Bruner Loeb forum

OBSERVING THE IMPACTS How do particular art-based places impact their communities? How are they seen and experienced? To whom do they matter?
	Impacts of art-based places vary tremendously, and grow out of the settings in which they are located. In North Adams, a formerly industrial city, a de-commissioned electrical parts factory has been transformed into MASS MoCA, leading the community’s re-invention of itself from a derelict mill town to a center of cultural vitality. MASS MoCA has contributed to a “sea change” in North Adams’ perception of itself. No longer a poor cousin to nearby Williamstown, North Adams has become a destination in itself. As MASS MoCA Director Joe Thompson put it, “MASS MoCA is now located in a community that recognizes itself as one.”
	By creating the essential element of this new urban identity, and attracting visitors from New England and across the country, MASS MoCA has had noticeable impact on North Adams. Property values have increased; commercial vacancies have decreased; new restaurants and hotels have opened, as well as galleries and artist housing are flourishing in North Adams, and the community takes pride in its new image.
	In North Philadelphia, the Village of Arts and Humanities has engaged community members in the work of transforming a poor and neglected inner-city neighborhood into a place of beauty. Neighborhood residents have joined together to create this change. Residents who had moved are coming back. Children are discovering their artistic abilities, and going on to formal art training. Village theatre dramatizes the stories that grow out of the community in productions that tour the country. Community identity is celebrated and owned by the participants who have built the art parks. It is their children who now attend Village art programs and continue to involve their parents
	In Houston, Project Row Houses has brought people from all cultural and racial backgrounds to the Third Ward to view work of national importance by African-American artists. It has generated new interest in the historic row house to the point that real estate developers are now competing for what was once abandoned tracts of derelict housing. Project Row Houses’ El Dorado Ballroom has revived a destination music club that brings the musical traditions of jazz and the ballroom back to the Third Ward, and gives the community another source of pride and identity
	New Jersey Performing Arts Center has put Newark, a struggling city with a history of race riots, on the cultural map, attracting patrons from Newark’s culturally diverse neighborhoods as well as from across New Jersey and from New York. New Jersey school children now have access to art training and programs that were cut from the school curriculum. Children are brought to NJPAC for intensive programs in the performing arts and for work in master classes with known artists. And community members come to NJPAC’s multi-cultural programs that honor and celebrate Newark’s diverse communities. As a result of NJPAC’s presence, programming, and commitment to the community, Newark has seen increased investment in nearby office buildings, the opening of new businesses on Broad Street, and a far broader participation in arts attendance and classes than ever existed.
	In Providence, WaterFire brings legions of people from around New England to a revitalized downtown, providing new business to restaurants and hotels in the downtown, and showcasing the deep artistic talent with performances along the river banks and in the street. Because of WaterFire and the related revitalization activity in Providence, that city is known as an important art venue, and has developed a new civic pride replacing its image as a city of last-resort.
	Arts activities invite individuals to participate in their communities. This connection encourages people to have a stake in its health and protection, much as homeownership has been shown to do. Children are powerful agents for change and they are at the center of much of the arts programming. We celebrate the thrill of seeing kids intensely involved in creative play and work; as children, they draw their parents in and sustain an urban dialogue around artistic expression and participation.
	As the underlying theme of the forum, many workshop discussions originate from or return to the issue of impact. We know experientially that arts projects can jumpstart development and attract business and tourists. Those are tangible results that can be tallied; the less tangible ones such as community pride, empowerment of program participants, personal development, and awakening of interest in otherwise forgotten communities, are observed and noted but elude recording and quantification. The experience of the participants reveals the passion that arts projects have instilled in communities even if many of these transformations have eluded quantification. As art-based places continue to revitalize their communities, impacts will become more clearly identified and will continue to provide a policy basis for support of this essential placemaking.
	OTHER TOPICS: Art is Essential Impacts Measuring the Impacts Sense of Place Race and Diversity Collaboration Helps Seizing Opportunity Art and Education Challenges of Success Leadership and Transition Adapting the Models