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Dance First, Ask Questions Later

April 6, 2012 //
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Elm City Dance Collective…Cake Face…Scapegoat Garden…these are names in Connecticut’s regional dance ecology.  Look them up, enjoy them, support them, and/or find out who’s doing similar work in your own community.

http://elmcitydance.org/

http://cakefaceart.com/artwork/1452631_st_petersburg_times.html

http://www.scapegoatgarden.org/

It takes many layers of cooperation and commitment to bring a dance work from concept to concert.  Elm City Dance Collective did an exceptional job producing the recent REBOUND dance festival presented March 24, 2012 at ACES Performing Arts Center on Audubon Street in New Haven, CT.

Contemporary movement celebrates the relevance of human physicality in an age of dislocation and virtual connection. While more abstract choreographic vocabulary can be experienced as a form of sculpture with the added dimension of time, more folkloric forms such as  tap stand as a source of embodied history and cultural heritage.

The array of questions posed by a single dance piece to which one brings an open mind and an ounce of thoughtful attention is truly dizzying.   If you haven’t yet enjoyed this branch of the performing arts, do try and treat yourself soon.

Don’t worry if some of it is bewildering or you don’t know when to clap.   So much of adult life is learning how to negotiate awkwardness – dance performers and audiences find their way through these moments all the time.   They give us great examples of  how to do that, really.    And like Rilke says, we can “…try to love the questions themselves…”

Categories Local CT

Local food is national news!

March 22, 2012 //
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Beautiful storycraft…from New Haven’s food coop – open to everyone, with discounts for members.

“Elm City Market created 100 new jobs for local residents with salaries starting at twice the minimum wage.  But the community didn’t stop there: the store is sourcing over half of its products from producers within 200 miles of the city. The store reports brisk business, serving community members that previously lacked access to the products grown just miles away from them.”

Read the entire article on the White House blog here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/21/increasing-access-locally-grown-and-healthy-food#.T2pxT9gAujk.email

Kudos the the members, Board and staff of Elm City Market!

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Categories Local CT, National Trends

Art with Highest Honors

March 19, 2012 //
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What individual or organization do you believe has made “outstanding contributions to the excellence, support, growth and availability of the arts in the United States?”   Think about it.  Before March 31st.   And then submit your nomination. Here:  http://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/nomination/instructions.html

‘Tis the season for naming names.  To the selection committee for the National Medal of Art, that is.

The National Medal of Arts is our nation’s highest honor in the field of arts and culture.

I chose to nominate New Haven’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas!   Why?

Because since 1996 the Festival has made creative intelligence a civic virtue.   Its organizers blend forward thinking with respect for the many flavors of hybridized cultures that comprise our city,  fulfilling a cultural thirst and curiosity shared by residents and visitors alike.

Each June, New Haven revels in its embrace of the world through some of the most vivid thought-forms imaginable expressed in music, in colorful artworks, in dialogue and in purposeful movements of bodies in dance.  The fact that this volume of contemporary cultural activity takes place on the country’s oldest planned central Green  makes me feel – though it sounds corny to say – proud and hopeful about civilization.  The fact that the Festival was in full swing when I was first visiting from the South at age 31 and exploring real estate options is no coincidence.

I appreciate the fact that Bill T. Jones has been my neighbor, for a time, thanks to the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.  Same with Yo-Yo Ma, Liz Lerman, Slavic Soul Party, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and a dazzling array of minds from around the globe.  We have held each other in thrall as evenings fade to twilight and crowds of very different people make room for one another, sway in common rhythms, eat together, pass a ball in long arcs, share space, and belong.  My enjoyment of a sense of “home” and “summer” as an adult has been inextricably linked to experiences at the Festival.   It has become a very rich occasion and tradition for the thousands who attend.

There are hundreds of ticketed events offered as well in venues across New Haven during the 15 days of the Festival, and these are also profoundly worthwhile.  And judging from the illustrious history outlined on its website – http://www.artidea.org – The International Festival of Arts and Ideas  is more than deserving of national recognition.

