Across the country, cities are seeking ways to stimulate the economy, engage new residents, and restore robust cosmopolitan life. For me, one of the best ways to do this is through contemporary art. When we think about urban environments impacted by art and artists, what comes to mind? Chelsea on Manhattan’s West Side, the West Loop in Chicago, and Chinatown or Mid-Wilshire in Los Angeles. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the primary “drivers” of visitors and new businesses, and one of the principal images these places convey, is contemporary art.
As a member of Baltimore’s rich collective of contemporary arts resources, organizations, and “fans,” I see the exciting role that art and culture take in our community every day, and the intrinsic value it brings to our lives. I am excited by the countless emerging and well-established venues, performances, and organizations offering contemporary art in Baltimore. I am encouraged by what it means for our community. Contemporary art encourages economic development, social diversity, a positive image, and a healthy, thriving city.
Contemporary art is by nature provocative and cutting-edge. It inspires us and gets us to question, explore, think, and exchange ideas. This work is thought provoking and stimulating—adding an unexpected element to the urban experience (and often explaining the urban experience).
This energy and enthusiasm is quick to take hold. It attracts people—audiences to a performance, visitors to a gallery. As more people visit a community and more frequently, there is momentum. People stay for dinner, or return to visit local shops. Sales result in tax revenue, which support the services that benefit our entire city and all its residents.
And those that want to make this energy part of their daily lives choose to live in these 24-hour neighborhoods, being a catalyst of residential development, creating permanent anchors for new businesses to grow and creating a defined sense of place.
Who are these “people?” They are artists and community activists, “urban pioneers,” and advocates, people willing to make an investment in their communities and be part of its transformation. They are passionate, aware, motivated, and involved. These are the people who are settling in cultural areas like our burgeoning Station North and in South Baltimore neighborhoods, enlivening depressed areas to create rich, diverse communities. Sound like good neighbors to me.
Thriving cultural centers contribute to a city’s overall identity. They are indication that a city is hip, fun, and smart—that you want to be here. It elevates a city from a place, to a desired destination, attracting visitors from the suburbs and surrounding region.
Local venues for contemporary art across the country have set the foundation. They enrich millions of lives through community outreach, innovative public programming, inspiring exhibitions, and performances. As we explore “what’s next,” let’s foster a strong, growing and innovative contemporary art community as a fixture in our future.
Thank you very much for your thoughts, Irene. In addition to being spot on, they dovetail perfectly with the “audacious idea” posting I have been working on for the last week, which is one answer to the question, “what’s next?” Please stay tuned, as it will be up in a day or two.
I am with you, Irene! One of our greatest resources in this city is the unbelievable creative energy of its artists. One visit to Station North, the Peabody, the Symphony, our world class museums, MICA, or the Baker Artist Awards on line will confirm our growing national reputation as a nourishing place for artists.
Irene – it’s funny, I was reading a lot over the weekend about Baltimore’s Municipal Art Society founded around the turn of the last century by Daniel Coit Gilman.
The Municipal Art Society went on to commission various artistic projects around the city, and to contribute to documents like the (ultimately unrealized) 1961 plan for a park in the Jones Falls Valley. They are also responsible (in a later incarnation) for the man/woman statue at Penn Station — which brings me to my next point.
Great public art can definitely feed the soul of a city. But I wonder if it is sufficient to have just *any* art, or whether art should be curated by those in a position to do so to help orient the city in a common direction.
One of the great tragedies of Baltimore is that we have lost a unifying narrative that bridges rich and poor, black and white, natural citizens and immigrants. As Randolph Roth has said, we lack a story about “how we all hang together.”
To the extent that a thriving arts community and public art in particular can help restore that narrative, should we be doing more to encourage the creation not just of art (which is good), but more art and an arts culture that helps us restore that common narrative?
The man/woman statue is widely loathed, and I think it’s because it’s art that tells no story, that really repairs nothing — with all due respect to the artist, we can do better.
I encourage you to look up the backstory of the Municipal Art Society. They were championing the same values in 1899; only then, we had not yet lost our way, or truly begun to face our society’s deepest challenges.
Today we have a wonderful opportunity to apply the highest aspirations of our forbears to the challenge of today. Let’s not squander it, and instead rise to the occasion.
Three cheers for Irene’s post. There is a real correlation between cities that thrive and cities that have active and contemporary art(s) scenes. Certainly, writers like Richard Florida have helped us see that football and baseball franchises are only a part of the story of attracting people to a city.
For Baltimore, which is a pretty good representation of American cities other than the big three, it may be that real success will require that art has to go beyond being a kind of (pardon the word) amenity, and this goes to Dave Troy’s comment. One key area of contemporary art is something called “social practice” that has artists involved with publics that are typically not art-educated contemporary art regulars. The Contemporary Museum has been a progressive forerunner in this area. Maybe what has to happen “next” is that the narrative about “how we hang together” is on the plate of the artists in this city, and should stories emerge that resonate, there won’t be anymore questions about the importance of art in our lives.
The story that Dave refers to needs to be written today by the whole community.
The challenge for Baltimore is to break down the barriers that traditionally have separated us culturally and economically.
Baltimore has the potential to grow a new creative, urban garden and I have a feeling that the seeds are being sown.