Mixed Bag: RVA Arts and Culture District "Progress" (?)

First Fridays' Christina Newton responds to the city's proposal for an arts and culture district (unedited version) here.

And... the city takes a step in the arts district direction here- there is much debate about whether this step is big enough, headed in the right direction, etc. (Check out the article's comments.)

It is unfortunate that the city would seemingly ignore important components of the Cultural Task Force's plans: primarily the implementation of specific financial incentives for arts businesses within the proposed cultural district.

The renovation of the Morton building sounds good, but I have to wonder who it's going to attract. Will there be financial incentives and assistance for artists to live there like those offered by DC's Cultural Development Corporation? I'd like to read something where a bunch of opinions of artists who already live downtown are spotlighted. What DO artists think of all of this?

A year ago when CultureWorks brought Theresa Cameron to town to talk to interested parties about planning for arts and culture districts, I was wondering the same thing. What do Richmond's artists want?

Updates: VCA and RVA Arts District

Virginians for the Arts

Are you friends with Virginians for the Arts on Facebook? They often post updates on the state of the arts (funding-wise and more) in VA.

Despite recent funding concerns, Virginia Commission for the Arts advocates are currently breathing a sigh of relief. The Hampton Roads Business Journal reports on this here.

In less encouraging news, Style ran this note a couple of weeks ago: "City: Arts District Will See 'Vigorous' Code Enforcement." This is a "thing that makes us go hmmmmm" on a couple of levels, but maybe we should just be happy that the city's plans to impose regulations on a future arts district mean that the establishment of said arts district is imminent. (?)

Yeah, winning, duh.

Also, have you gotten your RVA Arts tattoo, yet?

RVA Arts and Culture Districts: Follow-up by Art Works

Plant Zero

Recently, we reported on CultureWorks' developments in discussions of RVA arts and culture districts.

Art Works has information on their blog about what was discussed during the Manchester meeting in which that area's cultural venues met and answered questions provided by CultureWorks (for the purpose of further identifying how RVA culture districts might look and operate.)

Check it out to see how they answered CultureWorks' questions and to get a feel for the next step in this ongoing process of defining Richmond's cultural identity.

CultureWorks updates: RVA arts and creative cultural developments

This week RVAAB attended two meetings led by CultureWorks. The first meeting was a bloggers meeting, and the second meeting took place Thursday night at the Visual Arts Center and was open to the public.

CultureWorks has been busy working to bring the business and creative communities of Richmond together, but how much do you know about this group and what they’ve been up to? Some recent developments you should be aware of…


The Richmond Region Cultural Action Plan has celebrated its first birthday. What is RCAP? Click here to get a slightly more comprehensive view of the Plan, its history and goals. Briefly stated: RCAP sought to determine “how best to take strategic and visionary advantage of the rich array of arts and culture in the Richmond region.” This was determined through much volunteer effort, questionnaires and interviews with arts organizations, practitioners, and others- the data compiled was then used to develop the goals of RCAP. (The entire Plan may be read at www.wolfbrown.com/richmond.)

Why should you care about the Plan? The Plan’s seven broad goals probably affect you and your creative or business practice in some way- click the link to find out more about the Plan and how it relates to you.

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Talks about one or more arts districts in Richmond are ongoing. (Click here and here for our previous posts related to the topic, here for some coverage from Style.) Currently a “hub and spokes” model for RVA arts districts is being favored; this would mean that there would be a primary arts and culture district, but there could be others as well that would not necessarily have to share geographic proximity.

Several potential areas for arts/culture districts have been recognized, and each of these areas has been charged with organizing themselves, meeting and talking to determine the needs and wants of their individual areas and how the city might support these in ways other than monetarily.

This has been another recent step towards progress- the City has been supportive of and participatory in arts/culture district talks. (Way to go, Richmond!)

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CultureWorks wants to know if Richmonders want to take advantage of services provided by Fractured Atlas (this was the main topic of Thursday night's Visarts meeting). Some services provided by Fractured Atlas include:

-fiscal sponsorship: enables individuals and organizations to apply for nonprofit status in order to participate in fundraising efforts (fundraising efforts can take place online, similar to the structure of DonorsChoose or Kickstarter)

-health insurance and/or liability insurance: liability insurance may be especially useful to artists who, as a stipulation of commissioned works must be able to provide their own liability insurance

-professional development resources: Fractured Atlas offers online courses to assist artists/creatives in the business of making their work

If you have any interest in services provided by Fractured Atlas, it is strongly recommended that you click the links to learn more about them and what they do, and then contact CultureWorks to let them know that you would like to take advantage of these services. OR if you DO NOT think Fractured Atlas would be good for Richmond, CultureWorks would probably like to hear your opinion about that, too.

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Visual Arts Center is launching a series of workshops next fall titled “Creativity at Work.” This program has been “designed to reach out to the business community to provide tools and strategies for driving innovation in the workplace,” and there will be 3 full-day workshops addressing this and related topics.