Who will you nominate for the National Medal of Arts?  Share your enthusiasm…

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Categories Local CT, National Trends

Too cool not to be revitalized

March 12, 2012 //
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EVENT:West HavenCouncil on the Arts Second Artists Forum3/9/12

City Hall,West Haven,CT

TOPIC:West HavenFineArtsCenterProgramming

Speakers:

  • James Reed, Professor of Printmaking, University ofNew Haven
  • Paul Scanlon, President,West HavenCouncil on the Arts

 

Agenda:  Prof. Reed presented his perspective on what the futureWest HavenCenter for the Arts located at304 Center Street could be for the community, based on his experiences inBridgeport, followed by a roundtable discussion.  He made a strong impact with the statement, “There has never been an instance where the arts have been introduced to a community and the community got worse.”  APPLAUSE

 

Atmosphere: Chairs were arranged in a circle, folk music was playing, and wine, mineral water and snacks were served. 

 

Who was there: Officers of the West Haven Council on the Arts were basically happy with the turnout (20 or so by the end of the meeting).  A multi-disciplinary cross-section of the local arts community was represented, including: the director of a dance company, a filmmaker and director who has been on Broadway and now runs Theater West, the Executive Director for New Haven Symphony Orchestra, three co-producers of Shoestring Theater, a professional arts writer (myself), the director of New Haven’s Project Storefront who does costuming for theater productions, an organizer for Ideat Village, a children’s book illustrator and student in the Yale School of Drama, a videographer and photographer, a doctorate student in how music affects brain function ages birth to four, a graphic design student, and people who have volunteered for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.  These are folks withWest Haven zip codes – self labeled humanists, optimists, futurists, opportunists and more – who are eager to be more oriented towards their local community and active in raising the bar of expectation for cultural activity inWest Haven.  A lifelong resident finished his self-introduction proclaiming, “I’d love to be part of the new heyday forWest Haven.”

 

History of West Haven Center for the Arts:   West Haven is a city of 10 square miles and 56,000 located 5 minutes from downtownNew Haven.  In 2003, Paul Scanlon founded a citizens’ arts coalition which collected upwards of 500 signatures in two days for an arts center to be a home for programming.  When an appropriate building (formerMasonicTemple) came up for sale in the downtown area, there was a big push with a lot of energy behind it for the City to purchase it. $550,000 in state grant money was approved by Jodi Rell for the original purchase.  Asbestos and lead abatement was undertaken by the City with an additional $100,000 raised from citizens, and a $500,000 contribution from Yale.  The building is now in a “buttoned up” state, partially renovated and protected from deterioration.  In 2007 the West Haven Arts Council became officially incorporated as a not-for-profit, 501( c )(3) organization, absorbing the former citizens’ coalition.  Turner Brooks, an architect affiliated with Yale, was selected for the project and brought it through schematic design.  At the first Artists Forum, the Arts Council gathered a lot of ideas and input about what the architect was doing.  The classical building will have a modern appendage, blending two architectural styles into a unified hybrid.  A feasibility study was commissioned which is now available to read in draft form.  There will be another design process before construction documents can be created. The Fine Arts Center is committed to solar power and to being a green (LEED-certified?) building.

