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Art as a Catalyst for

Community Regeneration

Churchill Fellowship 2012

Visiting the USA

Detroit, Chicago, Boston and Lowell

By Maria Iredale

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Introduction

Marias American Adventure

When the details of the Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship first landed in my inbox in 2010 I

was intrigued. I had never heard of anything like that. I explored the website reading with interest

the reports of other Fellows and I was amazed at the breadth of the work. I was intimidated by the

academic nature of many of the Fellowships but I have never been one to shy away from things that

intimidate me. Those things are just challenges.

In 2010 I thought a lot about the Fellowship but I did not feel ready to apply, I waited for the 2011

application as I wanted to get the project goals clear in my mind. Working in the Arts as in any field,

exposes you to new ideas and this is what I love, new ways of looking at things and projects that

excite me. I have long believed that the Arts have the capacity to change things for the better and it

is part of the human condition that we strive to create, document and be the audience for the Arts

in the broadest terms.

Detroit was the starting point for my trip as I had seen a TV documentary called Requiem for Detroit

a few years ago and I had decided I would like to see it for myself and find out more about certain

aspects. I thought it important to see what impact the Arts were having on this example of massive

decline. I had read reports and seen programmes and I wanted to explore this for myself. The other

places I visited had in some cases suffered significant decline, and in others had overcome decline by

focusing on the Arts. I discovered the unexpected and was astonished by the impact the Arts could

have on regeneration. My trip was not exactly as I planned but that worked out great.

Detroit

You may be puzzled by my choice of

image here but it illustrates one of

the problems in Detroit. This was

10.30am on Saturday morning in the

heart of Downtown Detroit and it’s

empty. Not a soul. I took this image

from the empty monorail carriage I

was on. Please bear in mind Detroit

has a famously high crime rate so it

was a little unnerving to say the

least to be on this empty train in this

empty city. The emptiness of

Detroit is a reoccurring theme and it is surprising that this place is quite so creative when there is

such a lack of people.

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This sculpture of a man at one of the

Detroit People Mover Stations is called

‘’Catching Up” and for a couple of days I

thought he was real! His presence

reassured me that I was safe, that I wasn’t

alone on a station platform followed by

getting onto an empty train.

The presence of art has the capacity to

change the way a place or a situation feels

and in this case the work made the space

immediately friendlier. We make a

connection even if we don’t like the piece;

it’s says humanity was here! One of my

ideas for Detroit would be to make lots of

cut out people to make the place appear

populated; the fact that it is empty

reinforces the apocalyptic nature of its appearance. Indeed many films are shot in Detroit,

Transformers, 8 mile, Gran Torino, Red Dawn; it has the look of a city that needs a superhero.

Detroit is a huge city

Detroit has many complex problems;

its size is one of the most far reaching.

It’s a huge city, 139 sq miles, big

enough to fit Boston, Manhattan and

San Francisco within it with room to

spare. The population though is just

over 800,000 whereas the population

of those combined cities is over 3

million. With a virtually nonexistent

public transport system over this huge

space, its residents lack mobility and

access.

Detroit is a product of the car industry

both its success and its current

situation. Passing foot traffic for activities and events in the Downtown/city centre area is non-

existent. Even in the heart of the financial district the workers access their buildings from the car

park by footbridges. The strategy for audience development has challenges we would never

consider here in the UK. The grassroots projects are firmly placed within their communities and they

serve their specific communities. It’s amazing that the fame of some of these projects has spread to

such an extent.

Apart from shaping the face of the city, the car industry is historically the biggest philanthropic

donor for the arts in Detroit. These historically philanthropic companies are now being joined by the

financial institutions as major gift givers.

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The Heidelberg Project (HP)

One of the space and place changing art

installations is the Heidelberg project.

It was started by Tyree Guyton and his

Grandfather in 1986. Tyree said ‘If you

want to change the environment then

first you have to change the people’.

This he set out to do this by scandalising

the remaining residents of his area by

painting and adding to the local derelict

houses.

The neighbours were scandalized to such

an extent that they came together to get

part of the area demolished. The fact that they came together to destroy his work makes him proud

and sad in equal measure as his work was able to galvanise a disenfranchised group of residents into

a community. This is no longer an issue as the Heidelberg Project has bought all the land that the

work sits on and after 26 years they have finally made peace with their neighbours (but only

recently).

The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art environment on Heidelberg Street in the McDougall-Hunt

neighborhood in Detroit. Tyree Guyton, founder and artist, first began creating art on the houses of

Heidelberg Street 25 years ago to draw attention to the forgotten neighborhoods of Detroit and

other social issues. “The Polka Dot House”, covered in large brightly colored polka dots, has become

an iconic symbol of The Heidelberg Project. Other installations have included “Street Folk”, “The

House that Makes Sense”, “The Shoe Tree” and “The Rosa Parks Bus”. Always provocative, The

Heidelberg Project has attracted visitors from around world, and at times consternation from City

Hall. Currently, The Heidelberg Project is partnering with local businesses, residents, community

nonprofits, Foundations, and the City of Detroit to expand the arts installation aspect of The

Heidelberg Project into a networked system of living artwork and locally-based economic

development.

The Mission is: The Heidelberg Project is a Detroit-based community organisation designed to

improve lives and neighbourhoods through art.

The Vision is: the Heidelberg Project envisions neighbourhood residents using art to come together

to rebuild the structure and fabric of under-resourced communities and to create a way of living that

is economically viable, enriches lives and welcomes all people.

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My Heidelberg experience was on a drab Detroit

afternoon when the car dropped me of in a non

too salubrious area. That said, the project itself

was welcoming and interesting and there was a

resident curator to talk me through the exhibits.

The work changes how you feel about the space.

You become less suspicious and more open when

a house is covered in gently rotting cuddly

animals. It’s bound to change the nature of a

place. There are partly submerged boats and cars

within the lawns and they too are adorned with

cuddly toys or alternatively, old shoes. When the

curator talked me through the piles of objects and how they were referencing large-scale disasters I

found this a little challenging to accept but I went with it. Its Detroit’s third most visited tourist

attraction and attempts have been made to replicate its success internationally. Tyree Guyton is the

inspiration for this and without his passion and childlike innocence the project would be rudderless.

The driving force and organisational whirlwind is his wife Jenenne Whitfield. She has taking the

Heidelberg project and turned it into a respected organisation that is used as consultant and mentor

to much bigger organisations than it.

There is nothing geographically other than this project between the Detroit Institute of the Arts and

the City Zoo at 8 mile to attract the visitor to this part of town at all.

The not for profit HP has a turnover of around $480,000 pa and studies by Wayne County University

in the Diversity of the Arts cite the Heidelberg Project as generating a $320,000 contribution to

Detroit economy and helping to draw in a further $240,000 in community funding PA.

