Keep Art Real in Trenton, New Jersey

Flyer from 1988.Artworks, Trenton, New Jersey. Image from Tricia Fagan.

I've been meaning to write a bit about an arts organizing crisis effort in Trenton, New Jersey. Artworks is a community-based fine arts program and Gallery run by Mercer County Community College in the historic "ARTWORKS" building. Both credit and non-credit visual arts classes are available, year-round, for adults, teens, and children. The Gallery at ARTWORKS also hosts exhibitions of work by regional artists, students, and members of the TAWA artists' coop.

Instructor Rory Mahon with his Aluminum Casting class, Artworks. Image from Tricia Fagan.

This facility has been in operation for more than 15 years, although the community college management is relatively recent.

Studio at Artworks.

The City of Trenton has come up with the brilliant idea of replacing this arts use with another arts use--converting the building to condos, with an artists gallery on the ground floor. It's interesting, tragic, and a waste of precious revitalization capital that rather than complement the ArtsWork project with a live-work set of housing and a new and additional gallery, they merely propose to replace one arts use with another. Compare this with projects described in Cities: Back from the Edge by Roberta Gratz, for ground up revitalization efforts in places such as LoDo in Denver and Mansfield, Ohio, as well as the Social Impact of the Arts project at Penn.

Image from Tricia Fagan.

As the community organizing blog devoted to keeping the Artworks use extant, Keep Art Real, points out "the proposed condos for which ARTWORKS would be gutted are described as live/work space for artists but will be open for purchase by anyone."

Garden State Project - an ARTWORKS installation exhibit, May 2005. Image from Tricia Fagan.

Speaking of layering (see Pride of Place: Fred Kent and the Project for Public Spaces), this project proposal makes no sense. Certainly the area where ARTWORKS is located has plenty of vacant buildings in the vicinity. After all, it's Trenton, New Jersey, another (smaller) center city that has suffered multiple cycles of deindustrialization resulting in job and population losses. According to this report, more than one out of every ten Trenton residential buildings is vacant. Plus there are plenty of industrial buildings capable of being converted to housing as well.

Trenton Makes Bridge. Marc Freeman photography. Today, Trenton's population is 2/3 of its peak in 1950, which was 128,009 residents.

Create an arts district. There are plenty of good examples. Merely replacing one arts use with another (purportedly) arts use makes no sense whatsoever.

Mexican Art traditions, Dia de los Muertos, Artworks. Image from Tricia Fagan.

Check out the Keep Art Real blog, send suggestions, and considering writing a letter of support.

Index Keywords: arts-culture