More "ya gotta have art"

I suppose in the context of DC's new Mayor, Adrian Fenty, and his transition planning, I need to communicate the CPC "historic preservation agenda" (an earlier version resides in this blog entry, "City Council Chair Candidates Forum Today") as well as a draft cultural resources management and development plan, which is still in the quiet phase, being sent around here and there for comments, and isn't quite ready for wider distribution.

(I have written before that the Arts and Culture Element in the Comp Plan revision is pretty lame. I am surprised that people in the arts realm think it's good, but they are so starved for appreciation that they welcome even crumbs.)

In any case, some interesting stuff.

From "Pittsfield begins first cultural plan for city":

In Pittsfied, Massachusetts, "Mayor James M. Ruberto announced today [November 2] the creation of a steering committee to guide the community in the formation of a three-to-five-year cultural plan. . . . The plan will identify strategies to increase access to arts and culture for all Pittsfield residents; foster the continuing vitality and expansion of the City's cultural sector; and attract new individuals and businesses interested in participating and investing in the City's creative economy."

In DC we don't have a plan. So we don't set priorities. Or I should say, such priorities haven't been publicly disclosed. It's more akin to earmarks in a similar fashion to how it works at the federal level. I'm not criticizing how much money the city spends for such programming, just that the "system" appears to be almost completely ad-=hoc.

And, in "The Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life" the National Endowment for the Arts releases a study showing that:

people who participate in the arts also engage in positive civic and individual activities - such as volunteering, going to sporting events, and outdoor activities - at significantly higher rates than non-arts participants. The study also reveals that young adults (18-34) show a declining rate of arts participation and civic activities.

Speaking of cultural resources planning, the Baltimore City Heritage Area is working on a proposal to make their state heritage area a nationally designated heritage area. They have a meeting about this tonight, although I won't be attending.

Index Keywords: arts-culture; cultural-heritage-tourism