Power of the Arts is in Organizing and Planning

[Edit 10/29/09: You can now download the summary transcript of the discussion.]

Art is powerful. We’ve seen how it engages communities and serves as an economic development driver. How to we get to the payoff, however? At the end of the day, there’s an exhibition or a gallery or live-work space with music and sculpture and painting. The challenge is how to get there.

Last night’s Power of the Arts session at McMenamy’s was far better than the opening session. The panel was packed with authorities with both ideas and clout to back them up. Eric Planey is Vice President for International Business Attraction at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. Bill D’Avignon is the City of Youngstown’s Community Development Agency Director. Kirk Noden is the Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative. Barb Ewing is Congressman Tim Ryan’s Coordinator of Community Development. Julie Michael Smith is the Chief Development Officer at the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Discussion centered around what regional identity a local arts board should present and how it should interface with civic, funding and community organizations. Many of the panelists offered some of their own ideas for what they’d like to see happen in the community.

Where I was really surprised at the turn of events was during the question & answer at the conclusion of the panel discussion. A few artists stood up and expressed their frustration at the state of opportunities for artists, pretty much laying things at the City’s feet.

Understandably, they’d like things to be further along. “Artists are here and ready to sell stuff,” was the (paraphrased) opening. “Why don’t we have a place yet to do that?”

While I empathize with the desire to want things in the Valley to be further along, the reality is that the City (of Youngstown, but other cities as well, to be sure) also bemoans this. They’d like to have the resources to set up both for- and non-profit organizations in every building they can find. But it’s not that simple.

First, the City has enough of a challenge on its hands just running the City: providing services, responding to requests, managing oversight for the many agencies it operates who all make things happen. They simply do not have the resources to (A) ideate such projects, (B) develop plans for development, (C) manage implementation or (D) manage tenants.

Second, even if the City had the wherewithal to conceive of and execute development projects, would we want them to? Would we want the City in charge of determining the tenants for the next artist warehouse? I suspect not.

This is why these kinds of projects happen when an organization or an individual conceives of and pursues such a project. They develop the plan, they find partners, they raise and borrow money, they push their plan through the appropriate government entities for approval, and they oversee the design, development and tenant management for the structure or site.

Our task, as a community looking to develop more opportunities for arts and artists, is to come together and organize. We’ll pick some leaders who have experience and connections to lead the process. We’ll gather some leaders who have insight and vision to serve on boards and committees. We’ll find some doers who will volunteer time to get things off the ground. We’ll brainstorm ideas and resurrect ones that have died on the vine in the past for want of initiative or capital. We’ll pick the most promising projects and develop a plan.

Finally, when we’ve identified the stakeholders, learned whom we need to influence to be successful and lined up whatever financing we can, we’ll secure final assistance or approval from partners like the Regional Chamber, Congressman Ryan and the City, and we’ll realize our vision.

Just don’t forget that we’re the ones who will get this done. This is no different than in any other city. The buildings and institutions you see in New York or Chicago aren’t put up by the cities. They may be helped by the cities, but they are the realizations of plans developed by organizations who knew that, in order to work the system, you have to have a plan.

Join your fellow artists, community activists and concerned citizens for the final session in the Power of the Arts series on Wednesday, November 18, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., where we’ll discuss together how we’ll organize and what we’ll pursue. The City and other private and public organizations showed up this week to express their willingness to engage and assist. They demonstrated their openness and readiness to listen. It’s up to us to provide a compelling plan that talks about how it can succeed and shows what we need from these partners to get across the finish line.

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