Students can get a chance to catch up on pop culture history by "milling about" Tempe city hall.
Monday marked the first day of "Milling About: Getting to Know Downtown Tempe," an exhibit located in the City Hall Gallery, featuring art and objects from downtown Tempe and ASU's past.
Co-curator Andrea Hanley said the exhibit is designed to show off the diversity of the downtown Tempe area.
"All the different objects in the exhibit are little tidbits of what goes on in Tempe," Hanley said. "It shows the diversity and exciting things that are happening in Tempe."
The exhibit includes a brief history of popular culture at ASU, including facts about the Rolling Stones' filming of "Let's Spend the Night Together" at ASU in the 1980s and U2's filming of "Rattle and Hum" in 1987 at Sun Devil Stadium.
Other sections of the exhibit include objects from pop culture and Tempe's musical history, including ticket stubs from concerts for the early 1990s band The Gin Blossoms.
The Gin Blossoms played under the guise of The Delmontes at Long Wongs on Mill Avenue in the early 1990s, and The Delmontes banner from Long Wongs hangs in the exhibit.
The pop culture is not only visual but includes sound clips from local acts like Jimmy Eat World, The Gin Blossoms and other musicians as well.
Black-and-white photos of the Rio Salado development project, taken by ASU alumnus Craig Smith, date from 1999.
Smith said when the photography project started, Rio Salado was just a dry riverbed.
"Basically, I had to find and capture the inherent beauty and quality of the landscape, that in the beginning, was just piles of dirt," Smith said.
Photos show the project's development from a dry riverbed to a large body of water, known today as Tempe Town Lake.
"The face of Tempe changes every day," Smith said. "Downtown Tempe looks so different from when I started the [Rio Salado photography] project."
Many city departments contributed to the exhibit, including the police department, the cultural services division and Arizona Music Heritage Inc.
The exhibit runs Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Sept. 5.
Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.