The project attracts around 250,000 visitors per annum and these visitors are responsible for the

economic impact.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has credited the HP with changing the perception of the

community Arts and influencing the way the NEA allocate funding, though ironically the NEA have

never actually funded the HP.

As the Heidelberg Project has proved so successful at engagement it is being courted by much larger

organisations and institutions to share its expertise on engagement and participation, including the

Detroit Institute of the Arts.

The HP lecture program is in demand and Jenenne will visit organisations to speak and the

organisation will earn between $2500-$3000 for each engagement. Jenenne is the

professional/business face of the project, she has a corporate background and this allows her to

‘sell’ HP and its community impact to commercial organisations with shared community goals.

The HP has a separate office building which is about 6 blocks from the art installation; this building

houses the administration for the project, a gallery, Tyree’s studio and the living accommodation for

Jenenne and Tyree.

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The HP raises funds through specific events for its arts education programme, both the children’s

and the 18-35 age group. This programme is supported by wealthy individuals and philanthropic

corporate organisations.

The relationship with the other residences on the street has not always been easy; indeed it was

these residents who campaigned to have parts of the project torn down. This relationship is now

much improved. One household who were vehemently opposed have since come around to the HP

way of thinking as they have been asking for donations from people in return for letting those sign

the wooden frontage of the house. My question for this resident would be, ‘what took you so long

to realise the opportunity here?’ On hot days they should be out of their homes selling lemonade or

homemade cake!

Detroit is so visibly empty of people that the numbers of faces whether they are rotting plush or

painted on car bonnets, are welcome and remind the viewer that they are not alone.

The general level of dereliction in Detroit calls into question exactly what is possible. Block after

block is wasteland with the occasional habited property. Imagine one of the United Kingdom’s really

bad sink estate areas, quadruple it in size and then turn large tracts of it into wasteland. Follow this

up by getting the local people to create their own outdoor art installation, something on such a scale

that it attracts international attention. This was initially done with no funding at all. It was met with

scorn from the academic art community and is now number 3 in the most visited attractions in

Detroit. The recognition of ‘quality’ has come late for Tyree Guyton who now resides in Switzerland

and is hailed as an arts academic himself; this is such a turnaround for the man without formal arts

qualifications who changed his neighbourhood with art. If this was in the UK could it happen?

Nothing comparable springs to mind. We have many excellent art projects but nothing that has

risen to the world’s stage quite like this project. The UK arts landscape is dominated by the concept

of quality and the introduction of quality to the masses. Large amounts of money are spent on

relatively few projects in-order to engage the masses in ‘quality arts’.

The UK

The UK Arts Council though unwilling to speak to me directly (unlike their US counterparts) did issue

this response through Rachel Dury from the Arts Investment and Planning Department. When

questioned about the balance of quality and access, she said. “We do place a high emphasis on

quality as we believe that the quality of the experience by audiences has a material impact on their

continued engagement with arts and culture. We aim to achieve the very best outcome, e.g. the

£60m High House Production Park in Thurrock which includes the relocated Royal Opera House

production facility has led to the ROH engaging with thousands of people in their area of low

engagement with the arts, low skills and low aspirations”.

This £60m investment offers courses to teachers and visits for schools to their new production

facility in Essex.

The statement by the Arts Council make me think of the millions of people who are now aware of

and have been influenced by all things Essex through the reality TV world of ‘The Only Way is Essex’.

It has brought changes to the Nations language, changes to our habits, the fashions and for some to

the cultural values. It has a massive cultural influence and as such it is important to ask whether the

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balance for access and quality we have is right? Should we make culture accessible to many while

keeping quality and cost accessible and the impact high and is that better than maintaining only high

quality but with lower access and impact?

I think Heidelberg is a demonstration of what’s possible when you have a community led with vision

and the time to let the access develop into influence.

Inspiring others

This is an image of one of the groups

inspired by the Heidelberg Project known

as Object Orange and otherwise only by

their first names. Their site specific art

installations were highlighting the need

for demolition in the communities.

Buildings on the point of collapse were

painted Tiggerific Orange. It was an

interesting new use for art as an agent

for demolition.

These are former Art students. “At this

point in Detroit there are so many abandoned spaces,” says Christian, a New Jersey native who

recently began teaching at a university in Colorado. “Living around these neighbourhoods and

experiencing the product of the blight and seeing what happens to the children and the landscape,

we’re just kind of questioning it and saying, ‘Why is nothing done? Why is this happening? I tell my

students that if you’re in Detroit you don’t need a studio,” Christian says. “The city is one big studio.”

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The Institute of the Arts (DIA)

The DIA is custodian and curator of

Detroit's considerable arts and antiquities

collection. It is valued at over 1 billion

dollars and is the 2nd largest municipal

collection in the USA. It’s a fantastic

collection (over 100 galleries) built up in

the city’s hey day (started in 1883) when

the automotive families were patrons

and collectors of the arts. It’s in a large

purpose built facility which was originally

developed at the end of the 19th century.

The last new wing in the building

improvement programmed was completed in 2008 at a cost of $158 million.

The DIA was much like all the other big city museums and Galleries up until the early 1990s where it

was a centre of academic excellence and the expertise of the curators was displayed in the detail on

the description cards and the ways the collection was displayed by period or artist.

As a centre of academic excellence the public was allowed in to see it and admire it. This is still the

approach of the majority of similar institutions and the Director Graham W. J. Beal has been

pioneering in his radical strategy for engaging the community.

The DIA is a not for profit organization with around 400,000 visitors PA and its collection is made up

of large donations from the Automotive dynasties such as Ford as well as the amazing pieces owned

by the city that were purchased and commissioned by the at the height of the Detroit’s wealth.

To put these visitor numbers into perspective, the National Gallery in London has 4.78 million

visitors per year; the visitors for the DIA are the similar to Glasgow's Botanical Gardens.

It has struggled financially in recent years and has had its state subsidy cut from $16million to zero

and it has cut its curation team from 20 to 13. Its running costs have been traditionally supported

with income from an endowment, but unforeseen costs, the collapse in the interest rates and the

cut in support from the state has seen the endowment fall from $350 million to $89 million in 4

years. 89 million gives an income of $3.4 million and though the DIA has cut jobs its operating costs

are still $25 million per annum.

In order to secure its future in the face such dire financial problems with city funding and the

dwindling endowment they had to come up with a new strategy. Without it the DIA would have

closed its doors in 2012 and maintained its collection until such a time that it was in a financial

position to reopen. This has already happened to a number of Detroit institutions and the financial

impact of this on the city’s fortunes could not be underestimated.

In 2010 the DIA started a campaign to win a millage.

Millage - A tax rate on property, expressed in mills per dollar of value of the property.

