Cindy Ornstein’s Love Letter to Mesa

Cindy Ornstein Arts and Cultural Director for the City of Mesa
 and the Executive Director of the Mesa Arts Center

In 2010, Cindy Ornstein arrived in Mesa for her first job interview for the position of the Arts and Cultural Director for the City of Mesa and the Executive Director of the Mesa Arts Center.

Never having been to Mesa, or even Arizona, she arrived early and was captivated with the beauty of the area. Even from her first glimpses of the metro area she was impressed by the attention to including art in public spaces, such as on freeway bridges and walls. Coming from Michigan, with much older infrastructure, there was nothing like that.

Arriving downtown at the Mesa Arts Center, she was excited because of the potential that exists here. She was excited to see the beautiful facility with all its assets: studios, theaters, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum and the stunning surrounds. She was also struck by the charming downtown Mesa. She immediately thought it had “good bones” on which to build. Lucky for Mesa, Cindy got the job. She oversees the Arizona Museum of Natural History, the I.D.E.A. Museum, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, cultural events in the City of Mesa and, of course, the Mesa Arts Center. Cindy now makes her home in Mesa.

Since her arrival she has worked hard, not only to develop Mesa’s museums and the Arts Center to be nationally recognized destinations for arts and culture, but to connect them at the ground level with the community. Her desire is that the community understands that the Arts Center is theirs, and that together, we are all invested in making Mesa's Downtown an amazing place.

Interviewing Cindy was enlightening.  She says her “mission, at heart, has always been that the arts are for everyone and that they are critical to a healthy, just, and successful society. I believe deeply that arts are important to community development, social fabric, economic development; all of it. I also believe that the assets of the arts, whether they be public buildings or non-profits, work in the public trust. When I was head of non-profits for many years I always said almost every opportunity ‘I get that this organization, this venue, does not belong to me, or the staff or even the Board; it belongs to you, the community.’ Our responsibility is to manage it and keep it healthy, in the public trust because it is your place. That is what the arts should be all about.

“So, in this case where we manage facilities that are literally owned by the public. My mission is for every citizen to feel pride, ownership and engagement with these assets and resources. That they are there, for their enrichment, to make their communities better, to make their children inspired to learn. Our job is to make an impact on the community in a positive way, in all the ways we can. It is really about finding the things that are going to be most effective, what the community is going to find delight in, those things that are going to make them come check it out and make them get involved more.”

When asked about her favorite things in Mesa’s downtown she said “It feels like community, it feels so good because we have independent mom and pop stores, it feels very accessible. I love its feel. I love that it is walkable. We already have potential to have a constant activation over time, I think. But it is charming. The trees, the size, the feel of it: it feels like a charming downtown.”

Cindy has a vision for Downtown Mesa that builds on its “good bones” of community, a committed group of downtown activists, an arts community that is here, the influx of visitors for the museums, cultural events, performances, and classes at the Mesa Arts Center.

She is excited that Mesa will become even more of a destination with the opening of the light rail extension into Downtown Mesa. She sees Downtown as an increasingly welcoming place where fun and unusual activities are going on. A place that is vibrant and inviting, with public art where community members of all ages can gather together in public spaces, cultural venues and enjoy places to eat and drink. Cindy envisions a packed events calendar in a beautiful, active, art-infused environment that is a place where strong partnerships create involvement in the city for its citizens, visitors, arts organizations, the city itself, and those in the region connected by the Light Rail.

Cindy has chosen for her Love Letter to Mesa “’Mesa’s Charming Downtown-Good Bones’, because, though we all know we have more work to do to make Mesa what we envision, it is all about the foundation we already have here to build on for an exciting, welcoming, involving, and charming Downtown Mesa, Arizona.”

Find out more about all the arts and cultural opportunities in the City of Mesa at http://www.mesaaz.gov/things-to-do/arts-culture

Information on upcoming festivals, performances and studios classes at http://www.mesaartscenter.org

Get out and vote for the next cheerleader

I mean City Councilman for Downtown Mesa. Tuesday is the day that our next leader will be determined. It is what I think is the most important election in Downtown's history. The four year term that either Vic or Chris will hold will bring changes like we have not seen before. Light Rail will be constructed. There is the possibly of a Cubs Spring Training Stadium and Wrigleyville West being built Downtown. Feasibility studies for a university, college or some higher education entity and a medical campus have been completed and are ready to go to City Council.

