Same old, same old (a/k/a DC Cultural Planning) in the guise of Dupont Underground

You know the line about "the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over and over again, but expecting a different result"?

That's how I feel about planning, particularly in DC but not just, but especially in DC, because the city seems to be inoculated against learning and improving.


The Washington City Paper cover story this week is on the likely failure of the Dupont Underground arts facility to continue in operation ("Can Dupont Underground Survive Financial Woes and Government Foot-Dragging?").

What's happening with the Dupont Underground is no different from the Howard Theatre and its problems.  Among others...

I am so tired of reading stories like this.

Each failure is an indicator of systemic, structural problems with cultural planning and cultural funding more generally.

My interest in cultural planning was sparked by the failure of the DC City Museum in 2003, and subsequent failures of other cultural facilities over the next few years including the Lincoln Theatre, Source Theatre, and the Heurich Museum, along with the inability to fix the central library.

-- "Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," 2007
In part, this piece builds on stuff I began writing in 2003, first with the City Museum.

-- "Reprinting with a slight update, 'Arts, culture districts and revitalization'," 2019
This piece is an update of a piece/presentation from 2009, which recommends the creation of discipline-specific arts plans with a special focus on facilities and access to space.

-- "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators," 2018
This piece corrects the omission of not overtly listing the need for a CDC as developer, in "Arts, culture districts, and revitalization."

It's frustrating that 17 years after the financial failure of the City Museum--now an Apple Store on the main floor, but with the remains of the Historical Society on the second floor, we have the same kinds of things still happening.

My thinking culminated in these two responses to DC's creation of a city-wide cultural plan:

-- "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem," 2019
-- "A comprehensive list of funding sources for arts and culture," 2019

Which built on so many other pieces, including:

-- Downtown Edmonton cultural facilities development as an example of "Transformational Projects Action Planning," 2018
-- "Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives," 2015
-- "The Howard and Lincoln Theatres: run them like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust/Playhouse Square Cleveland model," 2012

Being so tired of reading about artist and organization displacement, I began writing what I call the BTMFBA series, "Buy the Motherf*ing Building." (Hat tip to Dan Savage's "Savage Love" column and the subtheme DTMFA.)

And more clearly advocating for the creation of an arts-focused community development corporation to buy, hold, develop, maintain, and operate arts facilities at the city-wide scale.

-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporations as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018
-- "BTMFBA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: San Francisco's The Lab and the Mission Economic Development Agency are trying to do the smart thing," 2019
-- "Understanding why to preserve arts space in strong markets you have to BTMFBA: Minneapolis," 2019
-- "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016

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Annual funding.  One of the elements of cultural planning I tout is a community-wide funding system for the arts, such as an add-on sales tax or similar program, such as the Regional Asset District in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, the multi-county Science and Cultural Facilities District in Greater Denver, or the "Zoo Arts Parks" add on sales tax in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Or the ArtsWave community funding philanthropy program in Cincinnati.

But these kinds of programs tend to be oriented to larger institutions, and the smallest organizations have a hard time getting noticed, or funding, as a recent article about the Salt Lake program indicates ("Favoritism for Salt Lake County's biggest arts groups was baked into ZAP tax funding. Should that change?," Salt Lake Tribune).

There are ways I'd organize such a funding system differently, which will be the subject of a future article.  (Basically a tranche for big groups, a tranche for small groups, and a lottery to support innovation.)