How unusual it for a public space to have a private foundation backing it?
It’s not as unusual as one might think. “Friends of” park organizations are fairly plentiful; in addition to the Bushnell Park Foundation, in Hartford we have the Friends of Elizabeth Park and the Friends of Pope Park, just to name a few, and in New York the Central Park Conservancy has a similar mission. Like other such groups, our foundation gives private citizens and local businesses a vehicle to demonstrate their support for a cherished public space and to finance and effectuate much-needed improvements to Bushnell Park that are sometimes beyond the fiscal capacity of the city.
What are some of the challenges of a private foundation working with a municipality? How do the two sides align their goals for the park?
Since its inception in 1981, the Bushnell Park Foundation has had a very good working relationship with the city of Hartford. The foundation is a private, not-for-profit organization that advocates for the park and raises funds for and oversees the renovation of specific park resources, such as the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch (the repair of which was the reason for the creation of the foundation), Corning Fountain and the Horace Wells statue. We have also organized and helped fund special improvement projects including the construction of the Performance Pavilion and the Children’s Play and Learning Environment. It is always a challenge for a municipal government to dedicate the resources needed to improve the parks, and the city and our foundation certainly have experienced a significant amount of turnover in personnel over the last 28 years. But through good communication and a mutual commitment to the preservation of Bushnell Park, we have typically been able to achieve consensus.
What’s the future of Bushnell Park? What changes are going to happen to improve what has been called “an oasis” in Hartford?
Bushnell Park was approved by the voters in 1854 and became the first publicly funded and built municipal park in the nation. The Rev. Horace Bushnell articulated his vision of creating “a place of life and motion that will make us more completely conscious of being one people,” where people from all walks of life would gather. The layout designed by Jacob Weidenmann embodied that vision. The park today is still true to its original idea and substantially similar to the Weidenmann plan. Our hope is that the same is true in another 150 year. One area of improvement that is a priority of the foundation is to implement some low-key, “traffic calming” measures along Trinity Street. These would serve two important goals of helping to prevent further “vehicular conflicts” (as the planners say) with the Memorial Arch and improve the overall pedestrian experience in the park.
On the other hand, what’s the biggest threat to the future of Bushnell Park?
Of course funding is an ongoing challenge, and this is a particularly difficult fundraising environment for nonprofits. Maintaining certain features in the park (such as the reflecting pond) has increasingly been a challenge. Our foundation also feels strongly that we should carefully scrutinize and allow public input into proposals to build additional statues and memorials in Bushnell Park; given its prominence the park is often the venue of first choice for such projects, but its original intent and current usage might not be consistent with continuing to add monuments throughout the park. Lastly, the park is designated an arboretum, and is home to a magnificent collection of trees. Funding cuts unfortunately resulted in the recent elimination of the city forester position, which raises concerns for the care and maintenance of the trees.