 

 

Roundtable Discussion Points:

  • West Havenis “too cool not to be revitalized.”
  • West Haven’s downtown has good bones for parking, traffic flow and pedestrians.  The whole city is quite walkable.
  • The fine arts center can create a hub of cultural activity in the downtown area.
  • The Council is “trying not to leave anybody out.”  Planning for programming, the question is what are we missing or forgetting?  One vulnerability is letting a particular group or discipline monopolize the space.  The goal is balance and a mission that will drive the activity forward more than particular personalities.
  • A key word for the center is “flexibility.”  The space will be flexible to accommodate a lot of different types of arts and culture programming: galleries, rehearsal space, classrooms, a 2-tier blackbox theater and a 3rd floor wide open space with skylight for interactive events.  Grassroots and world-class artists will come together inWest Haven to comprise an entire spectrum of creative inquiry and innovation.
  • West Haven’s Mayor John Picard is extremely supportive.  Anew CityCouncil will be seated in the next couple of weeks.
  • State funding for arts is now being channeled via Arts Based Placemaking – tying cultural activity to specific economic drivers that will attract people in their 20s and 30s to live and build innovative industry inConnecticut.
  • West Cove has statewide significance as one of three specialty printmaking shops inConnecticut.
  • Theater West is now in its 4th season and its productions are growing in popularity, attracting 1,200 to the West Haven Green for summer performances.
  • The new train station, the beach and the new fine arts center create three legs forWest Havento stand tall on.  At all three places, the other two should have a visual presence to make people aware that all three exist as important and interdependent facets of community pride and growth.
  • Youth programs at the center need to create “a place for outcasts.”  Seniors are also important and often underserved.
  • Renting space for performances during recital season could be a good source of income and a community service.
  • West Havenneeds a Greenwich Village-style coffeehouse where live events, information and work-in-progress among artists can be shared with the public.
  • Bring in notables such as the Poet Laureate of Connecticut.

 

Big Ideas:

  • Horse-drawn carriages down Campbell Aveserving as shuttle between the beach and dinner theater.
  • Promote the fact that Campbell Aveis exactly halfway between New York Cityand Mohegan Sun – invite buses to stop so people headed for casino can walk around.
  • Skill-sharing workshops and open craft sessions for individuals and families to learn different types of hands-on, material technologies
  • Let’s become expert at “making something out of nothing.”  Take materials out of the waste stream and get them into the hands of creatives.
  • Build upon the partnership with Yale to bring in world-class acts.
  • Keep dreaming big for West Haven, because if you “shoot for the ground you’ll hit it every time!”

 

 

Recommended Next Steps for the Arts Council:

  • Drive membership count upwards.  There are currently about a dozen members actively involved in projects out of a total membership of about 60 people.   President’s goal is to double that in the next few months.
  • Present a more prominent and visually unified image in marketing materials
  • Link with area studios and galleries as distribution centers: e.g. West Cove Studios
  • Reach out to state & Kip Bergstrom regardingWest Haven’s eligibility and process to apply for an Arts Based Placemaking grant
  • “There are lots of dots to connect.”
  • Invite influence: “We are literally forging the arts community ofWest Haven.  We are the go-to group.”  “Now is the time for people who are interested to get in on the ground floor; they can have all the input they want.”

 

 

Upcoming events on similar topic(s):

  • April 5th 7-9pm City Hall, West Haven, Meeting Rm A, West Haven Council on the Arts meeting.  Meetings are held every first Thursday in the same location.
  • May – Family Arts Night,West HavenArts Council

 

Additional Information:

  • The public can read the feasibility study online at strategicadvisorygroup.com.  Password is West Haven.

 

 

 

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Categories Local CT

Economic Development and Historic Preservation

March 12, 2012 //
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EVENT: CT Trust for Historic Preservation Breakfast3/2/12

The Lyceum,Hartford,CT

TOPIC: Historic Preservation and Economic Development in CT

Speakers:

  • Helen Higgins, Executive Director of CT Trust for Historic Preservation
  • Donovan Rypkema, Principal of PlaceEconomics.

 

Agenda:  Mr. Rypkema discussed his findings from two recent state reports.

