Public invited to ‘Get on the Bus!’ for Feb. 8 student-led Connective Corridor trip

Public invited to ‘Get on the Bus!’ for Feb. 8 student-led Connective Corridor tripJanuary 30, 2008Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

The Connective Corridor bus, which travels the 1.5-mile signature strip of cutting-edge cultural development connecting University Hill with downtown Syracuse, will become a stage itself Feb. 8 for the first student-led “Get on the Bus” trip, offering the public a unique and free opportunity to experience a slice of Syracuse art and culture.

The trip starts at SU’s Connective Corridor bus stop at College Place at 5:20 p.m. and returns there at 6:40 p.m. Free parking is available in the Quad 4 lot, accessible from Comstock Ave.

As part of the first of five Get on the Bus Project trips, actors and musicians from the upcoming SU Drama Department’s production of Arabian Nights will be on-board to entertain riders as they travel along the Connective Corridor, downtown to the Erie Canal Museum. Riders will then have the opportunity to view the opening of new “The Art of the Draftsman” exhibit about the 19th-century surveys, maps and geologic studies that helped shape the proposed canal route — visionary mapmakers on the flow of people and energy from former times meet visionaries of the proposed flow of people and energy anticipated in Syracuse’s future through the Connective Corridor. Riders will then be returned to the SU campus.

The trip is free and open to the public. For more information, call (315) 443-8590. The trip is part of a new course being offered this semester at SU where students examine the role for art in community revitalization. In support of the citywide effort to revitalize Syracuse’s downtown by building upon and connecting existing assets, this new course uses Syracuse’s Connective Corridor as a case study; students research an array of arts and cultural institutions to understand how art can contribute to community development in Syracuse and beyond.