The town (or place) that art saved(?): arts as revitalization versus arts as community building

I suppose there is a book out there, modelled after The Town that Food Saved, about the arts.  The issue I have been attuned to going on 20 years is revitalization focused arts programming versus what I call arts as community building.  

The way of specifying the difference is a program versus a one off activity creating a mural, etc.  It's not that the latter isn't important, but it isn't a program with objectives, and it's the program that makes a difference in revitalization (Developing and Advancing a Cultural District Tools: Resources, and Templates for Creating a Successful Cultural District, Americans for the Arts)

Another way to think about this is sustained efforts ("Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives," 2015).  My entry on arts districts and arts as consumption versus arts as production is about this kind of approach ("Reprinting with a slight update, "Arts, culture districts and revitalization"," originally 2009, revised 2019).  The entry discusses arts as production versus arts as consumption, relying on the writings of John Montgomery, the components of arts districts, and facilities as infrastructure.

Or from Urban Regime theory:

An urban regime can be preliminarily defined as the informal arrangements through which a locality is governed (Stone 1989). Because governance is about sustained efforts, it is important to think in agenda terms rather than about stand-alone issues. By agenda I mean the set of challenges which policy makers accord priority. A concern with agendas takes us away from focusing on short-term controversies and instead directs attention to continuing efforts and the level of weight they carry in the political life of a community. Rather than treating issues as if they are disconnected, a governance perspective calls for considering how any given issue fits into a flow of decisions and actions. This approach enlarges the scope of what is being analyzed, looking at the forest not a particular tree here or there. [emphasis added, in this paragraph and below] ...

By looking closely at the policy role of business leaders and how their position in the civic structure of a community enabled that role, he identified connections between Atlanta's governing coalition and the resources it brought to bear, and on to the scheme of cooperation that made this informal system work. In his own way, Hunter had identified the key elements in an urban regime – governing coalition, agenda, resources, and mode of cooperation. These elements could be brought into the next debate about analyzing local politics, a debate about structural determinism.

So much about the arts in community and revitalization is the lack of a program.  Also see: 

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program "

Murals as community building: Philadelphia.  Can murals be a gateway to a more developed revitalization program?  Philadelphia is known for their mural arts program, which is massive ("Philadelphia's Mural Arts program will bring expertise, funding to Detroit," Detroit Free Press).  

But while it contributes to neighborhood stabilization and gets people involved, does it truly harvest the interests and needs of the community in terms of improvement of the local micro-economy?

I think it comes down to most artists involved in such programs not being interested in revitalization.  Often, city arts functions are part of the "economic development" cluster of city agencies.  But I'm not sure good the average arts council is on these functions either.  If, and that's a big if, cities want to achieve revitalization objectives from mural projects too, they're going to have to plan for it.  For example, Arts Councils probably need to add some economic development planners.

Springfield Missouri Museum of Art.  Somehow I came across a program by the museum which had community members go through the collection, especially items in storage and create exhibits of their reactions.  Again, I think this is community building. nd building awareness and interest in the institution and the community ("House of Art(s) to open at the Springfield Art Museum," Springfield News-Leader), "Drury Students to help with De-Installation of Springfield Art Museum Exhibit," Ozarks First, "Space as event as ouevre," Gerard Nadeau).  But that isn't revitalization, and again ikely that's not a goal of the museum.  From the first article:

In collaboration with Drury University's Art of Space, led by assistant professor Gerard Nadeau, the museum is erecting the outdoor House of Art(s) on the northwest corner of the museum's grounds. 

 Sarah Buhr, the museum's curator of art, says the project has been in the works for months and is funded with money from Missouri Arts Council grants. Buhr says the idea for the outdoor exhibit was born after members of Art of Space visited the museum. "We gave them a small tour of our storage spaces in our collection and a challenge: Think of a project that would connect with the interior of the museum from the outside," she says. 

The Drury students came up with the idea for the House of Art(s). Large weatherproofed panels that were painted by artists throughout the community will form the walls of the space. Plexiglas panels will form a sort of roof, to protect the contents.

