The Challenge

Historically situated

in the center of towns, Main Streets are the public face of the community. Along with the hustle and bustle of commercial spaces, these areas represent the needs and desires of local people as well as being the backdrop of much of the communities’ social life. Many of the buildings, which once were the backbone of the town’s ecosystem, have been reduced to storage spaces and empty reminders of the past. As these town centers lose their original function and fall into abandonment; an opportunity is born to holistically reconceptualize and repurpose these unused buildings into exciting, fresh sites of enriched community life, that are responsive to the needs of their community. Rarely are communities asked to radically question their identity, function, and aesthetics. Through community-specific public projects there is an opportunity to  integrate new forms of civic participation and social engagement into the built environment and reveal how the spaces we travel through and spend our time living within have the potential to become distinct sites for intimate, radical, and meaningful exchanges. 

Framing The Main Idea as a resistance to the death of the main street will act as a catalyst for the development of new community-specific, socially engaged artistic projects that give other practitioners an expansive understanding of the main street phenomenon and an entry point to begin working with downtown public spaces.