One of the Sunday morning news shows did a feature story on the recent spike in the number of farmer’s markets popping up around the country. In fact, the number of weekly or monthly farmer’s markets in this country has almost doubled in the last year. As it turns out, people get a kick out of taking in locally grown fruits, vegetables, and spices. Read the rest of this entry »
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One of the first thing I ask a town or development is about their past efforts at stimulating activity using entertainment and events, and almost always, I’m given a small handful of annual festivals, be they music, art, beer, wine, film, or pick-your-local-vegetable. Next, I ask them to give their opinion of the success of those events, and they often beam with pride as they relay the staggering number of attendees, the press coverage, and the bond forged among the event organizers. Next, I ask about the lasting effects of these festivals, and here they begin to shrug a bit, and feebly talk about how these events helped to put the town “on the map.” Then I ask them about the local merchants attitudes toward the event, and here I get wildly varying responses, ranging from “The ice cream shop does a month’s worth of business!” to “They hate it because their store gets trampled and nobody buys anything, and they have to double their staff to make sure nothing gets stolen.”
And therein lies the trouble with the annual festival, or worse, the “one-off.” Read the rest of this entry »
I believe that in order for theatre and most live cultural performance to find a niche in the 21st century, we must consider returning to performance on a neighborhood scale. I’ve talked about this in similar posts, and this is in many ways the cornerstone of my methodology and ideology. When I meet with towns and cities about how live cultural arts can enliven their downtowns and commercial districts, I spend much of my initial time explaining that what we do does not have to be expensive or logistically cumbersome, but in fact can be quite simple and understated, so long as we give it time to develop. The model to which I continue to return is Commedia dell’Arte. It’s interesting that while New Urbanists look to Italy and western Europe for ideas in how to plan cities, because if in fact we as a culture are returning to those principles as a better way of life, then perhaps we should consider it’s models of entertainment as well.
Picasso's dipiction of a Commedia Troupe
It has been a few days since my last post. The last few days were incredibly busy, as the Institute for Mixed-Use Planning was in full swing, so by the time I sat down with my computer in Montreal, I was completely out of steam. But now that the seminar is over, I have had some time to sit down and reflect on the experience.
The seminar itself was much more hands-on than I expected, with the team spending most of our time solving planning problems posed by the folks at Live Work Learn Play. The most fascinating and time consuming project began Wednesday morning with a trip to Pointe du Moulin, an island connected to Old Montreal that is home to three abandoned grain silos. (Pictured below) Depending on who you ask, this island and these abandoned grain silos are considered either a detestable visual stain on the Montreal cityscape, or they are a historically significant visual stain on the Montreal cityscape. For the history of the entire island at the center of the project, click here. Read the rest of this entry »
Day 3 in Montreal began the Mixed-Use Planning Seminar in full. We met in the Hotel Nelligan lobby in the morning and were divided into our planning teams. We were told to come up with a team name and learn something about our fellow teammates. The War Beavers, as we have called ourselves, is a diverse group of folks, including a developer, an urban design planner, a transportation expert, a new urbanist, a residential real-estate sales guy, a retail leasing expert, an investment banker, and myself, the arts guy. After some introductory history of Montreal, we were led on a tour of Old Montreal by Ryan Bloom, the Live Work Learn Play leasing director. Old Montreal is an incredible downtown revitalization story. Read the rest of this entry »
Day two in Montreal began with an extended walking tour led by the principal of Live Work Learn Play, Max Reim. We started off in Old Montreal and walked through Chinatown and up through the college district of UQAM, which stands for the University of Quebec at Montreal. I cannot really express what a beautiful city Montreal is, particularly in August. I have to remind myself that 8 months of the year, it is bitterly cold here and none of the incredible outdoor dining and recreation is available to its residents. But I must say that the people of the city take advantage of their months of good weather furiously. Read the rest of this entry »
I realize that it has been two weeks since my last post and that is unacceptable. My feeble defense is that I have been traveling quite a bit lately and it’s hard to sit down and write a cohesive blog post when your only time in front of your computer is dealing with bills and travel schedules and the like. But now I’m here in Montreal for almost a week (sans épouse, sans enfant) attending a seminar on Mixed-Use Planning and Development, and by golly, you guys are going to hear about it.
In my last post on the subject, I discussed forming an “arts council,” or an organization by some other name tasked with creating and implementing a cultural plan for your town or market. In this post, I will take some time to talk about how you can begin the planning process by brainstorming for innovative programming ideas, now that you have a capable team in place. Read the rest of this entry »
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. It rained a little here on the oil-stained Gulf coast, but we still got our share of fireworks.
If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out Scott Walter’s Theatre Ideas blog, or his newest endeavor, Rocking the CRADLE, then spend 15 minutes reading this post commemorating the 100 anniversary of the birth of Robert Gard, in many ways the father of the community arts movement. Read the rest of this entry »
Double Decker Arts Festival
Okay, I guess it’s easier to be a vibrant arts town if you are a college town, what with all of the young creative people in the art and fine art departments to create the work, and thousands of students eager to consume. Oxford is different, though. Not only is it the birthplace and favorite setting of William Faulkner, but you must remember that this is also Mississippi. And just as a white dot is easier to see on a black page, Oxford is an oasis of cultural vitality in an otherwise barren landscape of poverty and artistically malnourished citizenry. I know, that comes off as very prejudiced, but I bet if you asked a native of the Mississippi to guess how their state stacks up artistically with the rest of the country, they might mention Oxford and then say, “somewhere towards the bottom.” Read the rest of this entry »
