Earlier this month 516 ARTS held a public forum called “Growing the Creative Core” where a mix of creative professionals offered their experiences and vision of downtown Albuquerque as an extension of the “Heart of the City” exhibition. The topics ranged from including poets in the city planning process, to community land trusts, to the logistics of running an exhibition space. The event was well attended with a lively crowd. The Q&A afterword turned into a discussion on fostering a cohesive artistic vision for the city vs. supporting pockets of creativity that are inherently outside the bounds of a unified theme.
This morning the Albuquerque Journal’s editorial board decried a lack of strategy for downtown stating:
… a comprehensive strategy is needed for stemming the worker drain and for attracting job creators to invest in the heart of the city. If the city actually considers a downtown important and wants one, it’s time to design a new welcome mat.
The Journal’s higher ups would do well to get out of the office and take note of the conversation happening right now in the “heart of the city” and give equal credence to artists, city planners and community organizers as it does to business interests and politicians when talking about a sustainable strategy for downtown. The inclusion of community and artistic interests is a no-brainer in balancing out the broken record of white knight “job creators” that often misses the economic and creative boons hiding in plain sight.
516 ARTS is offering a similar event called PechaKucha tomorrow night at 7pm. The format is a fluid presentation originally created in Japan that offers 20 slides/images at 20 seconds each. Students from the Architecture and Landscape, Architecture and Community and Regional Planning programs at UNM will present their visions for the city.
Suzanne Sbarge of 516 ARTS gives an overview of the "Heart of the City" exhibition and an intro to the public forum, "Growing the Creative Core" where nine Albuquerque art and planning associated professionals give their vision of what growing the creative core looks like.
Hakim Bellamy, poet, teacher and youth organizer, asks not what the city can do for poets, but what can poetry do for the city. From the words of renowned Canadian writer Margaret Atwood to the images of visionary architect Luc Scuhiten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels), he shares examples of poetry in motion, in practice and in planning. The future can look very different if we think of poetry as a "before," as opposed to an "after."
Katya Crawford of CityLab and UNM School of Architecture + Planning discusses the use of vacant spaces within the urban setting for sites of art and design, as well as the growing relationship and opportunities between UNM School of Architecture + Planning with the City of Albuquerque.
Sheri Crider of SCA Contemporary Art is also creating a new arts facility downtown. She gives a short history of SCA Contemporary Art and offers a DIY guide to the complicated process of building an artist run facility in the City of Albuquerque.
April Freeman of Warehouse 508 talks about what the organization does and shares stories about some of the youth they work with and the challenges they face.
David Cudney of Factory on 5th, 5G Gallery and Wells Park Rail Corridor Murals discusses the Factory as a self-sustaining arts venue and the Wells Park Murals as a grass roots project that has led to collaborations across the city.
Petra Morris of the ABQ City Planning Department and Liaison for Rail Yards discusses the history of the Albuquerque Rail Yards and current plans and activity at the site.
Wade Patterson of the Saw Mill Community Land Trust talks about Creativity, Equity and the Reimagining of the City. He discusses how a once-sleepy community’s innovative vision is reinventing affordable housing in Albuquerque’s post-industrial era. Sawmill Community Land Trust has implemented a model for permanently affordable housing on a 34-acre former brownfield site within the urban core, creating a dynamic, community-focused neighborhood that challenges conventional notions of how change happens and who constitutes the Creative Class.
Rick Rennie of the Historic District Improvement Company talks about The Face of Albuquerque, which is a collaborative and interactive art project that will engage the Albuquerque community in growing and measuring the creative core. The key engaging component will be a visual representation, using one of the oldest forms of human non-verbal communication.
Gabrielle Uballez of Working Classroom and Vecinos Artist Collective talks about the meaning of "Social Practice" art and how institutions can support artists working within that genre.
Responses to “516 ARTS Fosters Discussion in ‘Growing the Creative Core’”