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The Millage is the opportunity for the public to vote on the things that their taxes should be spent

on. In return the recipients of the tax often offer a series of public incentives, such as free entry to

the facility or promised improvements.

In 2012 the DIA got a yes vote to their millage proposal across the 3 counties of Detroit. They had to

succeed in all three for it to go through and in their home county the vote went through by only

0.5%. If it had not been passed, the museum would have had to close in its current guise and

potentially only open up for special occasions. This is the third time the millage has been tried and

the first time it has been successful for them. The campaign for this was 2 years long and cost

$2.5million. The museum in total has lost 20% of its workforce though it now hopes to be in a

position to hire new curators to fill the gaps in the expertise available, though they will never reach

the previous employee numbers.

The millage lasts for 10 years and will raise an additional $23million annually; this will allow the

fundraising team to build the endowment from $90 million to nearer $400 million which will provide

sustainability or the DIA. The DIA are good fundraisers but the cut in state funding and the

redevelopment of the building in order to secure and maintain the collection have eaten into the

original endowment. The discovery of asbestos during the redevelopment took an unexpected

$40million from the endowment.

There has been much criticism from the local community which is probably why they won the

millage by only 0.5% in Wayne County. For a local population so blighted by poverty to see an

institution sitting on savings of $90million and still asking for more when they don’t understand the

economic impact of the DIA and how its success impacts them is hard. The problem in Detroit is so

huge that $90 million from the DIA would not solve anything.

In order to achieve the millage the DIA accelerated their development as an accessible

(academically) arts space that belongs to the public. They had been on this path for the 10 years in

the run up to the millage application and without it would never have been successful. The museum

is now free to visit for all those in the counties that voted. Outside the area the visitors’ fee is still

only $8.00 with nothing additional to pay for special exhibitions.

The collections are grouped by stories that are tested out on focus groups to explore how people

relate to them. They look at everyday themes like holidays, food, gender roles, family life and they

make sure the public can relate to the imagery.

They have 2 full time evaluators who are constantly exploring how well the museum is doing in

relation to public engagement with the collection.

As part of the millage commitment they will develop their schools programme across the 3 counties

with financial help for schools the furthest away towards fuel costs.

The DIA has around 4000 paying members, many of these are wealthy patrons of the arts and the

DIA works hard to keep their engagement as their financial contribution is significant. Each

collection has its own ‘Friends of’ group and these groups raise money to purchase new things for

the collection. They also have lectures and trips on their chosen favorites and these patrons often

belong to multiple groups. These fundraisers organise Summer Soirees where wealthy home owners

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have house parties with tickets up to $150 per head. All party costs are covered by the home owner

so all the ticket price comes to the DIA. These parties raise in excess of $25,000 per annum.

As part of the millage campaign the DIA had to target different groups including senior citizens, faith

groups and families. Curators worked with the collections to create specific stories which would

engage each group.

The community engagement is incredible as they go out in to the community to give talks and

lectures as well as invite people into the museum. They also talk to groups before they visit the DIA

in order that they get the greatest opportunity to engage with the collection.

The evaluators are constantly honing the museums customer experience with exit surveys and

interviews. The feedback from the customer is very important to the museum. They have a film

programme which is both in house and outreach as well as an individual employee, dedicated to

using social media to open up new audiences for the DIA on the internet.

The DIA Cafe

The programme has changed radically in the last 10

years and the shift from a collection focused

programme to an audience focused programme is no

more evident than in the DIA Friday Night Live!

The programme on a Friday night includes film (in

their beautiful theatre) exhibitions, talks, and classes

for children, adults and combinations and live music.

They host special events in their Krezge Hall which is

a reproduction Florentine courtyard in the centre of

the museum. These events include Brunch with

Brach, tailored events for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day

and Valentines etc, though plans are developing to increase the use of the space through a change in

the décor design. It is light and bright and when I was in the hall having lunch there were artists

sketching and people on laptop computers and adults with children. It’s a well used space with a

wonderful atmosphere

The museum is open till 10pm every Friday evening with live music events and lectures and it is

moving towards opening 6 days a week. The terms of the millage mean that the county residents

have to feel that they are getting value for money and access is part of that.

Graham W. J. Beale, the DIA Director, spoke to me about his wish to make the art ‘sing’ for the

public, for them to engage with the work and use their imaginations to personally interpret and

connect with the work. This statement conveys more about ‘access’ than keeping the doors open,

this is about making this precious collection relevant to , and considered by, the current audience.

This is a great example of very high quality work, displayed in a fresh context. The work is no longer

set up to teach you something or to demonstrate, it’s going to come on the journey with you and

together you will discover new relevancies.

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The museum’s education outreach programme works with hard to engage groups in a well equipped

studio within the museum. They work with war veterans and drug/alcohol abusers as well as

vulnerable young people and the homeless.

They genuinely believe in removing the barriers to engaging with the arts and there is much that

museums across the world can learn from this.

The museum’s plan for the future is to layer their engagement programs and have an interlinking

strategy for them. They would like the IT program to be more visible to make better use of the

internet and its engagement potential across the museum.

They would like to use the unique nature of the space at the museum to work towards better health

both mental and emotional for their population. They would like to develop their schools program

by expanding their work with teachers so that the arts are taught to an agreed standard rather than

as an afterthought.

They want to use the arts as a force for good within Michigan.

Brilliant!

DIA Assets

The DIA is particularly well known

for the incredible Diego Rivera

murals depicting the automotive

industry, titled ‘Detroit Industry’, or

‘Man and Machine. The murals were

begun in 1932 and were

commissioned by Edsel Ford who is

also depicted in the mural. Their

politically charged themes of the

workers’ struggle caused lasting

friction between admirers and

detractors. During the Mc Carthy

era, the murals survived only by

means of a prominent sign which identified them as legitimate art; the sign further asserted

unambiguously that the political motivations of the artist were "detestable“. Today the murals are

celebrated as one of the DIA's finest assets,

and even "one of America's most significant

monuments”. The DIA has 100+ different

galleries, 2 cafes and a restaurant, as well as

a beautiful theatre that can show movies and

seats 1150 people.

The DIA is open late every Friday evening for

Friday Night Live and I was surprised when I

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attended, just how many other people were there and their diversity.

It was a mixture of races, ages and economic groups, all accessing everything from chess to foreign

language films, life drawing to specialist tours. It was a family destination for a Friday evening in

Detroit.

Its success was unexpected, especially when set against a location where you would not be stopping

at red lights on your way home in case you were carjacked!

There is much to learn here though, as most Arts organisations or venues have only a monthly Friday

evening when it’s open to the public. The DIA goes the extra mile again by making it every Friday

evening with its own event programme. This is certainly something I would take away for my own

venue. Though with no hope to ever be on this scale the idea of somewhere cultural but accessible

to go on a Friday evening with friends or family, that will shape the offer around it, is fantastic.

