Broadening the arts base - a more unified creative economy

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Broadening the arts base - a more unified creative economy

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Started 2 years ago by Andrew Hall
Latest reply from MikeReed

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Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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There have been numerous posts and exchanges on CU about the tension between the pure arts (like galleries) and restaurants and shops in the Short North. This popped into my mind recently when I was in Charleston (SC). At breakfast, I happened to browse through the typical arts guide that one finds in every city. I was struck by their unified vision for the creative business community.

The "arts guide" even on the cover featured the "culinary arts" and fashion. The whole presentation of the guide contained this unity. I think this is important as it mirrors the mindset of the visitor/consumer. People are seeking experiences within the creative community and that embraces all the senses and all the forms. At the end of the day or weekend, they are happiest and will more likely return when they feel they've had a whole experience more than just a meal or just some art.

While much of the overt tension between these sectors in the SN has been de facto resolved, we certainly have not moved into actively embracing this singular creative business community. At the most basic level, the SN still fails - the gross incompatibility between the business hours of the different sectors. (Yes, there are exceptions.) There needs to be a leap from the beginnings of uneasy cooperation to the outright embrace of not just promoting a "Short North" in a patchy compartmentalized fashion, but really driving home that it offers a complete creative market that has value beyond the sum of its parts.

I know much of this has been said in the abstract. I re-opened the point to use the example of Charleston actually doing this and doing it well - I was told by some in the travel biz that Charleston and Savannah get roughly equal visitors and Charleston gets 2x money from them. That is getting it.

A.

Posted 2 years ago #
artbomb112
The Heights
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To me... this is almost the ONE THING I would like to see a group like the GCAC take on. The creative community would benefit so much from one centralized, easy to use, calendar and listing of all creative spaces in town. It shouldn't be limited to just galleries or institutions.

As an arts organizer... I would hope that a group like the GCAC would put the horse before the cart and analyze (in a much broader sense) WHO they are serving. Right now... I think they have a list of people asking for money... and they scramble to try to dole it all out. If I were Milt or Wayne... (and I know I'm not)... I would be looking at the bigger picture of what creativity and the arts ARE in Columbus, identify them in a public way, and aggregate them. Then worry about funding.

My two cents.

Posted 2 years ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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That raises interesting questions : Is it really the role of an Arts Council to do this? That integrated approach seems me to be the role of business groups or CVBs.

I suspect one of the roadblocks to this process is exactly that pre-existing division of vision and approach. When arts funding was primarily government-derived, it made sense to compartmentalize like that. Now I think it is a hinderance.

A.

Posted 2 years ago #
artbomb112
The Heights
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Perhaps it would be good for the Arts Council to be speaking with businesses as well. I think any government entity that isn't speaking with the private and public sectors is shooting itself in the foot. Perhaps it takes all three. But the directive of the Arts Council is to comprehensively understand the creative culture of the city and to employ efforts to better it. I would find it their job to be reaching to these groups. Not just a traffic controller for public funds.

Posted 2 years ago #
MikeReed

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I would prefer that the GCAC not do this- but you are right. It does need to be done.

One of the major problems with the GCAC's site is that the information isn't sharable. You should be able to put data in, and get data out. That alone could spur creative growth, tools, and services. That is the contemporary mentality around data and creativity and encouraging a riding tide for everyone.

From the GCAC's website footer, "Copyright Ã‚Â© 2010 by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher."

They have an old school mentality about controlling power through restricting access to resources. There's no where to go with that. They don't deserve the data people would put into it because that policy proves they would not be good stewards of it.

Now, that said... there are several people I like very much at the GCAC and I respect and appreciate the roll of the organization. I'm not bashing them. I'm just saying they do not sufficiently "get it" with respect to creativity, art, data, design, and the blending of all of the above that is prevalent in our contemporary economy.

Contrast that with something like foursquare... their policy on their open API for storing and retrieving data is "Your application should try to play nicely against our methods."

So I would like for an organization with such a sensibility to build such a tool if one exists- or maybe the GCAC can get heroic and become that kind of organization. That would truly be something different that would set them apart form other such organizations nationally.

I would love to have time to put some energy into such a resource (an open one) and I'm doing heavy GIS programming these days (which would be necessary to do this kind of thing the right way- and also to combine things that are happening with other things that are happening... to encourage people to do more than one thing when they are in a neighborhood, for instance).

Posted 2 years ago #
artbomb112
The Heights
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I guess I'm suggesting that kind of change for them. If I were to identify what I would like to see from my city's major arts organization... it probably wouldn't be what the GCAC has been. But I think they know that. I think they have been in a "mushy" situation as of the past few years... nothing solid to run at. I'm suggesting that sort of a change and the opportunity for our arts organization to become what Andrew is proposing. An aggregate of creative activities. A bridge between the creative and the business centers of our city. A promotion of the activities happening already. A catalyst for new activities. I totally agree that much of this is done through transparency, participation, and shared information.

Being a castle may seem strong until it becomes known that you are dependent on the areas outside the walls to support the structures. When the serfs feel disconnected... and the knights retire.... the farms continue to grow and produce. The castle has a choice now of opening its strengths (and war chests) to the people support it or face irrelevance. My thought is that the castle should serve the people. I think the GCAC has been attempting to understand how to support. Hell... I think the whole city has been learning.

