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Arts, the Economy and the Neighborhood
April 2, 2003 @ 7:35 AM and again at 9:10 AM
on 90.3
Here's a pop quiz: Which activity did people spend the most money on in 2000…. spectator sports, movies or the performing arts? If you said performing arts…you'd be right. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, patrons spent one-point-seven billion dollars more on performing arts than they did on admissions to movies and 500-million more than spectator sports. So, as we talk up a new convention center as an economic investment, the arts may be a comparable economic driver. As part of Making Change; Reinventing Our Economy, ideastream's Shula Neuman spent a day at Art House in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood of Cleveland and reports that even small, community arts centers are integral to the economic well being of a neighborhood.
 
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Grand
Opening of Art House |
About four years
ago sculptor Sheryl Hoffman got together with a few of her artist
neighbors. For years, the Brooklyn Centre residents had been opening
their homes as art studios to the neighborhood and they thought it
was time to find a public space to share their art. Hoffman says conceptualizing
what is now known as Art House was just the beginning.
SHERYL HOFFMAN: So, we were talking about
wouldn’t it be great to start something with the arts here that
would be available to the community? I contact Councilwoman Merle
Gordon about another property that looked to be vacant.
MERLE GORDON: They came to me with the idea of
having a community art house.
Cleveland Councilwoman Merle Gordon said she was intrigued by the
idea since development in the Brooklyn Center neighborhood had leveled
off in recent years.
MG: This place was up for sale and had
been up for sale for a long time and it was starting to not look
so good and we thought, let’s purchase something and rehab it and
hopefully have it be a catalyst for something on Dennison avenue.
SH: That Saturday, we came to look at this property,
which was then owned by Hasik Peter Glass Company. And we met with
Sally winter from the Ohio Arts Council and Tom Schorgle from Community
Partnership for Arts and Culture.
And they met with the artists interested in setting it up. As Tom
Schorgle recalls that day, the building’s initial impression was less
than inspiring
TOM SCHORGL: It was November. It was
very dark out, but much darker inside, very cold out, but much colder
inside the building, wet and very wet inside the building.
The artists had a different perspective.
SH: …And our eyes just lit up when we
walked in this space because for an artist, a wide open 3000 square
foot studio space is a dream.
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Student
art classes |
Nearly three years
later Art House provides classes four times a week to students at
the Dennison School across the street. They’re just now starting their
first semester of art classes for community members of any age and
they’re hosting regular open houses—a veritable monthly party with
music and food where people can observe the creative process or experiment
with making their own art. At a recent open house, Councilwoman Gordon
observed the crowd and noted that most open houses she attends aren’t
as lively and interactive as the one at Art House.
MG: What we had hoped for—for this and
seeing it here is just fantastic. But it’s also really neat to just
be in conversations with people who say, “oh, Art House, down the
street, that’s really cool.” We now have something new in our neighborhood
that is a real asset that’s not a huge cost to something and isn’t
sort of passing fad, but something they can utilize.
After six months in operation, it’s too early to determine if Art
House is responsible for any community growth. But Brian Cummins,
executive director of the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation,
says commercial developers he works with notice amenities like Art
House. He says it helps his organization’s efforts to attract commercial
growth.
BRIAN CUMMINS: We’ve met with a lot of
developers who’ve been doing these types of projects. They’re becoming,
again, more and more aware of the opportunities in Brooklyn Centre.
And I dare say that within the year, we definitely expect to have
at least one commercial development project.
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Artists also make
a difference to the real estate market. Cummins says that one-point-three
million dollars have been invested in residential restoration, thanks
in part to Brooklyn Centre’s receiving both a Local Landmarks and
a National Registry for Historic Places designation. Houses in parts
of Brooklyn Centre are now going for more than 200-thousand dollars.
Given all that activity, Art House’s existence makes sense, says Tom
Schorgl with the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. He says
people are right to believe that the organization will probably accelerate
growth even further.
TS: When artists and arts and culture
organizations move into neighborhoods—like the Old Brooklyn neighborhood
that we’re in now or Tremont or Little Italy or Slavic Village or
Hough—they tend to start to pioneer this idea of “creative activity.”
And it is an economic effect. And as they establish this sort of
creative activity in the neighborhood they start to act as a magnet
for other types of businesses.
Schorgl says the economic activity generated by arts and culture in
Northeast Ohio is one-point-three billion dollars in direct and indirect
spending. That figure covers everything from major arts institutions—like
the Orchestra—to small community centers, like Art House. A strong
artistic community also attracts the highly educated, high salaried
knowledge workers—or the “creative class,” a term coined by Carnegie
Mellon University Professor Richard Florida. Florida says that with
average salaries of 50-thousand dollars the creative class has more
disposable income—which ends up flowing into the local economy. So,
next time you plunk down money for a play or concert, you’re not just
spending it on entertainment, you could be investing in the region’s
economy.
In Cleveland, shula Neuman 90.3
Resources:
- The Art House
This site includes upcoming events at Art House and contact information.
- Ohio Arts Council
The site has information on all kinds of arts related activities.
It also has the report, "The State of the Arts" which evaluates
vitality of art in Ohio culturally, educationally and economically.
- Community Partnership
for Arts and Culture
Chocked full of studies, events and ideas for promoting cultural
awareness in Northeast Ohio.
- Art Events
A listing of some arts events around Northeast Ohio. Provided
by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture.
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