DEAR PETER: move CIA into the downtown area or simply push Case / CSU students more into downtown living

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 12/30/2004 - 16:40.

Cool local artist and creative entrepreneur Bridget Ginley - founder W. 25th Street Buzz Gallery - has posted to her lake of consciousness blog, erie.effusion, some great concepts for better integrating and socializing regional brainpower to make NEO a more sustainable, quality place.

I agree completely and see these concepts interconnected with the multiDATA concept I propose. That 4 out of 5 Case students live on their campus, and CSU and CCC are commuter schools, and our other quality universities are far removed from our hubs of economy, are all critical, addressable problems here - the lack of integration of local university students, faculty, alumni and knowledge throughout this community depletes all their potential impacts here, and the value they gain from our local economy and resources. Future development planning for this region should take Bridget's insight into account - she's not alone in this vision for the future!

my civic ideas are simple - move CIA into the downtown area or simply push Case / CSU students more into downtown living....if our downtown had a youthful presence over by the Galleria, think of how many young adults would need housing, clothing, food and of course the fun extras like booze and cigs for the older, more taxable sinning students....they would not inhabit and move out quickly because they are enrolled and every semester you get a fresh crew of people striving for education and higher learning...putting stadiums in for teams that seven years down the road suck and have drained the city financially instead of focusing on a long range plan that intermixes downtown living with an educated population of international infiltration that might stay and grow in our burbs or flourish at their alma mater...

think of the possibilities if they made the Galleria the CIA Grad Center...how many hip young adults would need to drink coffee, eat pizza or hummus, need a art supply shop or check out a movie downtown if they were stuck there for two to four years while reaching a higher educated level in the liberal arts....our city banks on the rich to move in and care but they pretty much regard this town as a footnote in their resume...these people do not create an environment for the arts to grow, to survive and flourish, that is why it is up to individuals to take up the slack and do something worthwhile and impactful on their creative community...i had some hope with those "ARTS SUMMITS" held every year back in the early JC 's administration that this town would finally grow some balls and form a ART COUNCIL so some of these struggling spaces might get some aid every once in a blue moon but nope, there is not a talk of that anymore......i would push for that so then individuals in the visual arts community could get some either serious aid or some exposure for what and how they impact their community...forming a council to put together a real downtown art festival is also something an incoming mayor should promise...you can't imagine the impact on the arts festivals on Clifton or in Cain Park and how the surrounding businesses profit from such creative activity during the warm months with a festival going on...Cleveland needs to get a creative kick in the clue and that's my x-mas wish for this year.

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What do you think about developing these opportunities Peter... students...other stakeholders? Post your comments below or add your own page of proposals.

CIA vision was right... so was the Buzz

From about the same time, hot artist Bridget Ginley proposed students living downtown and moving CIA downtown - she proposed the Galleria but I think the Flats is the place... more to follow. Unfortunately, since this posting Buzz Gallery closed... great loss

infill artists

When I moved to Cleveland in 1979, arts friends were making their art in interesting places. I joined them. We made performance art in the warehouse district's dusty and dark moribund places, in a chemically treated industrial complex at E 40th and Superior. Then we grew up, and so did our old stomping grounds. We needed more clout, (driven by the need for foundation support) so we took university positions however slight and underpaid. We used university spaces to present our dance and music and art shows. Thank god we had experience in raw spaces like the warehouse district buildings because what the universities offered wasn't much better -- bare rooms with little access to electricity in basements or semi converted old factories, spaces too small for big dances and too poorly designed for anything except one sort of performance.

Somewhere in that morass of unstoppable arts activity the word gentrification became popular. Now planners look to artists to start up new communities of interest. But they don't seek them out and offer funding. There are no, "open your tax abated studio/gallery here" signs in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood nor in the Flats. It might be a good idea to rearrange that thinking in city planner's minds. Tax abated art space -- what a concept. Of course, nonprofits don't pay tax, so it is of no use to many. But subsidies could work. You're an artist who plans to run your space in this tough neighborhood? We'll pay your mortgage for 10 years!

Given what they are about to fund for Wolstein, one might think that a few bucks thrown the way of the arts would be a pittance. In arts circles, a pittance is a lever that can have a big impact. Just ask those paying rent in the warehouse district nowadays. We should write a manual for city planners -- how to reinvigorate an urban center -- hire an artist!

We are writing the manual - 10% for art

This is the manual and we are the urban planners - tribute to Jacobs (and I don't mean Dick).

10% (TEN) for art, from budgets for all new developments in UCI, the Campus East Cleveland shared development area (to be spent for arts in East Cleveland), and flats shared development areas (including what ODOT is about to build?!). Is that enough public/private development/economic sector support? Need more, make it more... include the cost of relocating and rebuilding the CIA and student housing, and lots of subsidized arts incubators and "open source" facilities, and public art all over - considering over $2 billion will be spent in those zones in the next decade, a minimum $200 million goes to art - $100 million to arts related to education (including building new "CIA") and $100 million to direct support of artists who are part of the community. All to be defined further, and there needs to be serious consideration of how that money will be managed and distributed (huge issue right now) - but 10% seems a good model. What do you think?