  • Connecticut Local Historic Districts and Property Values, prepared for the CT Trust for Historic Preservation with funds from the Department of Economic and Community Development
  • Investment inConnecticut: The Economic Benefit of Historic Preservation, prepared for the State Historic Preservation Office, Department of Economic and Community Development

 

Content:

  • Historic districts can be fundamental to the character of a place.  CT has lots of pre-1900 building stock that needs to be protected, and local historic districts are the instrument to provide such protection.
  • Historic preservation fuels sustainable development.  Definition of sustainable development: getting societal needs met without prejudicing the ability of future generations to get their needs met.  Rehabbing an historic building vs. razing it allows the embodied energy in that building to stand for the future, helping cities “reduce, reuse and recycle” and keep building materials out of landfills.
  • Historic preservation creates jobs, income and recirculated wealth in CT. Historic preservation activity leverages more direct and indirect jobs than tech or manufacturing. “Every $100 spent rehabbing an historic building means $84 in the pockets of CT workers.”  This is because historic preservation is highly labor intensive: 60-70% of the cost of every project is labor, not materials.
  • State and local governments benefit from historic preservation through: business income tax, property tax, sales tax and personal income tax. Biggest benefit to cities is PROPERTY TAX
  • Property values rise higher and faster in most local historic districts.  Pre-1900 houses in local historic districts are generally worth more than those not in such districts.  Demand for “antique” homes is rising fast; antique homes in historic districts are generally worth about $30,000 more than those not in such districts.
  • Density of historic preservation rehab projects tends to occur in highly walkable neighborhoods.  Walkability is a top desirable trait: 2/3 of house-seekers cite ability to do errands on foot as an important factor in what they are looking for.  Typically neighborhoods built half a century ago are more healthy to live in because they are more walkable.  See Smart Growth Amerca and Walkscore.com
  • Historic preservation projects benefit a broad range of human beings at various income levels – it’s not just for the wealthy.
  • Historic preservation projects advance all six of the CT Growth Management Principles.
  • There are fewer foreclosures in local historic districts.

 

 

Next Steps for Cities ~ Editorial Recommendations:

 

  • Apply the simple methodology delineated by the Trust study.  1) Measure changes in assessed value between last two assessment periods. 2) Compare change patterns in assessed value in downtown district compared to properties not in district. 3) Measure patterns of foreclosure in downtown district versus rest of the community.  4) Publish findings and make available to the public and the CT Trust for Historic Preservation.

 

  • Improve your city’s walkability scoring (walkscore.com) and publicize the improvement.

 

  • Help citizens understand the importance of historic preservation, its relationship to job growth, and that the benefits aren’t just for the wealthy.

 

 

Upcoming events on similar topic(s):

  • March 9, 2012, Lyceum inHartford, Complete Streets Workshop

 

 

Categories Local CT

Creative Placemaking

January 30, 2012 //
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The big news for those who haven’t heard is that Connecticut no longer has an Office of Culture and Tourism; instead, it has an art office within its Department of Economic & Community Development.    Deputy Director Christopher Kip Bergstrom, sees himself as the state’s “commissioner of innovation and placemaking.”   Admittedly quite a hip gig for a guy with horn rimmed glasses!

As noted in my earlier post from the Association for Performing Arts Presenters’ annual conference, placemaking as an approach to cultural engagement is WAY IN.    The emphasis is no longer on tourism anymore, thank goodness.    It’s about tying arts participation to specific economic drivers, and helping cities cultivate a residential creative class that includes smart people from the entrepreneurial business community.   Right On!!!

One of the best things about this article – which I hope gets read widely and gets people excited – is the concept that cities are self-conscious works-in-progress.  Each urban space like a remark in an ongoing conversation about how civilization in general is turning out, and the arts can make people more optimistic and likely to want to keep talking about what they do like about their cities and how they can become even better.  The decision to move to a particular city is – for mobile professionals – a decision to engage with the story of that particular place, to contribute skills and talents and vocalize standards and tastes, to help make sure it turns out well.   Cities can be cultures of enthusiasm, as long as they have art.

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/arts/curtain/hc-kip-office-of-arts-0129-20120129,0,6064598,full.story

Categories Local CT
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