MetroABQ's Most Recent "1% For Art" Addition
What is "Bat Family Cruisin" & Why Is It Important?
"Bat Family Cruisin," a new public art installation by Stephen Fairfield, appeared in this busy intersection earlier in the year & has great details to see up-close. The art project is one of the most recent MetroABQ 1% For Art contributions, a few hundred of which can be found scattered across the city. Click on the map below, which takes you to the City of Albuquerque's interactive Public Art Map.
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The "Bat Family Cruisin" piece is in an unlikely place: it sits on the Alameda Trail & Drain greenscape, at the corner of Montao Blvd & 2nd Street. It's a dusty, busy corner of the north valley; however, it is also in the middle of a new MetroABQ greenspace trail. Created for irrigation & flooding control, & jointly run by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy & the Metro Flood Control, for decades the Alameda Drain has been a simple nine-mile ditch, until now. Today it's a multi-use trail (horses too) stretching alongside a naturally landscaped waterway, running from Rio Grande Blvd at I-40, & zig-zagging up to Alameda, just outside the Metro city limits...More landscaping to be added.
Why is this important? A recent article from Inverse.com described a new study about parks & greenspaces. "Surrounding yourself with this one thing can add years to your life: Living near greenspaces & public parks may help you live longer," a new study finds.
Nature does the body good & the comprehensive new analysis published in The Lancet of more than 8 million people suggests that to boost longevity, cities should get a lot less gray and a lot more green. Even the color green is beneficial to humans, in many ways...