Other Galleries in Detroit

The Detroit Artists Market was a place I had

passed a couple of times on my trips up and

down Woodward and on the Saturday of the

Detroit Design Festival I thought I would give

it a look around. I was dismayed to find the

door still locked though to it was a cultural

event weekend, though I cannot really blame

them as the passing foot traffic did not give

the impression that they were particularly

interested in culture. The initial barrier of a

locked door to a gallery is significant and it

was the only one I came across for the entire

trip. The gallery was originally the Young Artists Market started in 1932 and it focussed on

showcasing the work of artists under 30. This focus on displaying the work of young people is

something I saw in all the cities I visited.

The work varied enormously in both

quality and price. It was a lively alumni

exhibition so there was no clear theme.

The gallery steward was unfriendly and

the overall impression of the gallery was

of a traditional intimidating gallery space

that takes itself way top seriously

The Scarab Club – A historic meeting

place fostering the arts for all in the heart

of Detroit’s Midtown Cultural Centre.

The Scarab Club is a fascinating old club

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in the cultural centre in Midtown. The mission of the Scarab Club is the education of the members

and the community and, many of the Detroit ‘great and good ‘have been members of this club.

Home to 6 artists studios as well as an impressive private collection, the Scarab is most famous for

the signed ceiling in the room housing the permanent collection, signatures include Diego Rivera and

Frida Kahlo.

The club looks like an old domestic town house dropped in among the large scale modern civic

buildings and though its front door was closed it didn’t feel too scary. I went in and was greeted by a

friendly young woman with a desk on the stairs, not for her the locked door and the desk hidden

from view. She explained a little about the club and the exhibitions that were on. The downstairs

space was light and beautiful with a garden. The young women popped in to check I was ok and then

I went up stairs to see the permanent collection. It was a gorgeous homely space and I was the only

one there. I was happy to settle down in the comfy chairs by the fire and enjoy the work. Every

Detroiter I spoke to about the Arts recommended this gallery so it’s obviously something the

community is very proud of. Much of the current creative work visible in Detroit concentrates on

the ruin or rebirth of the city; this on the other hand feels like a constant. Something from the past

that remains relevant and trusted.

The artists it showcases in its gallery are relatively high profile so the space continues to have a

significant prestige. It lends itself to performance too of poetry and music, and the Scarab has a

monthly programme of activity that is open to the public.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit (MOCAD) was a gallery many recommended I should

visit. The Gallery is in an old industrial building and the space is very gritty and is very much a

painted warehouse space. That said, it has both film and installations and it feels very relevant to

the community it serves. The exhibition at the time of visiting were a large installation of cars in a

corn field which were decorated and made to move and respond to each other with noises. There

were 2 art films and an exhibition about a public participation piece about the song ‘Dancing in the

Street’. It was not open the first time I visited or the second even though the published opening

hours said it should be. This failure to open was disappointing and if I hadn’t been so committed to

visiting then they would have missed out on my patronage.

The collection was a mixture of intellectual and accessible and was funded by both private

investment and some local funding.

Art in Other Spaces

Detroiters can come into contact with art

in public spaces whether they take any

notice or not .No evidence is available.

The DIA have their own programme of

Great Masters in the community and they

have replicas of a variety of works

situated in places of recreation and high

traffic.

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These are accessible pieces that add a splash of culture to some otherwise rather barren spaces.

The public art is concentrated in the financial district and in the areas that have had federal

regeneration money. From this we can surmise a commitment to the arts as a tool for regeneration

in Federal developments. Detroit doesn’t have a signature sculpture or particular world famous art

piece in the way that Chicago does. Chicago has Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate and the world famous

American Gothic by Grant Wood, which brings in an estimated $2billion as part of the millennium

cultural developments.

Detroit's great creative masterpieces outside of the DIA are its amazing buildings and its rightful

claim as the home of Motown Music. Its cheap city centre real estate is providing cheap spaces for

artists to rent and buy and the cheap real estate also attracts the 20-30 some things, with a college

education but no children yet, who are an audience for the work.

The 2011 census figures showed that though the city has lost another 100,000 people the number in

Downtown Detroit had increased by 59%

There is currently a small but significant redevelopment to some of the stock of derelict buildings;

this is made possible by the billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert as he moves his operations to

Detroit. These new people will hopefully tell a new story of Detroit, not the art house films

‘Detropia’ and ‘Burn’ or the gangster style Detroit of Eminem as their presence will create a change

for the city. At events and parties I attended this group were the audience, as were the Wayne

University (local University) graduates who wanted to stay and change the perception of Detroit.

There is most certainly a small but passionate population in the city.

Detroit Design Festival

I was fortunate to explore the Detroit Design Festival while I was in the city, this is a relatively new

initiative and this year’s festival was only their second. The Festival is organised by DC3 (Detroit

Creative Corridor Centre).

DC3 supports creative start up businesses and has been in operation for the last 2 years. It is funded

by the Michigan Economic Development Agency and Philanthropic corporate organisations who see

the value in developing the cultural sector. The creative economy was identified as an area for

growth in 2009 as part of a business brainstorming exercise done by the university. DC3 has a 3 tier

strategy for working with the creative industries.

They support and attract new creative businesses.

They showcase the outputs of the businesses in the Detroit Design Festival.

The run a mentoring program for creative businesses with highly respected professionals called the

Accelerator Program. This program has similarities with the UK Arts Councils Escalator Program.

There are currently 17 companies in the program and DC3 engages with approximately 250 creative

businesses annually.

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The Detroit Design Festival was established to connect creative’s to one another, to expose them to

new markets and consumers and to expose Detroit’s creative talent and collective design aesthetic

to national and global audiences.

The DC3 aims to create a community audience from the city for the city, this is done with the

support of the private industries who recognize the impact of the creative industries on the area and

the culture.

They have a vision of Detroit as a Global Centre but this cannot happen without further

infrastructure investment.

The vision is a long term one as the DC3 estimates it will take 20/30 years to see the city emerge

from its current problems. The DC3 sees itself as part of a business eco system helping the creative

industries grow organically and sustainably within their communities. Detroit also has a massive

issue with race that other cities do not have to contend with to the same degree. This affects many

areas and decisions across the city. I don’t have physical evidence for this and it is not part of my

study but from watching the local media and speaking to local people you can see how the

prevalence of race as an issue is negatively affecting the growth of Detroit.

Challenges facing new creative businesses include a lack of suitable space, which seems odd when

you consider the volume of empty properties in the Greater Downtown Area to the New Centre

Area. The empty buildings have become stars in their own right.

But they are owned by individuals who have bought them for the real estate on which they stand.