Arts as revitalization.  Below are listed programs that I think qualify as arts as revitalization.  The list is by no means comprehensive.  There are dozens and dozens of such districts in the US and abroad.

Murals as community branding: City of South Salt Lake.  In SLC, SSL is considered "inner city." If they only knew.  SSL has a bunch of industrial land, is adding apartments, doesn't really have a center but claim to be creating one ("South Salt Lake’s “downtown” has been a bust so far. Its new transit station areas plan aims to change that," Building Salt Lake), although they have the opportunity because of a heavily used Trax station just a couple blocks away from State Street.

Main Street in Salt Lake is more a dividing line between east and west than a Main Street per se, that function is fulfilled by State Street  (Hwy 89, which crosses the entire state).  In SSL, Main Street is mostly a lot of low rise industrial, and so in today's post industrial society, brewpubs qualify zoning-wise, so there are many.

Nothing Lasts mural and Apex Brewing.  It's hard to develop vitality in a corridor when most of the buildings are fronted by parking.

This corridor has been targeted by SSL as the site for an annual Mural Fest in May ("Mural Fest draws international attention to new art in South Salt Lake," KSL-TV), where artists create new murals to add to the outdoor gallery.  It's comparable to Wynnwood Walls in Miami (see below), but the large size of the blocks and car dependency make it hard to develop a walking culture, especially because many of the buildings still function as industrial.

While SSL has designated this area as a Creative Industries Zone, I don't think it's had the same kind of impact of Portland's Central Eastside industrial zoning for small and artisan businesses.  Still, the very visual murals have been a way for the city to differentiate and develop an identity separate from Salt Lake City.

Pittsburgh.  I read a bunch of articles over the weekend from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and these are about mural projects ("North Side mural project will bring a splash of color to blighted streets," "New Sharpsburg public art highlights the borough's vibrant community and indigenous history," "“TThe Strip Mural,” on the Hermanowski building in the Strip District.9MORE Strip search: A Penn Avenue mural is filled with Easter eggs to the neighborhood it honorss,")

Pittsburgh Glass Center is one of the anchor institutions that was recruited by the Penn Ave. Arts Initiative.

OTOH, Pittsburgh has at least two national best practice examples of arts districts, one is the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, operating Downtown and in other parts of the city ("The Howard and Lincoln Theatres: run them like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust/Playhouse Square Cleveland model," 2012, "Pittsburgh Cultural Trust maintains diverse real estate portfolio to support arts," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; "How the Arts Drove Pittsburgh's Revitalization," The Atlantic) at a bigger scale, more arts as consumption, and the Penn Ave. Arts Initiative, which is more a bottom up effort focused on expanding the work and array of art as production, centered on artists who live in the neighborhood, complemented by the development of arts anchors, sponsored by two neighborhood improvement associations along the avenue ("Artists revitalized Penn Avenue by creating Pittsburgh’s longest-running monthly art festival," NextPittsburgh, "Creating Place: The role of Community Development Corporations in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods," 

Artfields, Lake City SC.  There is an educational television program I saw over the weekend, "Towns in Tune," featuring two communities, one in Canada, one in the US.  

The US program focused on Lake City, SC, a town which crashed in association with the decline of tobacco and other crops.  An initiative, called ArtFields, is both an 11 day event, held in spots around the community, an organization, and an ongoing program including galleries, public art, and arts education.  

They do interesting things, and is an example of a town that art saved, as business has increased, vacant storefronts have been occupied and became thriving businesses, a stream of tourists, etc.  Surprisingly the small community has access to a ton of money, through the generosity of Darla Moore, a hedge fund operator, who grew up there.