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CultureWorks is exploring the idea of “Cultural Shareholders” in RVA- this could be a way for arts organizations, arts practitioners, arts patrons and supporters to stand up and be counted for the many ways we compose the complex structure of Richmond’s arts community. This idea is still in development, but be on the lookout for more information about it in the future.

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Have you wondered what’s been going on with the arts website that CultureWorks determined was a primary need of arts practitioners in Richmond? (This is included under Goal V of RCAP.) The most recent update on this is that ways of accomplishing this task are still being explored- could we make better use of something we already have (e.g. ConnectRichmond)? Is there another platform already out there that we could easily adopt (something like your757.com or Artsopolis)? Or do we really need to reinvent the wheel for the sake of a comprehensive online Richmond arts resource?

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Wow- this is a lot of information- what do you think?

Have you had positive or negative experiences with Fractured Atlas?

Do we need a Richmond arts website- if so, what would you like to see on it? Do you currently use ConnectRichmond or something else to find out about Richmond’s arts scene? First Fridays and The Creative Change Center are also great examples of arts resources we already have available.

What else would you like to see happening in RVA's arts community?

The NEA wants to help Richmond!

On January 21st, 2010, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman spoke before the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. He spoke about the NEA's goal of building "complete communities using the arts as a fulcrum." Below are some important excerpts from his talk, especially relevant given all of Richmond's recent arts and culture district buzz (our previous post here and Style's recent report here)...

NEA's new logo

Artists are entrepreneurs, small business owners all, great placemakers and community builders. Bring artists into the center of town and that town changes profoundly. We know now that people do not migrate to businesses, it is the other way around. Businesses look for a skilled, motivated, educated workforce, and will move to where that is. And what does that workforce look for? In survey after survey, the answer is education and culture.

People follow other people. To turn upside down one of my favorite lines, from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you come, they will build it."

When artists do come and form clusters and build cultural institutions, what happens? Everything good. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the work of Richard Florida about the importance of the "Creative Class" in our fast-changing economy.

For now, my reference point is recent work by Mark Stern, Susan Seifert, and Jeremy Nowak based on a ten-year study at the University of Pennsylvania of the catalytic role of the arts in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Three general conclusions stand out:

1. The arts are a force for social cohesion and civic engagement. In communities with a strong cultural presence, people are much more likely to engage in civic activities beyond the arts. Community participation increases measurably and the result is more stable neighborhoods.

2. The arts make a major difference in child welfare. To quote, "Low income block groups with high cultural participation were more than twice as likely to have very low truancy and delinquency rates."

3. Art is a poverty fighter. In the cycle I have already described, artists form clusters, cultural institutions are built, people gravitate to them, and the businesses follow. The businesses hire and the virtuous cycle continues. And arts jobs leverage other jobs. Buy a ticket and see a play. You see the actors on a stage. But behind those actors are administrators, designers, ushers, stagehands, costume makers, and just outside the building are parking lot attendants, cooks, and waiters.

...

First, the direct funding. This is the 25th anniversary of the NEA Mayors' Institute on City Design, and we are marking that anniversary with a new initiative: MICD 25.

As you all hopefully know, MICD is the NEA's partnership with the US Conference of Mayors and the American Architectural Foundation (thank you, Ron Bogle).

Since 1986, MICD has helped transform communities through smart, innovative design by preparing mayors to be the chief designers of their cities. MICD organizes sessions where mayors engage leading design experts to find solutions to the most critical urban design challenges facing their cities.

Building on this quarter century of momentum, through MICD 25, we will make up to 15 grants ranging from $25,000 to a quarter of a million dollars in recognition of the role that smart design, arts, artists, and arts organizations can play in building dynamic places where people want to live and work.

These grants will be available to any city that has had a mayor go through MICD over the past 25 years - some 600 cities - whether that specific mayor is still in office or not.

And we will be looking for cities that have partnerships among arts organizations and artists, design professionals and design centers, developers, business owners, community organizations, and private foundations.

We are looking to fund planning projects, including the planning of arts districts, the mapping of cultural assets along with their development potential, and the creation of innovative plans to maximize the creative sector.

...

Our intention is ambitious, but simple. We will start in a few selected communities where we can make a real difference, and find ways that federal agencies, in conjunction with significant private sector commitment, can build complete communities using the arts as a fulcrum.

Some examples: Affordable artists housing might involve HUD. A city that wants to expand a limited tourist streetcar line into a real mode of public transportation connecting the arts district to the rest of the city might get a hearing at the Department of Transportation. The Department of Education might encourage arts charter schools that can transform a neighborhood. The Small Business Administration might support the entrepreneurs known as artists. And so on.

We need to hear from you and hear the needs of your cities. And the agencies will make determinations within their own guidelines and policies. It is my firm conviction that there is a current or incipient arts resource in every federal agency and that a focused, collaborative effort can produce meaningful results.

