SPONSOR A PLANTER AND INSPIRE COMMUNITY THROUGH CONVERSATION!
The “Seeds of Change” Independence Day theme and public art initiative will help Evanston residents and local businesses come up with ideas to keep the annual city-wide celebration fresh, inclusive and welcoming to all.
To give residents a tangible sense of the “Seeds of Change” theme and showcase it for the community, local businesses will sponsor planters that will be decorated by local artists, students and community groups and distributed around the city in June. They will be planted with plants and objects of the artists’ choice to underscore the decorations.
Before settling on this year’s theme, the EFJA board informally polled a variety of community groups to better understand what they most valued about the annual Independence Day celebration – as well as to get suggestions for how to improve it and help it better reflect all of Evanston’s residents.
“Every year, we choose a theme that we hope will help inspire people to participate in the Celebration,” Alden said. “We heard from people that they see the Celebration as mostly about family and friends, and our country, and that they’re really proud of Evanston’s diversity.
“But in the past, not everyone felt welcome by the small group of residents who originally founded the Celebration,” he said, “and we’d like to make sure that’s never the case again – thus this theme.”
Once decorated, organizers hope the planters will show what the artists love about the Celebration, express ideas for community change and invite conversation around important topics such as democracy, freedom, diversity, reparations, the environment and hope for the future.