Crafting An Art City

Now call me old fashioned, but I remember my grade school putting quite a lot of time into each student's artistic side. Not just glue and glitter, but serious study, of the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci. I remember the teacher talking about him like they were old buds, Leonardo did this and Leonardo did that. In fact, she never said Da Vinci. In my innocence, I said, "Leonardo is one of my ancestors." Which flabbergasted my young teacher. She was absolutely sure that I was not, but I insisted. Leonardo Saladino, from Sicily He is my great grandfather. Then she realized her mistake. Anyway, I recall writing papers about Fauvists, about Picasso and Robert Smithson. Remember the guy who built Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake? In fact, before I got to middle school, I had the opportunity to produce films and build massive papier mache' creatures. Crafting an art city is as exhilarating and as fun as those early art adventures, but the materials, the substance you have to use to create your larger environment is people. To create an art city requires commitment and tenacity, but the rewards are multi-fold and great compared to the actual time you spend contributing to the project.
Listening to Wisconsin Public Radio the other day, they had a whole hour about scoring art cities and I am drawing on what they said about it to some extent, but I have also been a foot soldier in the process of artsy-ing up whatever places I have traveled through on my life's adventures, whether it was making films in Colorado or painting signs in Union City or Ashland or wearing epic Halloween costumes that made the newspaper, or doing the same with my own children. Creating an art city is inter-generational. It breathes, from the tiniest first breaths to the last death rattle. The art communities that I have been a part of virtually vibrated, resonating with the combined energies of a whole cadre of folks who were more than neighbors, they were friends who were closer than some of our own families. co creators of events, rituals and rites that only occurred between us, for the moment, yet suspended beyond time through channeling our creative energies which almost magically complemented one another and created something out of next to nothing. This is a lot of words to say that whether we were painting murals or hosting an art fair, making theater or rocking out at a festival, the buzz was us.
First and foremost an art city needs to be walkable. The more impediments to radical pedestrian-ism, the harder it is to create a sense of community. Now, like any other art, the science of this can be thrown completely out the window if the participants are committed enough to getting around to see one another regularly. If any community seeks to become more of an art city, it is possible, but certain sacrifices need to be made. Even in the places where we were isolated, we were able to get to town to participate, organize and instigate way of bringing art to the community. you can check your city's walkability score at walkscore. This is also possible by having vibrant retail/service areas close to plenty of population density. Generally speaking, within a mile or two at most you should be able to get nearly every type of retail and/or service business that you might need. The closer the better. Within this, having some nice green space for gathering never hurts.
another factor that is critical is NO CHAIN STORES! Independent local operators are open to quirky, in fact, they thrive on it. The types of tourists that will flock to art cities are not looking for the same old Burger King or Wal-Mart they could see at home, they want unique texture and local flavor. Family-owned businesses and co-ops involve more local people in decision-making and make it possible for everyone to work symbiotically to push for the betterment of all.
There are legions of "creatives" in every community. Drawing them out and enlisting their cooperation is where the true creativity that makes things hum lies. Once you uncork the reservoir, however, watch the fun begin. The art cities that exist today did not spring up like mushrooms overnight, but once a few people discover the liberating sensation of making art, it can be profoundly contagious. On a microcosmic level, I have noticed that people that I have painted artistic signs for, have, in turn, put more effort into making better temporary signs as well. On a macrocosmic level I have enlisted dozens of bored young people to help paint a mural on an old concrete abutment, in the coal regions of Pa (Pennsylvania), and seen it stop graffiti for generations. When beauty starts to break out in any community, you would be surprised at how it affects the rest of the population. Perhaps the most sublime change is created because somewhere, often in surprising places, there are repressed folks who see the art and are urged by their own passion to reciprocate by making something of their own.
Making your city more of an art city requires increasing the opportunities for residents to have creative occupations. I have seen home school groups hire an art teacher, that led her to be able to stay in the community and do her own art as well as patronize many of the local shops. sign painters are always in demand and the "Quick Signs" type places are often part of a mega chain or at least their materials are from one. Unique Craft versus hum-drum quantity is always an issue. creatives can find a niche in so many areas, it is hard to limit the list, but theater folks, graphic artists, writers, teachers, musicians and chefs are the first to come to my mind. I know artists who are landscapers, welders, cobblers, chiropractors, doctors (although these are few) and tailors. Making things can be done artfully and even services can be rendered in creative and fresh ways. Allowing people to be creative is easier in those mom and pop stores as I was mentioning before. If done properly, even running a chamber of commerce can be done with panache' and style, amping up the community through support for the arts. In whatever respect you choose to participate in community, it is possible to bring creativity to your discipline.
Having Arts related not for profit organizations is critical. These groups can draw on the resources in the community, and often over a larger region to enhance individual efforts and provide services to the growing art city. The relationships built through service and shared commitment lead to the tightly knit sense of identity within a community of respected peers. Even committing a few Saturdays each year to an organization can lead to life-long friendships and a sense of belonging that many communities lack.
Finally, Arts related commercial space is the icing on the cake. Being able to host locally-made bling, or pottery, sculpture and art says, "We respect and admire the talents of our neighbors." We feel safe to be ourselves and we are not afraid to do our best, offering our creative efforts for you. I am brought back in time to the North shore of Lake Superior. A restaurant that used the unique locale to full advantage, jutting out into the marina like a dock. Artistically timber framed to strike awe in the guests. Their food was spectacular and came from humble local origins. The sign was one-of a kind and so were the waiters. You guessed it, a thriving art city clinging to the side of a mountain. They had art to purchase right on their walls, like a gallery and even on a cold grey day, the exuberance of the place was infectious.
Developing relationships with other creatives is not as hard as one might think. Just bring artistic flair to your own life and understand that our creative potential never leaves, just our attention to it. Let your own self be more creative and share the fruits of your creative efforts with others. Let them know that their own skills and talents deserve development. Stretch your boundaries, include seeing yourself as a creative, you may never know how wonderful it can feel if you don't at least give it a try.