...

Read the complete speech here, and check out guidelines for the grant program and application here. Thanks to B'more Art for drawing our attention to the information.

Hubba Bubba Clucker Link Monday

Matthew Damian Ritchie is showing at the Listening Room Gallery in Ashland

Artists Anonymous meeting Tuesday, Feb. 16th

1212 Gallery's Women's International Juried Photography Exhibition deadline: March 5th

Grid on: "The Constructed Image" at the Pauley Center and "Phono/Graph" at Artworks' Skylight Gallery

Style's midseason arts issue (great articles on Main Street art galleries and continued talks about a potential Arts and Culture district for RVA)

Adam Juresko showing at Chop Suey

1708/C3's Talk20 has been rescheduled for March 16th, 6- 8 PM

Richmond Magazine's mindboggling list of things to do/places to go in Richmond- including an exhaustive visual arts venue list

More from Grid on Daniel Calder's show at Main Art (opens March 5th), Matthew Damian Ritchie currently showing at the Listening Room Gallery, Gallery 5's Sleight of Hand, and on the John Brown exhibition and gallery walk (Feb. 17th) at VHS

RTD on Ben Barnes at Chasen Gallery and on "Slightly Unbalanced" at UR Museums

RAGE on rescheduled gallery openings (to occur this week)


Elsewhere:

Northern VA also has art- better yet, they have some potential art gossip...

RVA Arts and Culture District...?

Tuesday morning I attended one-and-a-half meetings during the free pre-conference segment of Art Works for Virginia. The morning's session, led by Brain Shull, outlined Harrisonburg's formation of an arts and culture district (Harrisonburg was first in Virginia to undertake the task of creating an arts and culture district- though more areas have followed suite. Check out VA Arts and Culture Blogspot.com), and benefits the area has seen come from this.

The next meeting was led by Theresa Cameron of Americans for the Arts who talked more about arts and culture districts across the country, benefits of the districts, and specific areas-of-concern to be considered during the process of structuring arts and culture districts. More than once, Cameron cautioned that it is of utmost importance to consider the needs of our specific community before determining the guidelines of our own arts and culture districts. (VALAA will be adding information from the conference to its website in the near future.)

Confused? Me, too, a little. As an interested bystander to all of this conversation, I have figured out a few things: first, an arts and culture district is a specific zone that enjoys certain financial benefits (waived sales tax, waived admissions tax, etc.- it can vary from district to district) due to its designation. These benefits are allotted the district with the purpose of supporting artists and arts venues, which in turn attract more business to the area, benefiting the area as a whole. The cry for a Richmond arts and culture district has been raised more than once, but became especially poignant this fall after the October First Fridays/Richmond City Police debacle. It seems the hope of some Richmond venues is that an arts district will make allowances for occupancy restrictions (at least during First Fridays), in addition to waiving admissions taxes- this is an assumption on my part.

After the morning's meetings, I found myself wondering where Richmond stands in the whole arts and culture district process- are we at the very beginning, are we thinking about testing the waters, or have some strides been made? Luckily, the evening meeting sponsored by CultureWorks again featured Theresa Cameron, but this time she spoke about Richmond's progress. It seems that due to the work done on and through the Richmond Region Cultural Action Plan, CultureWorks has information necessary in determining the next steps to be taken, which may be garnering support through the General Assembly (?). BAM has some more info on the fruits of the RRCAP here, which makes me wonder if the next update on all of this won't be made public until April 6th?

There could definitely be some better promotion of these events, as Tuesday evening's meeting was attended by less than 20 people. Surely there are more arts big wigs and "interested bystanders" in RVA than that.

And... based on the RRCAP research, what Richmond artists most want from CultureWorks is "an ongoing listing of organizations/competitions/opportunities that want/need visual and performing arts"? And health insurance?

I still have lots of questions about lots of stuff, and if I have put any misinformation out there in the body of this post, please forgive my ignorance and use the comments to educate me. I am interested in what has happened, who is making the decisions, and what is coming next. So if you know, feel free to share.

We Are All Invited...

Open Invitation to Meeting with National Expert on Arts Districts

CultureWorks is hosting a public meeting with national arts district expert Theresa Cameron on Tuesday, January 26, 5:45-7:00 pm at the Richmond Marriott Hotel at the corner of Broad and 5th Streets. You are invited to attend, and no reservations are needed. The meeting will be held in Salons 2 and 3 on the lower level (There is a statewide meeting on arts districts also – not to be confused.) Theresa will provide brief introductory comments and will then provide her expertise and experience in response to questions from the attendees. Please share this invitation with your constituents and your networks.

This meeting is taking place the same day as the first FREE day of the ArtWorks for Virginia Conference. If we all attend the Tuesday 1:00 "ABC's of Building an Arts and Culture District," maybe we'll have some intelligent questions to ask by the time of the CultureWorks-sponsored evening meeting.