"Tin Man" by Bill Secunda, is on display at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. At 17 feet tall, it towers above pedestrians and traffic and is seen "offering to us his most prized possession, his heart." Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News

Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Art Fields is modelled after the Art Prize program in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It's  a two week festival, with decent monetary prizes for artists ("ArtPrize to transform Grand Rapids in two weeks," "Why ArtPrize had a bigger economic impact in 2023," WOOD-TV,  "ArtPrize returns to downtown Grand Rapids. Here's what's different this year," Detroit News, "15 years later, can ArtPrize still wow Grand Rapids?," Grand Rapids Press).

Amanda Browder’s Spectral Locus, 2016, included in ArtPrize’s Project 1 biennial. Photo: Tom Loonan/Project 1.

Last year, they had over 700,000 attendees at 50 events.  Pieces are placed at hundreds of venues across the city, from coffee shops to an auto body shop, helping to make connections and generating income for local businesses.

Like Lake City, the program had a big donor, originally the DeVos Family.  Grand Rapids didn't need saving, it's one of the most thriving communities in Western Michigan, but you can never be successful enough.

Unfortunately, with covid, the program started disbanding, but was revived by the city and other entities ("ARTPRIZE DISSOLVES BOARD, ENDS COMPETITION," ArtForum, "ArtPrize calls it quits after 13 years," Grand Rapids Press).  Obviously there is a lesson there too.

Baltimore.  The Station North Arts District, anchored by Penn Station, Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art (a degree granting institution) and the University of Baltimore, has always impressed me.  It shines during Artscape, a weekend art festival run by the city through a separate nonprofit but government agency, but more recently Artscape has had problems because of city over involvement, rain wrecking most of one festival, and covid, "Artscape will return to Midtown and Station North in 2024; 11 new members join BOPA board of directors," Baltimore Fishbowl).

The Made in Baltimore market was part of Artscape 2023. Baltimore's Artscape festival returned in September 2023 after a three-year hiatus. Photo by Ed Gunts.

The district has many anchor organizations and buildings, with space for arts and organizations and programs ("Art Space: Former Station North Funeral Home Transforms Into a Community Art Hub," Baltimore Fishbowl).  Anchoring institutions include the Maryland Film Festival and theatres, and the Johns Hopkins theatre and film programs (the campus is a couple miles away).

A parking lot in the Station North arts district will become the setting for a six-story, 160-unit apartment building designed for artists, under a plan by The Severn Companies and CAM Construction..

Art House Baltimore is the name of the project.It  will house a community gathering space, management offices, a telework lounge, a fitness center, covered parking and about 13,000 square feet of commercial space that can accommodate a mix of artist studios, a makerspace and a café. The residences will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

And there is a good program for developing live work housing for artists.  It used to be that Jubilee Housing of Baltimore was the main actor, but now for profit developers are active too ("Artists’ housing: Six-story, 160-unit, $37 million apartment building proposed for Baltimore’s Station North area," Baltimore Fishbowl).

Both Station North as an arts district and the Penn Ave.. Arts Initiative have "an advantage" in that they are still weak real estate markets, so property prices, while rising, aren't the same kind of hindrance as they are in strong real estate markets ("Central Baltimore Partnership and Johns Hopkins unveil new plan for Station North," Fox5 Baltimore).

-- 2024 Station North Economic Development Implementation Roadmap

It is interesting that the University of Baltimore and MICA weren't also conveners of the study.  And 10 years ago I suggested that Morgan State should have moved their architecture school to the district ("Morgan State University should move their architecture and planning school to Downtown/Station North Arts District," ).

Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts has sponsored other big annual festivals and events, including a book festival and winter light festival.

The State of Maryland has an arts district designation program, which has some benefits to artists like tax exclusions on sales of art made within the district, but it's pretty limited.

-- State Cultural Districts, Policy Brief, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

Mural by Reinier Gamboa.

Wynnwood Arts District, Miami.  Was created by gallerists, but a few years later the Wynnwood Walls program of mural production was created to extend the arts district to the outdoors and increase foot traffic and visibility ("n Miami, the Murals Are the Message," New York Times).  

It's become one of the city's arts centers, with galleries, five museums, private collections presented to the public, artist studios, performance spaces, various festivals, and Art Basel Miami ("Breathing Life, and Art, Into a Downtrodden Neighborhood," New York Times).