Creativity, Determination & Innovation Drive America's Economy

The wealthy often lack these desired traits. When we get too comfortable in any sphere of our existence, change suffers. A wise friend once said, "If you're not growin' you're dyin'." This sentiment echoes this point quite well. Change is the onlt thing that remains constant in our world but you would be hard pressed to find it in our culture today. When still in college,I did a research project on the relationship between creativity and television exposure. The sheer mechanics were daunting, but in the end I was able to gain some great data and insight into some of what is ailing our nation today. In general, all the data lined up along a critical curve. As children watched more and more television, their creativity was more and more impaired. Two notable individuals from the thousand or so in the study provided exceptions to this and were exceptional for several reasons. One child scored the lowest on the assessment of creativity, but watched no television. As it turned out, their parents were Bible thumpers who didn't even own a television because they believed that it was an agent of the devil. Another child watched an inordinate amount of TV, but was still rated at the highest level of creativity. They tended to talk back to the television, challenging every premise that the advertisers could posit. As in most other realms of our lives, the more turned on you become, the more the world opens up to greet you. The more experiences that we have in the "real world" the higher our level of creativity. The more mediated our environment becomes, the less creative we become.

In my experience, I have learned that the America we hold up as a beacon to the world, the one that worships freedom and liberty, is less and less recognizable in our current perverted, media dominated era. We seem to have become part of a vast marketing scheme that leaves no room for questioning why any of our consumer goods should be purchased. In essence, we are expected to jump at the chance to buy whatever the box in our living room, or kitchen, or den tells us is fashionable. The dogged determination that led Louis and Clark to find that there was no Northwest Passage, or indeed the sustained effort required to link the nation with railroads is hard to find in our population today. The America we all learned about in school when I was young seemed to have a penchant for proving others wrong. If someone said, "You can't do that." no matter what it was, we had to prove them wrong. When they said we would never build a bridge across the Mississippi, we proved them wrong. When we began the trans-continental railroad they said that was impossible. Same with the interstate highway system and going to the moon. That was then, this is now.

Innovation flows from creativity. Trying something new often leads to new products, new ways of seeing the world and new ways of expressing who we are as a people. wealth tends to flow in the direction of what works, or more specifically, what has worked in the past. We are reaping the fruits of several generations of the faulty logic that if we do more of the same, endlessly replicating what used to work, all will be well. Even though the times have changed, there are still cheerleaders who advocate the old ways of doing business and "growing" the economy. Look around at the Christmas catalogs. Hundreds of items have been miniaturized but precious few items turn out to be "new". Invention and innovation have taken a back seat to miniaturization. We can hold a laptop computer in our hand, but many times we cannot find the time to try something new or different.

The indomitable human spirit that lived in the hearts of millions of Americans has been relegated to a status of quirky individualism, scoffed at and mocked by many. I often wonder where we would be as a nation if we were to reward novel approaches to problem solving, rather than providing corporate welfare to business as usual methodology. What if we were to value fluency and encourage folks to push the limits of what is real, good and possible? We shouldn't have let the rest of the world bring us hybrid car technology, or surpass us in renewable energy production. As we have fallen into our boob tubes, it seems we have lost perspective, purpose and a sense of who we are. If we are to survive as a nation, we need to become more than a police state in search of an excuse for eliminating rights that our citizens fought and died to protect.

If the rich were capable of taking real risks, I would be willing to follow their lead from time to time, but the entrenched values of competition, keeping up with the Jones', and playing the stock market and assuming that lack is the engine behind our economy have helped me to realize that the people with all the money are completely out of touch with reality and therefore can't get a grasp of what is needed in our current economic slump. The irony is that our electorate was told by big money to embrace the same party that drove the economy into this ditch. Now we will have to fight for change even harder. Looking at the big picture almost certainly leads to frustration and disappointment. What has worked for me lately is to look to the examples of solutions that abound all around us and the fact that there are millions of little guys making the real investments and creating new systems for meeting human and planetary needs efficiently and with malice toward none. Sweetwater Organics in Milwaukee seems to be on the right track. They have converted a giant warehouse to a three tiered living system. A greenhouse filled with food, fish and a biologically complex living filter. They will be able to annually produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of thousands of pounds of protein, providing jobs, turning the tide on urban blight and feeding hungry people in the middle of a food desert.

Little things are happening daily that each in their own way contribute to the type of change that will be required. The one thing that they have in common is that they each have a dynamic person at the center of them. Someone who refuses to give in to the idea of scarcity. someone who sees the unfolding future as bright and full of potential. These are the people we all need to model ourselves after. Bernie Madoff's son committed suicide rather than face the facts that his ways were wrong and do the time that could not possibly fit the crime. The wealthy idolized his dad, because he was seen as a wealth creator. Nothing creative about it. That system was tapped long ago, he just did what had worked in the past. What is needed is revolutionary change in the way we create wealth, the way we measure success and how we think about the nature of our part in the grand scheme of things. The good old boys networks have failed us. No matter how hard they cry out, we should not waste resources keeping them on life support. Corporate welfare pays no dividend. If the least of us are worse off for the betterment of the wealthiest among us, we have forged down the wrong path. We have been lied to for so long that for many, even knowing which way is up can be difficult, but if we pay attention, understand who is behind all the messages we are inundated with and investigate the options that we have, chances are good that we will find a better path to freedom, dignity and liberty that will not enslave another or the planet that the Gods and Goddesses have blessed us with.