. G. Hill Park to mark Forsyth's 150th in 1999. In my own West End neighborhood, we wanted to raise funds for a four-sided clock in Grace Court to celebrate the Millennium in 2000. We began the fundraising campaign on May 12, 1999, Forsyth's 150th anniversary, by re-enacting the founding of Winston with the transfer of a deed from a costumed Salem Moravian farmer to a Winston businessman in mid-19th century garb. Every day I pass that little clock I am reminded of the event and the people who helped make it and the clock happen. It reminds me of my community, not just the time of day.

A lot has happened in Winston-Salem's 100 years. The first third of the century was dominated by the rise of a city of tobacco and textile industry, led by families named Reynolds and Hanes, which employed the large majority of the city's residents. The middle third of the century saw a diversification of the economy and the flowering of cultural institutions based on philanthropy made possible by the city's first strong economic engines. The last third of the century has expanded us far into the surrounding county geographically and, with the growth of medicine and service industries, further away from those business roots in just golden leaf and thread.

Much change is already planned to be implemented in our urban core by 2013. We are to have a gleaming baseball stadium, an expanded downtown research park, improved major highways and additional venues for residential and commercial development. My guess is that, among all that "new," ample opportunity will present itself for reflecting on the ground, in works of public art and the crafting of public space, the contributions of the arts and design communities of our area. After all, individual talents, not just the institutions devoted to the creative pursuits, are why we can rightly call ourselves a "city of the arts." The arts are a continuing centennial legacy of commerce, investment and vision from which we have benefitted. They can reflect other aspects of that legacy and inspire us to better futures.

But why not craft a plan to celebrate across our entire city, in its diversity of neighborhoods and peoples, the good and often hard-won changes that we have shared and inherited these hundred years? Much that has divided us economically and racially and socially has improved, even as much community-building remains. Why not let our arts serve the city? Not just art in an arts district, or an art museum. But art among and with us where we live and visit daily. In public spaces, in each and every ward of our city, can we not say we will intentionally plan to celebrate our centennial with a creatively designed space for the continued enjoyment of our citizens there? It might be a lingering space to savor, or a work of art to celebrate a facet of our past -- or to capture our community's present spirit or future hopes. It might be at a neighborhood park, or a recreation center or public shopping plaza. The form might be a quiet sculptured fountain, a proud gateway entrance, a simple shotgun house lovingly augmented or a statue of a local hero. Greensboro just installed General Greene in its downtown as part of its 2008 bicentennial celebrations.

Several years worth of budgets are between us and 2013. That's ample time for community and artisan leaders to survey neighborhoods for where in their ward a centennial celebration might best serve and reflect the community. By creating soon a Centennial Public Art Commission, we would also have five years to marshal individual and business funding for such a project, perhaps assisted by a centennial public-art fund at our community foundation. Could there be a better gift the city of the arts could give itself?

■ J. Eric Elliott writes a blog on local public art at winstonsalempublicart.blogspot.com.