Interestingly, as rents rose the number of galleries shrunk from 70 to 10.  So the Wynnwood district is an example of arts uses preparing a neighborhood for reproduction of space in ways that displace the pioneers.  

Prince Edward County, Ontario. A rural community development program that pre-dates Lake City is the Creative Rural Economy initiative in Ontario ("Canada’s underrated answer to the Hamptons – halfway between Montreal and Toronto," Telegraph).

This economic and community development program focuses on food, agriculture especially wine, arts and related activities ("Creativity, Tourism and Economic Development in a Rural Context: the case of Prince Edward County," Journal of Rural and Community Development)

North Adams/Pittsfield/Williams College/Williamstown: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. In Western Massachusetts, between Albany and Boston, MassMOCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art was created to show large works over the long term, in previously abandoned very large manufacturing facilities.  

I think this was one of the first arts districts I came across, when I first started working on urban revitalization ("MassMoCA: What Dallas can learn from a museum in rural Massachusetts," Dallas Morning News, "Mass MoCA sees momentum through 25 years," "How can a museum grow a creative ecosystem?," and "North Adams and Mass MoCA look to the future," BTW Berkshires, "Mass Moca, the museum that almost wasn't, celebrates 20 years," Art Newspaper).

From Art Newspaper:

The museum does not collect, which is another break from the institutional norm. It has some long-term installations, such Sol LeWitt’s dedicated wall-drawing retrospective that has an astounding 40-year run (it remains up until 2043). Only Mass Moca had the space and entrepreneurial spunk to do it. 

... Mass Moca is an anomaly in another respect: the museum has 37 commercial tenants that now generate $50m in economic activity for the region annually. The commercial rents are an essential part of the museum's financial model. This hybrid use of space will—and should—inform future museum expansions. 

Mass Moca is also different in the role performing arts play in its programming. Around half the museum's resources go to dance, theatre, film, concerts and festivals. Of the museum’s 300,000 annual visitors, around a third come for the performing arts. ... Few museums truly integrate the performing arts with the visual arts, although almost all great artists have been passionately engaged with the music and theatre of their times. Though this seems like a no-brainer, so thorough and organically united a programme is rare.

(An educational film on the project, "Downside UP," influenced one of my H Street Promotions Committee members, and we came up with an expanded concept for an arts district on H Street NE in Washington, DC.  While there are some organizations and plenty of eating and drinking establishments that have opened in the two decades since, no way is it an arts district.

We proposed incorporating the schools, and off street buildings into the program, and a couple of then abandoned city-owned buildings, when property was still "cheap" but it didn't come to pass.)

While the museum is super cool and some related businesses have opened, the area hasn't succeeded in becoming an arts district draw in the way that the other districts.  From the Boston Globe article, "Has Mass MoCA accomplished what it set out to do 25 years later,":

Mass MoCA has delivered on its artistic promise. It now ranks among the largest contemporary art museums in the country. Innovative long-term loans ensure works by art-world heavyweights fill its galleries. Lively music festivals draw tens of thousands of visitors each year, while its cavernous halls enable contemporary artists to create exhibitions at a scale seldom realized in the United States. One 2017 study put its annual lift to Berkshire County at just more than $50 million.

But the numbers tell a less convincing story when it comes to the museum’s economic impact on the people of North Adams. The median annual household income here — according to the latest estimates around $49,525, or roughly half the statewide figure — has grown by about $2,300 when adjusted for inflation over the past quarter century. Though it’s impossible to say where the city would be without Mass MoCA, the median household income has grown statewide by roughly $10,000 during that time, nearly four and a half times greater than in North Adams.

The lessons here are (1) you need a revitalization plan to extend beyond an anchoring facility, to make purposeful connections between potential assets, because (2) trickle down isn't enough, and (3) regardless it can take decades to see results.

