On Saturday, Sept. 19, downtown Eugene parking spaces became places to paint, weave and listen to piano. At one space near Perugino, Lexi Peters stopped during a walk and picked up a brush. Two blocks away, a craft circle invited people to weave fabric scraps into small mandalas. The activities were part of Eugene’s Park(ing) Day, an event that asks people to imagine what a parking space might hold besides a car. This year marked the event’s 20th anniversary.
The City of Eugene describes Park(ing) Day as a global celebration of turning public parking spaces into tiny parks and places for art, play and simple enjoyment. Its event page listed Saturday’s hours as 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and invited community creatives to design and host installations.
Peters told Lookout Eugene-Springfield she had not painted in a while and that taking part “seemed like a really fun thing to do.” A canvas on an easel gave her a place to begin. Local artist Erick Wonderly Varela was inviting passersby, including children, to add color to a paint-by-numbers project.
The image on the canvas featured a frog and a raccoon from artwork Wonderly Varela created for Walktober, a monthlong series of community walking events organized by the Lane Council of Governments, Lookout reported. The artist described the parking-space project as a way to picture these everyday curbside spots being used as parks, outdoor seating or shared outdoor space. Wonderly Varela also told Lookout that participatory art can help people feel connected to a community. His project did not require visitors to arrive as artists: the paint-by-numbers format gave people a simple way to add something to a work already in progress.
Caswell Attegrene, who works in Eugene’s transportation department, said the city has taken part in Park(ing) Day intermittently since about 2014. She told Lookout that Eugene’s creativity made the event a chance to highlight residents’ interests and talents. Attegrene said the city provides the parking spaces while participants bring materials for the five-hour event. She also described a small but visible part of the day: people walking by would stop and ask what was happening. Attegrene said that curiosity opened the door to conversation and interaction. Those observations came from her account of the event to Lookout; the city’s own page describes the event’s aims and setup, rather than reporting what happened afterward.
The painting installation was one of several activities Lookout observed downtown. Tables and chairs were set up in parking spaces near Perugino, where people could enjoy food and drinks from the coffee shop. Eugene resident Rachel Anne Collins played a piano set up outside.
In front of Portal Tea, about two blocks away, lawn chairs marked a craft circle. Eugene resident Anchen Texter showed visitors how to weave fabric scraps with small cardboard looms to make mandalas. Lookout reported that people who stopped by recognized the craft from family memories or doubted they could try it; after Texter demonstrated the technique, some changed their minds. Texter said seeing people realize they could try an unfamiliar craft often sparked something in them. Lookout also reported that Texter taught a four-year-old participant to make a mandala. The scene offered a different kind of invitation from the shared painting: instead of adding color to one canvas, visitors could learn a small process and make a pattern of their own.
Eugene’s event was part of a broader idea the city says began in San Francisco in 2005, when the design studio Rebar temporarily converted one parking space into a public park. The City of Eugene frames the annual event as a prompt to think about how streets and public spaces are designed. On Sept. 19, local artists and participants gave that prompt a hands-on form, with a shared canvas, a weaving circle, seating and music occupying spaces usually reserved for cars. The city’s own page describes the event as a way to encourage placemaking and raise awareness about walkable, livable and healthy communities. Lookout’s reporting describes what participants did at the downtown sites; the City page itself does not confirm the event’s post-event turnout or results.
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