June
2002
TAC
Arts Build Downtown Trenton: A business and cultural blueprint
for action
By
Gail Cohen and Anne LaBate
The
following is the second in a series of articles about the Trenton
Arts Connection. Your ideas and participation are welcome.
"Arts
Build Downtown Trenton: A Business & Cultural Blueprint for
Action" has been developed by the Trenton Arts Connection
and is based on the premise that culture builds communities. It
is a vision, a compass, a roadmap-shaped and sized by information
gathered from the community and designed to weave arts and culture
into the fabric of our community. It builds on the rich and varied
resources that currently exist in Trenton, seeking to transform
Trenton's downtown into a vibrant arts and cultural destination.
This
blueprint provides a plan for investment and coordination of arts
and cultural activities. It is flexible and open-ended. It organizes
the cultural community as partners in the downtown design, planning
and development process. It is composed of large and small-scale
projects that can be implemented independently, while integrating
functionally and aesthetically.
The
blueprint identifies several categories of activities that make
up this overall vision. The first category, Facility Development
and Design, focuses on the need to provide space for rehearsal
and classes; performance, exhibition, galleries; artist live/work
spaces, arts administration, as well as the need to enhance the
appearance of the downtown for it to be successful as an arts
and cultural center. The ten projects outlined below are designed
to address problems faced by artists and fuel the revitalization
efforts for the downtown.
Performing
arts center at the Mill Hill Playhouse and Amphitheater: Will
provide a high-quality regional performing arts center in a renovated
and expanded Mill Hill Playhouse and Amphitheater. This project
is already in the development stages, stimulated by an $800,000
grant from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts
Trenton
Clayworks: ceramics studio and gallery: Trenton's history as a
center for the ceramics industry can be rejuvenated through this
project, designed to provide a state of the art ceramics facility
to attract professional caliber artists to work in Trenton. The
Clayworks can furnish firing and production facilities as well
as gallery space for artists, while creating additional classroom
space for ceramic art education, in conjunction with ARTWORKS
and Mercer County Community College. This project will also incorporate
an outreach program to bring the experience of ceramics to city
schools.
Trenton
Center for Contemporary Visual Arts: Utilizing a vacant downtown
building, this project will to establish a professional quality
gallery/museum dedicated to rotated inspiring exhibits of contemporary
visual art.
Community
Arts Resource Center: The establishment of a Community Arts Resource
Center will provide a central hub for the arts community. It can
act as a unifying force, encouraging collaboration through use
of its facilities and technical assistance and allowing a convergence
of visual, performing and creative artists and organizations,
to in turn, strengthen and enhance individual and group efforts.
Artist
Housing: Will create artist live/work spaces in the downtown area
through the reuse of vacant or underused building stock, providing
a catalyst for further downtown residential development.
Art/Business
Incubator and Gallery: occupy a rehabilitated and visually attractive
downtown building with the first floor space used as a gallery
with regular hours of operation, creating a viable venue for selling
art. The upper floors can be rented out as studios and offices
for arts businesses.
Market
a downtown graduate-level arts extension college: The goal is
to promote downtown Trenton as a viable and attractive location
for a graduate level arts program, linked to an already existing
institution, or through a new program developed by a consortium
of academic institutions.
Arts
fund for Mercer County Community College: The fund would secure
funds to be used by Mercer County Community College, which would
facilitate moving part or all of its arts programming into a renovated
buildings in Downtown Trenton.
Grants
to property owners for creating artist live/work spaces: The initiative
will create a grant program for property owners who will develop
artist live and/or work space in vacant portions of their buildings.
Facilitate
high-density artist living spaces: The program will establish
artist live/work spaces in the former Bell Telephone Building
(Bell Lofts), or another building of that caliber.
The
July edition of the Trenton Downtowner will explore the second
blueprint category: Public Arts & Arts Programming, including
details on these numerous programs and projects that will help
transform Trenton.
#
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Gail
Cohen is the executive director of the Trenton Arts Connection
and Anne LaBate is the board president. Contact TAC at 609-695-8155
or TArts@aol.com.
