Many Paths: Here's to the ones that chose Galesburg
Over the last few years, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for people who choose Galesburg.
Under my definition, “choosing” can mean a few different things. Choosing to live here is a pretty big one. I chose to move back here a few years ago so that is definitely one way you can choose Galesburg.
I also think there are other ways to choose Galesburg: to choose to be part of the community, to choose to make it better, or any other way you choose to interact with the city positively. So, it’s not just the choice to live here, it’s the choice to try and engage with the community to make it better.
Instead of writing about a problem or possible future, I want to write about what’s going right in the present. I want to highlight some groups who seem to be fully embracing the ethic of choosing Galesburg.
More: Many Paths: Keep the car at home, take a walk to experience Galesburg
In my eyes, the local arts community is the living embodiment of choosing Galesburg. They choose to realize what they want here in our community.
In a general view of things, Galesburg might not be a place you think of as having an active arts community. A post-industrial, rural city that’s on the prairie doesn’t seem like a place that would naturally have an arts community, yet we have one.
We have our local arts community because of the efforts of people who choose to make the arts exist in Galesburg. These organizations are filled with people who are actively choosing to make their community better by continuing the arts. There would be no Galesburg Community Art Center, Orpheum, Performing Arts Academy, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Choral Dynamics, or any other art institution in Galesburg without people actively choosing to make them exist.
While I am not an active participant in the local arts community, I appreciate the heck out of them. Galesburg being a community that creates and appreciates culture is such an asset.
It seems in many communities that have a resurgence that building a local art scene can be a critical step. It seems that artists and art appreciators are some of the people most dedicated to the project that is bettering Galesburg and I appreciate them for that.
People who choose Galesburg can take many forms.
Anyone who starts a business or makes local investments is choosing Galesburg. Anyone who regularly works to serve the community chooses Galesburg. Anyone who tries to make things a little better, from cleaning up a little trash to trying to make big systemic improvements, all are choosing Galesburg.
So, here’s to the ones that choose Galesburg. I choose Galesburg and hope you do too.
Joe Hicks is a Galesburg native and a contributor to the Many Paths column.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Many Paths: We need more people to choose Galesburg