They are not cared for, not tended and when they are a health and safety risk they just put a

covered corridor underneath for the public to walk through. Many of the buildings are targeted by

arsonists but this is not really a concern of the owners as they are only interested in the ground that

the building stands on. This lack of care is pervasive and holds back much of the regeneration

making it appear patchy seriously compromising the potential impact. Below is an explanation about

the DC3 from their website.

Metropolitan Detroit is home to the highest concentrations and quantities of commercial and

industrial designers of all U.S. metropolitan regions. Detroit’s professional creative industry is the

third largest private sector employer in the city, employing approximately 12,300 individuals and

generating $640,000,000 in annual revenues.

The creative sector remains a growth sector, while overall employment in Michigan is expected to

grow by 7.6% from 2010 to 2018, jobs in the creative sectors served by the DC3 are expected to grow

by 11.9%. With this framework in place, the Detroit Design Festival became part of a solution to a

problem facing many older, industrial cities: how do we meaningfully connect the broader

community to good design in a way that can challenge, inspire, transform neighbourhoods and

transform economies?

Democratic, community engagement reaching broad and unexpected communities is valued and

encouraged. Expectations must be high, but barriers to entry must be low and affordable. Corporate

partners are encouraged to engage, but must be connected to the community so they can work

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together to showcase strong design. In this way, emerging designers are supported in cultivating

business relationships. We are creating platforms for them to share work with an international

audience before they have reached the peak of their success, showcasing their talent before the

media has- while their resume may only feature their own talent and not a list of accolades, yet.

This is how DDF works: we invite Detroit’s design and creative communities as well as citizens at

large to propose festival happenings via a portal on our website. They tell us what kinds of support

they might need, whether that is a venue, a little funding, or some volunteers. If others want to get

involved with DDF but don’t want to plan an event, they can pledge support to help others with their

events. We work behind the scenes to match happening initiators with the support they need,

encouraging peer-to-peer communication so that everyone feels like they own a piece of the festival.

Emerging designers and non-designers are encouraged to participate and many are accessing the

design world for the very first time.

It could be as simple as a neighbour looking to improve his or her block, so they host a collaborative

design project to get their fellow community members thinking about how they can improve streets,

safety, and quality of life overall. At the same time, we encourage the region’s design and business

leaders to showcase the best commercial design Detroit has to offer. The College for Creative Studies,

AIGA, AIA, and many other design organizations and institutions are all taking part.

So in the way that we have learned much from experiencing and observing the London Design

Festival, we humbly wonder if London and other world design festivals might have a little to learn

from us. In an age where not just Detroit but many international cities are grappling with economic

change, industrial decline, and social issues, we believe a community-curated and supported design

festival cultivates the highest level of design innovation that meets the needs of citizens, not just

consumers. And through this, we are seeing some very dynamic acts of creativity emerge.

My own experience of the Design Festival as a visitor was that it had a community feel but in order

to showcase the work over a large geographic area they needed to offer transport. Unless you have

a car then the majority of the festival was limited to what was in your neighbourhood. In order to

broaden the audience this amazing initiative needs to see the logistical challenges of the

metropolitan and visiting audience.

Michigan Economic Development Agency

As part of my exploration of the economic support for the arts I visited the UK Arts Council

equivalent in Michigan which was housed within the Michigan Economic Development Agency in

Lansing.

The State Arts Council cascades money to more local awarding bodies in order to target grass roots

arts projects as well as having a young leaders fund totally $40,000 where young people learn to

make the decisions about funding. They can give up to $2,500 and these are used for festivals and

internships etc.

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCAC) has had to streamline very significantly as well

as move to new offices due to dramatic funding cuts. Its strategy has been a 24 month survival plan

rather than the wordy strategy documents put out in the UK. The Arts Development is sitting within

the Economic Development of Michigan and not within Arts and Culture as a Leisure Silo. The

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difference this makes is that money is channelled directly to the arts and not for the development of

arts as a separate agency cost. MCAC gives support to the DC3 as a development agency for

creative industry but this only employs 6 people in total. As part of the survival strategy MCAC has

spoken to the arts communities that it serves who have highlighted the need for money going

towards operating costs. This fund allows payments of up to $50,000. This is not a large amount

compared to the money given out by the UK Arts Council but the difference lies in their approach.

The MCAC reviews individual applications even those that are not successful in order to find ways to

help so that organisations are supported in finding funding solutions, whether that’s through

collaboration or with other appropriate funding streams.. They are currently holding off on money

towards Arts Education as they do not have a specialist in place and they feel it would be money

wasted without the expertise to target it.

The MCAC has a vision for access to the Arts without intimidation and this is very different from

anything I have seen in the UK from professional arts awarding bodies. They state that, ‘It is not the

government’s role to dictate to the Arts Community’. Aside from the accessibility and engagement

projects MCAC fund they are also happy to contribute to more challenging work as well as the

traditional and expensive work by orchestras and theatre productions.

MCAC collects cultural data which looks at audience numbers, employees, operations and specific

financial reporting. One of the new things that they have put in place to raise the profile of the arts

is to get the organizations applying for funds to copy in their local representative. This informs the

local legislative infrastructure about the size of the creative economy. If a grant is given then the

recipients have to send a thank you letter to their representative too. This fostering of relationships

between local government and the arts community is important in raising the profile of the creative

industries but also in informing local council about the breadth of the work carried out.

Through consultation the MCAC explored why the schools were not bringing their pupils to see the

exhibitions and projects within their area. The answer came back that the schools could not afford

the transport costs. A pot of $40,000 was set aside for a quick grant programme for money up to

$500 to allow schools to go on field trips. This pot was so successful that the administration has had

to be outsourced because of demand and local car companies have joined the programme with

donations which have made trips accessible for around 18,000 children pa.

Michigan is fortunate to have many philanthropic organizations and foundations which are happy to

fund the arts.

The schools in Michigan can choose the level of arts that are taught in schools and it doesn’t

necessarily count towards the schools certificate. This makes the provision across the state

inconsistent and patchy. In some schools where there is no funding for an arts teacher it is not

employed at all.

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The Inspiration Woodward Ave

This is an illustration of the current

Midtown area which has the grand

boulevard Woodward Ave running from

the river at Downtown through all the

suburbs.

Midtown was the home of the Detroit

affluent population at one time and there

are reminders all along the road in the

shape of beautiful old mansions. One of

these still stands and it is now a very high

class restaurant called the ‘Whitney’,

after the original owners. It stands across the street from its derelict counterparts and is just one of

the odd juxtapositions of Detroit. This is the area belonging to the DIA and the Scarab club, the

museum of contemporary art and the University campus.

This area has already had significant investment and there is a new housing estate just down from

here (as well as a completely deserted one). I am guessing this is one of the things that is so

inspiring about the city, this marriage of dereliction and historic architectural gems. Everywhere you

look you see ‘potential’, and echoes of a recent past so different from the present.

