![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/culture-trail-MAIN.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. Sujata Shetty, left, and Ph.D. student Nafula Barasa from the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center at UToledo pose at the bronze sculpture \u201cRoot Dancer.\u201d The Main Campus artwork is among the 350-plus art-related sites the pair mapped out for a GIS culture trail for the Toledo Arts Commission.<\/p><\/div>\n
The purpose of the Culture Trail is to bring people to the arts \u2014 literally.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone who wants to go on a two-mile walk from where they live could search for what routes they can take and then go and see all the murals on that route,\u201d said Dr. Sujata Shetty, director of the Jack Ford Urban Affairs Center and professor in the UToledo Department of Geography and Planning. \u201cOr, if someone wants to see a particular sculpture, then they can map a route to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initial plan was to make maps of cultural assets already in existence, she said. But as the Culture Trail quickly came together, its scope was expanded beyond artworks and murals.<\/p>\n
At this point, the Culture Trail includes more than 350 sites, including The University of Toledo. The breakdown consists of:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 136 murals;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 91 cultural and community assets;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 60 sculptures;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 35 history markers; and,<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 35 cultural resource points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan is to eventually include music venues and restaurants \u2013 all of those things that might be considered a cultural asset,\u201d Shetty said.\u00a0 It will also include information like bus routes, bike lanes, bike racks and walking paths, making it easy for people to make their way to various locations.<\/p>\n
Mapping of the Culture Trail was started in Fall 2020 by Nafula Barasa, a Ph.D. student in the Spatially Integrated Social Science program and the Department of Geography and Planning, working with the Urban Affairs Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project was a great learning point for me, especially as an international student new to the city,\u201d Barasa said. \u201cI was able to learn more about the city\u2019s rich cultural places and parks through a computer, and at the same time it helped me navigate through the city with ease as I had visuals from the maps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also visited some of the parks we mapped and had quality time with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shetty said she was happy to partner with the Arts Commission on this project and that she hopes to continue to help expand the Culture Trail to include more must-see places and spaces in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what made this most appealing is that this is really an effort to open up what Toledo already has to all the residents of the city,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have wonderful museums, but we have wonderful assets outside of these museums as well. It\u2019s important that this art and culture be accessible, and to make that possible, it would be good to show people how they might be able to get to these wonderful assets in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work on this project is continuing and it is not yet available to the public.<\/p>\n
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