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.
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...