It isn't a quick adjustment. But it is happening.

I like the Indianapolis Arts Council site. It is as relevant to a small arts group as it is to a major one. The IAC serves the whole rather than the dukes and earls.

(sorry for all the metaphors)

Posted 2 years ago #
MikeReed

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The GCAC would have to give up the idea that they are the arbiters of culture to make this happen.

They will always be a funding organization, sure. But once they venture off into Fine Arts + Business + Other Integrate Creative Things... they will be subject market forces being the arbiter of what is valid and what is not. This goes against the ENTIRE nonprofit model. The nonprofit model exists to provide assistance in areas where the market is NOT robust enough to support the effort, but the subject value of the effort is sufficient enough not to let the organizations that operate in that space to go extinct.

In business, the market decides who lives and who dies.

Looking at Charleston and the evolution of their Arts funding organization would be informative.

Recall that we asked the GCAC for sponsorship in 04/08 for Agora. We were told "It's a conflict with our grants when we sponsor projects that haven't gone through the application process." (quote from email) Believe that getting funded is as simple as them following up and encouraging you to submit something during their funding cycle. I doubt they have done that in the last two years. They certainly hadn't by the time I left Couchfire in 09/08 (and the next cycle is October).

Funders can and will tailor an award to a specific cause if the stewards of the money are sympathetic to that cause. I have heard that the Columbus Foundation does this all of the time and (anecdotally) that 90% of their funds can be allocated by the whim of the people putting money there.

To see if there is a change happening look at the GCAC's 990s. All you have to do is follow the money.

Spoiler: Funding trends haven't changed over the last 5 years- big "traditional" organizations receive big grants. Small organizations compete for small grants- and this competition is fabricated. A few get money... many, many, many get nothing. What you will not is that there isn't a single large organization (the one's receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars) that is absent from the grant recipient list form year to year- the same competition isn't there. They compete for a few thousand dollars in either direction. They do not compete for funding or non-funding like small organizations do).

When funding trends reflect any kind of change at all I will begin to believe that anything is changing or that anyone at the top wants something to change, because here's the answer for the GCAC- if they are struggling with how to support recent trends in local Arts. Support = funding. Period.

That's the answer. There's no struggle in understanding how to support things. Fund them. It's pretty simple.

Posted 2 years ago #
artbomb112
The Heights
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Well stated. I digress.

Posted 2 years ago #
Michael Secrest

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Then it seems you (someone) could get GCAC to fund a smaller organization to put together such a list and get it published, on line and/or hardcopy.

The new kiosks for the Short North, I believe, do something like what you are thinking. They have the "*You Are Here" and each business listed by type, for instance, all the restaurants. You go through the restaurants and select the one that looks good, see what number it is and look it up on the map. Of course, it only works when someone comes into the Convention Center area and list all SNBA members, not just those that can, by some stretch of reason call themselves "art". But I believe it is a major benefit to the neighborhood and the visitor.

Posted 2 years ago #
MikeReed

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The only way something like this would be interesting is if it isn't grant funded- if some enterprising young startup does it... And on a larger-than-local scale.

It woould have to be more interesting than just an events calendar. Sure, having information in one place is good- but there is no real incentive for organizations to use it. It becomes just another thing to keep up with... To add data to. However, if you create some real incentive for producers and consumers to use such a resource- say, the ability to aggregate event/happenings and commerce (restaurants, admisssion fee discounts, age/coffee deals) so that a person can build the perfect night out... Like groupon, but more about opportunities for the arts and businesses around them to build a package and offer a discount. That would be interesting. When you pair up, say, an available light play, dinner at some spot, a deal on a night cap or a deal at a hookah bar or what-have-you.... And because of e pairing the consumer gets a discount. The businesses determine what the deal would be... And they get business they might not normally get because of the aggregation of proxmiate events/services.

Win, win.

Add some concept if a data interchange spec and/or allowing businesses and arts ors to simply publish meta information in their web pages defining the terms or their event/service/and discount... And you eliminate the need for them to go to yet another web page to enter their data. They just sign up, and share their website. The system then routinely fetiches their event/deal pages and builds the perfect night out deal bade on the their specification and some internal algorithms. Keeps it super simple and for systems that are written using some kind of CMS it makes it easier to get this kind of meta data into web pages without having to hand edit every single event. Columbusarts.com (or is it columbusarts.com) whichever... The GCAC site... Would support this easily. Restaurant and bar owner pages are less likely to be built on a decent content system, but it does happen.

Facebook's Like button is an example of adding semantic data to existing content (the backend parts of it- not just the like button itself. You have to dig into the spec to see what I am talking about). Since face book's like button has a spec for both type of content as well as geodata(lat/lng) and it has already been implemented on 100K websites it could also be used whe possible...

This could work. I would tackle it on a national level though and not fool around with focusing on a local area- let alone my own local area (generally speaking... I mean, build a great system and business and if it gets adopted in Columbus, great)

This is an idea i would invest time in... And if it benefits local art and culture then all the better.

Hopefully that isn't too esoteric. I tried to put it in layman's terms.

Posted 2 years ago #

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