District four voter turn out in Mesa is typically weak at best. With the significant changes happening to Downtown it is vital that we get out and vote for the best Cheerleader on Tuesday. Pass the word along to any registered voter in District four it will make a difference in how the changes upon us will play out.

Your choices:

christopherjglover.com

electviclinoff.com

Happy 100th Birthday Arizona (2012) Recalling the past...Mesa Style

Early Mesa pictured about 1883 shows the A. F. Macdonald home and gardens at lower left and at right the “relief society hall” (bishops storehouse? with flat roof), a hotel and store (on corner) and new city hall and jail (pitched roof). Macdonald, Mormon Stake President and first mayor, was sent to Mesa from Utah to iron out difficulties. He left in January 1885 to establish a colony in Mexico.


Bringing the abundant supply of Salt River irrigation water to the top of the mesa transformed the desert into an oasis, providing a source of agricultural wealth. Within a few years, Salt River Valley farms could feed all of Arizona and export a surplus to the rest of the nation. This unidentified canal is pictured about 1908.


Commercial life centered around the intersection of Main and Macdonald, seen here about 1908, looking west. On the SW corner (at left) is the Mesa City Bank, which later became Mesa Drug Company. The next building west is LeSueur, Gibbons & Co. mercantile, established in 1905. It later became LeSueur-Botkin Co. and finally sold to Bayless mercantile of Phoenix in 1926. The building was then replaced by the Nile Theater.


To provide narrow store fronts with the most customer parking automobiles parked head-in at both curbs and in the center of Main Street when this postcard was issued about 1927 (the autos at left are in the middle of the street). The view is looking east toward the intersection with Macdonald. The green sign marks Everybody’s Drugs on the corner with the lamppost. At right is the Nile Theater. Built in 1928, it closed as a theater in 1951. Recently it has been a church and is now called Mesa Underground, a venue for rock music.

This is the intersection of Main & Macdonald about 1939, looking northwest toward Everybody’s Drugs in a rebuilt remnant of Chandler Court (1908). Dr. A. J. Chandler designed and had constructed a horseshoe-shaped, single-story office complex with the first big evaporative cooling system in the Valley. The remaining half seen here was restored in 1984, though nothing like the original building. Established in 1906, Everybody’s Drugs closed in the late 1990s. Parking in the middle of the street was eliminated about 1935. Carrying highways 60, 70, 80, 89 and 93 until the 1970s, Main Street funneled all transcontinental highway traffic from the east into the Valley, giving Mesa the nickname “The Gateway City.”


The same block on Main pictured above is seen here about 1953. Stapley’s Hardware (at right) opened in 1895, profited by providing supplies for Roosevelt Dam construction and eventually added 11 locations across the Valley. Owner, O. S. Stapley was a member of the Arizona constitutional convention in 1910 and then served as state senator. Great grandson Don is a county supervisor.

Looking south on Macdonald in the first block below Main about 1956, the Pioneer Hotel began in 1894 as the Alhambra, finest in Mesa. It burned in 1921, was reconstructed the following year and received a large addition in 1951. It survives as a public hotel operated by Transitional Living Communities. Pat’s Bicycle Shop was next door from 1947 to 1957, when it moved to 929 East Main. The still family owned business moved to Gilbert Gateway Towne Center near the airport at the end of 2009.

Looking northwest above downtown Mesa about 1969, the 5-story Valley National Bank (1959), on the NE corner of Main and McDonald, is the tallest building. In the next block north on McDonald is City Hall (now the Arizona Museum of Natural History), with Queen of Peace Catholic Church (red roof) across the street to the north. At lower right, on Main, the El Portal Hotel (1928) was demolished in 1972 and Mesa City Plaza occupies the site. Valley Bank sold to Bank One in 1993, which was then acquired by Chase. A $6 million renovation completed in 2005 turned the bank building into One Macdonald Center offices, with a US Bank on the ground floor. This part of Mesa used to be the commercial center of the original square-mile city limit bounded by University and Broadway, Country Club and Mesa Drive.