Leimert Park, Los Angeles as a model of a POC centric commercial district.  Many years ago Leimert Park in Los Angeles was featured in the Washington Post as a black-business district ("Los Angeles's Black Pride: Taking In the Retro Vibe of Leimert Park," places, 2006).  

I visited it back then and wasn't impressed.  But it provided the bones for a model.  Especially with amped up investment.  The issue back then was disinvestment, not the concept.

-- "How a gentrifying Leimert Park is ending up in Black hands," Los Angeles Times
-- "Purchasing power: Leimert Park merchants come together to buy their building," Los Angeles Standard
-- "Leimert Park Art Village: The Struggle with a Sense of Place," PBS SoCal

Since 2007 when I saw it, there has been a lot of new investment in the district, not just adding rail transit service, but in revitalizing what had been an old theater into a multifaceted cultural center.

Leimert Park is decently organized, and successfully campaigned for a more directly accessible transit station as part of a new line being developed to serve their area.  Also see "Leimert Park plays to its own beat," USC, and "Leimert Park: where does it go from here?," KCET--the latter article discusses how since the approval of the transit station, an unknown buyer has purchased many properties in the district. 

The Vision Theater in Leimert Park Village will be a cultural anchor and will bring new customer segments to the commercial district throughout the day and into the evening,  Photo from Horizon and Skyline blog.  

Also see "Leimert Theater: Envisioning a Neighborhood Landmark," KCET.  

Key to the revitalization program has been the retention of existing businesses and the incorporation of new arts and culture anchors (Leimert Park's World Stage hopes to keep the music playing" and "Play festival heralds impending revival of L.A.'s Vision Theatre," Los Angeles Times), along with park refurbishments, streetscape improvements, and other public space improvements.  

Indianapolis.  Again when I first became involved in revitalization, I learned that Indianapolis was one of the first, if not the first, cities to create a cultural (arts) district program.  The state later developed its own program.

At that time, they designated 5 areas, invested a lot in urban design, public art,. and sustainable mobility connections between the districts and Downtown.  They've since added two more districts.

A key anchor is the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which provides high quality biking and walking connections to and within the districts ("The new Indianapolis Cultural Trail is a masterpiece of bike-friendly design Cleveland should emulate," Cleveland Plain Dealer).

The trail connections are pretty cool.  Many business have created back door entrances to facilitate patronage by people on the trail.

The UK and London's Cultural Capital programs.  One of the things the UK lost access to with Brexit is the Cultural Capital program sponsored by the EU.  Liverpool very successfully participated back in 2008.  So the UK created its own program, and London followed, creating its Borough of Culture program..

The UK program designates cities every other year.  Next year it's Bradford ("Why Bradford is the UK’s most underrated cultural city break," Telegraph, "‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup," Guardian).

Wandsworth is the Borough of Culture for 2025.  Two programs are selected on a four year cycle.

My criticism is that two to four years isn't enough time to build a program and improve civic assets.  Bradford is finding it tough ("Bradford races against the clock to finish works in time for city of culture," Guardian).

Arabianranta in Helsinki.  Is a good example of an arts as production district, anchored by the Aalto school of arts and design, and various other ventures ("Developing Creative Quarters in Cities: Policy lessons from “Art and Design City Arabianranta, Helsinki," Urban Research and Practice, 2013).

Large institutional arts districts. All of the arts districts listed above are a kind of ground up district, whereas there are many "arts districts" across nations featuring multiple large institutions, usually presenting institutions focused on arts as consumption.  The Dallas Arts District, /BAM Arts District associated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Arts districts associated with City Beautiful, like Cleveland, etc.

You could call the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall in DC an example except it's not managed that way.

Not arts districts per se but a program of adding or improving cultural institutions on a city-wide scale.  A couple cities come to mind that have invested heavily in the arts and culture, although the facilities haven't been grouped together.  Bilbao is one example ("Why can't the "Bilbao Effect" be reproduced? | Bilbao as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning".  Also, Edmonton and Toronto ("Downtown Edmonton cultural facilities development as an example of "Transformational Projects Action Planning"").