Urban Explorers

The Urban Explorers are changing the

way people see their environment.

Urban Explorers are a secretive group

as what they do is often illegal. They

trespass into places that are closed to

photograph them. They are often

employed in IT and they enjoy sharing

their work on the internet and getting

into places that are dangerous and

not often explored. Detroit attracts

many of these photographers as the buildings are rarely secure. Many explorers specialise in a

particular kind of building, it could be transport, education or health related for instance and Detroit

has a glut of all of these buildings. It is a dangerous hobby though and some urban exes have been

killed in either accidents or by the other people using the buildings such as drug addicts and

criminals.

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The images I have chosen illustrate the

level of ‘vacancy’ in Detroit. One is the old

and very beautiful Michigan Theatre which

is now a car park, another illustration of

the impact of the car.

I have spoken to British Urban Exes who

have visited Detroit and gone on illegal

tours to get great photos. I have spoken

to one of these guides and had to decline a tour for personal safety concerns.

The Urban Ex community have been busy putting Detroit on the map and in return, out of town

urban exes are spending their money in the area. There is now evidence of a backlash against these

pictures as the local community want to focus on the future and regeneration rather than the past.

Michigan Central

This old train station in Detroit is a

much loved ruin and a symbol of

Detroit’s affluent past. Opened in 1913

as Michigan’s main rail depot, it was the

tallest rail station in the world, this

beautiful station closed forever in 1988

after decades of declining passenger

numbers. The lack of parking at the

station in a city without a public

transport infrastructure meant from the

end of World War II, the ‘writing was on

the wall’ for the future of the station.

It’s a landmark close the heart of many Detroiters and the political turmoil surrounding it could fill a

report on its own. As well as one of the key spots for Urban Explorers it is also an occasional space

for performance. Since the removal of asbestos in 2011 there have been several filmed

performances in the cavernous space of the station and lighting artists have created amazing scenes

against the night sky. The area itself, Corktown, has had significant investment as it was previously

home to the Detroit Tigers baseball stadium; the demolition of the stadium added yet more empty

space to the already sparsely populated city.

I took photos of the station on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Detroit. I was at a bar overlooking the

station for 2 hours and in that time I saw a large group of around 20 students photographing the

station as well as numerous individuals. The bar I sat in was busy with people but the area was a

deserted as the rest of the city. The train station was a draw for people to come to the area without

anything else to recommend it. Without the photographers posting their work on the web I would

not have known about the area. The Detroit tourist information centre is nonexistent so from this

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we can hopefully deduce that the photographers are the ones putting this part of Detroit on the

map!

This is an image from inside the much photographed Michigan Central Station. They try to keep out

the explorers but there are forums which give directions to the holes in the fencing.

An Urbex View

This is one of thousands of urbex images on

the internet of the interior of the station, t he

beauty of the neoclassical lines make it a gift

to a photographer. The station though is a

dangerous place to go, especially in the

evening. There are many horror stories from

photographers of the undesirable encounters

they have had in this ruin.

Taken to a new level

These two images are both by well known

photographers of the Urban Ex variety. The

first is by Xavier Nuez who is a Chicago

based artist who I met in the Chicago Arts

District where he has his studio. The

images he takes are not altered in

Photoshop but are all lit externally with

multicoloured lights and taken in the dark

hours of the morning. He has been to scary

places across the USA and has some

amazing stories of near death experiences

to share but his work is now highly

regarded and was shown recently in New

York. He has work in collections across the USA. Many of the areas he has photographed have gone

on to be redeveloped as the awareness of their potential gains momentum.

The other is by two French photographers , Yves

Marchand and Romain Meffre from Paris who

came to Detroit specifically to photograph it and

have created a highly publicised ‘coffee table’ book

titled the Ruins of Detroit. This is the old

switchboard from the Fort Shelby Hotel in

Downtown Detroit which has since been renovated

by the Hilton group and this is where I stayed in

Detroit.

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Art Prize

Art Prize is an annual open art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The competition lasts 19 days and the work is curated by businesses and organisations across the city. What sets this competition apart is the scale, 1500+ entries, the judging, the top prize is awarded by the public and the prize money, $560,000 in total.

The variety of settings drives foot traffic through the centre of the city. The serious institutions take part as well as the local cafes and banks. It’s a democratic arts event much appreciated by the 300,000 plus visitors who come every year. The shops, cafes and local venues take advantage of the increased trade so bands and entertainers are visible (and audible) in the town centre, showcasing their talents alongside the visual artists. Some of the artists are with their work canvassing for support as well as engaging with the public in general. I ventured into a number of places I would not normally go, particularly as a tourist, like the banks for instance. The banks were offering special interest rates and investments for Art Prize, the restaurants were doing special Art Prize menus. The whole community was making use of this unique opportunity. At this event the serious arts professionals rub along relatively comfortably with the general public. The winners of the public prize have so far been figurative, displays of the more traditional artists’ skills rather than concepts.

Art Prize is the brain child of Rick DeVos, a 30-year-old entrepreneur and scion of billionaire businessman Dick DeVos and grandson of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos.

It has only been running since 2008 and already attracts over 400,000 visitors.

ArtPrize, which runs through Oct, offers an explosion of contemporary art. About 1,500 artists from 39 states and 46 countries show work in more than 160 venues -- museums, civic buildings, parks, restaurants, banks and more -- most squeezed into a walkable 3-square-mile core in downtown Grand Rapids. Artists and venues pair up online without interference from competition officials.

Critics of ArtPrize accuse it of "American Idol"-like populism, and the Art establishment has been scathing about the public vote winning work and about the voting system which is done by text message, the internet and phone apps.

Scathing or not, a study by the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing showed that the 2011 ArtPrize added $15.4 million to the local economy, a fantastic return on investment.

Understandably, many other cities and institutions are trying to get in on the idea. Contemporary art and a social media ethos can now be found in Akron Art Prize, an attempt to replicate the Grand Rapids event on a much smaller scale in Ohio, as well as initiatives spearheaded by the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. In some cases the influence is direct, in others less so. But the impact of ArtPrize, from its democratic ideals to its use of ballots cast via text messaging, the Internet and phone apps, is spreading.

"It's flattering at the very least," said ArtPrize founder

"I think overall there are so many ways to experiment with how you can put together events and create opportunities to engage with art. It's thrilling that we've been able to show one type of model, but there are lots of things we're still learning. People are taking some parts

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to build their own models. It's exciting. We continue to field calls from people looking to put together things like this."

DeVos has always said that the competition's public voting and lucrative prizes aspire to spark a broader engagement with art rather than usurp the authority of curators and other experts. The money has been the catnip to attract interest from artists, audiences and news media.

In 2012 Art Prize expanded the pool of professional awards; they added smaller awards totalling $200,000 that are decided by expert jurors, along with the $360,000 decided by public vote. The grand prize jury award is $100,000

The move has the potential to attract the attention of a broader swath of the mainstream art world, including higher-calibre artists suspicious of giving authority to the public. DeVos said the additional jury awards were primarily designed to bring another layer of dialogue to the event, allowing visitors to see the public's favourites in light of the art trumpeted by professionals.

(ArtPrize has always maintained a full slate of public events, lectures and panel discussions led by recognized authorities on contemporary art.)

Akron stages its own ArtPrize

Information from Art Prize public materials.

Other cities like Akron are beginning to notice the jolt of civic pride and urban vitality that ArtPrize has created in Grand Rapids, as well as the economic development. "We became involved because of the significant economic impact on Grand Rapids and the role the arts can play in revitalizing our downtown," said Suzie Graham, president of the nonprofit Downtown Akron Partnership.

The inaugural Akron Art Prize began Sept. 1 with a modest 135 participating artists and $10,000 in prize money, including $5,000 for first place. The text-to-vote model is similar to Grand Rapids, and Akron officials asked ArtPrize leaders for guidance.

Officials at the Brooklyn Museum drew inspiration from ArtPrize for its new "GO" initiative. More than 1,800 artists across the borough opened their studios earlier this month and the public was invited to nominate favourite artists for inclusion in an upcoming show at the museum. Based on the nominations, museum curators will then make the final decisions about who gets in and what art gets shown.

"We've been thinking about community, visitor engagement and crowd-sourcing for a while," said Shelley Bernstein, chief of technology and a co-organizer of "GO."

"But when I went to ArtPrize I was really inspired by it. I've never seen more engagement taking place around art ever before. It really captured a lot of different types of people. More people were talking about art. They were talking to artists. That inspired us to ask: If we did a similar project on the ground here, what would that be?"

Another variation on the theme was the first "Made in L.A." biennial in Los Angeles at the Hammer Museum, which gave its $100,000 Mohn Award to Meleko Mokgosi, a 30-year-old painter originally from Botswana. A professional jury narrowed the 60 artists in the show to five finalists. The public chose the winner by online vote.

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Hammer officials asked their counterparts in Grand Rapids for technological advice and also ended up assembling a core of 55 volunteers, because ArtPrize leaders were insistent that such an event was impossible to pull off without them.

Still, of the 50,000 people who saw the biennial, only about 5% registered and only about half of those voted. The low rate surprised museum officials, who are still in the process of evaluating the reasons why and mulling changes to the process for next time.

One possibility is that within the context of a museum show, visitors didn't feel qualified to vote; it's precisely the absence of such an institutional shadow at ArtPrize that empowers everyday viewers to express their opinion. At the same time, the museum got pushback from artists in the community who were uncomfortable with the public selecting a winner.

"What is so interesting to me about the Grand Rapids prize is that it is modelled in such a different way from what any arts organisation has done," said Hammer senior curator, Anne Ellegood, who was a juror for one of the professional awards at last year's ArtPrize.

"It stands out because it's so open. There's no real curatorial process that happens prior to voting, and as a museum we would never do that. But as a citywide initiative and the brainchild of a patron, ArtPrize is such a unique thing.

Ahdonna Khare the 2012 public vote winner whose life size work called ‘Elephants’ had taken her a

year to draw in pencil. A 23 year old primary school teacher she spent her time at Art Prize adding

to her work by drawing on the Gallery walls and by talking to the public.

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The Business involvement in Art Prize

The work is displayed in businesses and around

the town in any inspiring spaces. Even fountains

and other public spaces are added to. It was hard

to pick just a couple of images to illustrate the

ArtPrize as it is a way that a city transforms itself.

It is not just an exhibition.

The largest prize in the UK is the Artes Mundi

£40,000 which is awarded every 2 years. The

public will always pick something different for a

winner than the establishment and ArtPrize

makes the public feel that their opinion is valued.

Chicago

An amazing city and so different from Detroit.. I had initially hoped to visit Gary in Indiana from

Chicago as this is another Uban Ex hot spot as the city is in chaos but I was tired of being scared and

knew that I really couldn’t face that anymore so I took another direction which turned out fantastic

anyway.

Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago has an amazing

collection of work but I struggled to

like the curation after spending time in

Detroit. It cost more than double to

visit the Institute $18 rather than $8 in

Detroit which means I will only visit it

once and the layout and labelling was

very academic as well as fulsome in its

praise of the people who had donated

the work. There was a distinctly

middleclass, middle aged white

audience on the whole where the Detroit was much more mixed. I saw a section of the collection on

a free tour through the galleries. It is a vast space, full of tourists, a very different demographic from

the DIA

The Institute has recently had a programme of development which has seen the creation of a new

Modern Wing. This puts the Arts Institute of Chicago as the second largest in the USA . The look of

the Modern Wing has been worked sympathetically to tie in with the Millennium Park.

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Chicago Arts District (CAD)

The Chicago Arts District is charitable arm of the Podmajersky Real Estate business and it is located in southern Chicago. History In 1914, John and Elizabeth Podmajersky, Slovak immigrants, settled in the Pilsen East neighbourhood of Chicago. Through hard work they became owners of a dairy in the heart of this Eastern European community. The first of these properties was purchased

to house the business, family members and associated workers. The business was a success and as the neighbourhood grew demand for housing increased. They began to purchase additional properties and provided housing as well as employment to many immigrants arriving from their homeland. The business survived and thrived during the depression but by the late 1950s the community was in decline due to construction of a major new motorway (which took out 17,000 homes in Chicago and displaced approximately 59,000 families) and the resulting suburban flight. The decline was significant and the area fell victim to gangs and violence. John Podmajersky Jr and his wife Annelies (who was very interested in the arts) returned to the neighbourhood with the goal of revitalizing the once vibrant community through ambitious urban design. They converted dilapidated buildings into artists’ lofts, spaces specially designed for artists to live and work in. They created urban gardens from reclaimed alleyways which also served the purpose of preventing further development not in keeping with the area. Artists came in a steady flow, and their son John Podmajersky III, purchased his first property in Pilsen East in 1987. He is the third generation to live, work and invest in the community and he understood the pressures of a developing metropolitan area. In 2002 he launched the Chicago Arts District (CAD) with the goal of creating a destination art community and economic stability for artists looking to become entrepreneurs.

The development continues and the family still invests heavily in the area. The area still has an immigrant population and is now home to the Hispanic community.

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Overview Through three generations of property assembly and private investment, the Chicago Arts District now encompasses a number of blocks of creative space. Live and work spaces, gallery, retail, loft, studio, office, industrial and exhibition space are all offered. The company is more than a property owner it is the steward of the neighbourhood, voluntarily assuming responsibilities that are typically the province of the local government. They are advocates for the CAD at the highest level. During the last 10 years the CAD staff has supported more than 100 creative entrepreneurs in starting, growing and marketing their art business. The Artists who make the CAD their home get the benefit of support from the CAD staffs, who work hard to connect the artists with the public. This includes a monthly newsletter with a circulation of over 7000 and a website to showcase the work of the artists. Popular programs include Pilsen East Artists Open House now in its 42nd year, 2nd Fridays Gallery Night which sees the street transformed by over 2500 visitors coming to see the 30 galleries of the CAD open, ‘Show POD’, a public art project based on an installation format, as well as numerous special events designed to connect people with an

authentic arts experience. There are a range of spaces available for the artists as well as facilities you would not find elsewhere such as a range of small outdoor performance areas and a community kiln. The development of the area is managed by the Podmajersky Inc. There are opportunities for businesses to be used as bars or restaurants but this is sensitively done in order to shape the area and not done on the basis of profit.

There are currently approximately 250 artist spaces in CAD. The CAD was started with an eye on the American Dream it’s a rags to riches story and though this is a profit making organization it is also philanthropic and it takes a holistic view of its investments, creating communities where people want to live and giving artists the chance of their slice of the American dream. The area was once a ‘no go’ for anyone without a gun but now it’s an up and coming area with investment from the University and further residential development and now on its way to been included as part of Downtown Chicago as the city continues to expand. This raises concerns about potential gentrification of the area and this in effect pricing the artists out. As the area improves so the residents’ taxes increase and the immigrants and artists will be pushed further from Downtown. This is a finely balanced process of urban renewal. This is a demonstration in action of the capacity of the arts to change a space and to support community regeneration. I did speak to those who disagreed with the strategy taken by CAD. They felt that the CAD should be working with the local Hispanic community more and promoting their artwork. The CAD though is not just about philanthropy it is about

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regenerating and area with the arts as its ‘anchor’. Their current strategy successfully brings together a talented group of artists of mixed cultural backgrounds in an amazing set of spaces, with and audience who like to experience, participate in and at times pay for the arts. The longest artist resident has been part of the community for 48 years and has only recently been moved into a care facility. The CAD staffs help the Artists to become more professional in the work they do and help them to understand that they are in effect small businesses. The CAD support the artists’ applications for grants and help with advice as many CAD staffs sit on grant giving panels so are aware of the creative industry and what is required. The local government is happy to support individual artists with small grants particularly in the field of arts education. The Chicago Arts District is not visible as a tourist destination or as a place to visit regularly and this is something that the CAD is working on. It’s a place to live and work as an artist and this poses challenges for its management as it is not really busy with many people during the day. The management of the property portfolio is carefully done. Areas with drink licenses are left empty rather than rent to a tenant not suitable for what is trying to be

achieved. The place comes alive for special events though and the CAD is supporting more daytime public ventures. My evening experience in the area was interesting and engaging. The artists were friendly and the audience eclectic. As the spaces are all individual and many have beautiful outside courtyards there was a real mixture of disciplines on show. Many artists had made sales of their work with prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

Community exhibitions are also staged in the spaces too which are supported financially by the CAD. There was concern across all the cities that I visited about the lack of consistency of art provision in public education and the CAD do what they can to support this. I saw a wonderful exhibition of decorated reproductions of guns created by children and young people while I was there. This is a fantastic project the spaces are tailored to the needs of artists by having large doors for instance and maintained goods lifts in the buildings. There are similarities with Letchworth in that it is a managed urban community. There are certainly opportunities for shared learning and I would like to explore further opportunities for partnership exhibitions in the future.

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The new Cultural plan for Chicago As part of my trip I was fortunate to meet Jewel Malone, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. This position is the result of a merger between Cultural affairs and the Mayor’s office of special events. A new City Mayor always provides a shake up within a city council. There are 6 departments within this office which work closely together to maximize efficiency, share intelligence and to promote Chicago on the global stage. Finance, Strategy and Partnerships Events Visual Arts Programming Planning and Facilities (10 venues) PR and communications It’s important that Arts and Culture are supported in this way as they can often operate in isolation which can limit success. The department has been subject to a restructure and review and they are just completing the new Cultural Strategic Plan, the first review of the plan since 1986 and the world is a significantly different place now. One of the first things that the new Mayor did when restructuring the department was to overhaul the grant giving programme. The process was administration heavy and all done with hard copy rather than electronically. Since the change more money is available for grant giving. The grants offered are only oversubscribed by approximately 30% which is lower than the UK. They currently have 4 programs in total and give to both individuals and organizations, they have a focus on young people, seniors and people with learning difficulties and they focus their efforts around arts education. They offer operating grants and offer both small and larger grants. They have an annual charitable pot of $1.2 million, and modernisation now means the programme will be run by two people in future rather than the previous five. They set up a transition committee to manage the outcomes of the merger and to find out what the public and the grant receiving clients thought was needed in the new strategic plan. The consultation with the people of Chicago has been an ambitious piece of work. They consulted in all 50 wards and are passionate about this chance to really offer Chicago what it deserves as far as a creative and cultural community. The department commissioned Lord Cultural Resources to create a new cultural plan at a cost of $230 million. The last plan created in 1986 cost $250 million, so though $230 million sounds astronomical it represents a significant saving on the original plan. The City is aiming for a balance between quality and access with both being equally important. As the events put on by the city are free they are looking at how they can work with other non profits and not in competition, by scheduling things around others events.

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They are concentrating on Arts education as they are trying to change the notion that the arts are a luxury. There are still issues in Chicago’s Public schools where not every child has access to the arts. This Government department displays a level of passion for what they are trying to achieve that is inspiring and this is not something that we in the UK say often enough! The plan is divided up into 4 Categories; People, Places, Policies and Planning Culturally. This is then broken down into 10 priorities, 36 recommendations and 200+ initiatives, of which 34% cost less than $50,000. The plan then goes further with timescales and reasoning. The plan is accessible and achievable. Chicago is justly proud of having the second largest creative economy in the USA and the Chicago administration sees this as one of the ways that Chicago can reach its goals. Slide 27 The 10 priorities are

1. Foster arts and education and lifelong learning. 2. Attract and retain artists and creative professionals. 3. Evaluate and expand neighborhood cultural assets. 4. Facilitate neighborhood cultural planning. 5. Strengthen capacity of the cultural sector. 6. Optimize city policies and regulations. 7. Promote value and impact of culture. 8. Strengthen Chicago as a global cultural destination. 9. Foster Cultural innovation 10. Integrate culture into daily life.

Chicago Extras

Gallery 37 is a job training program and was created in 1991 by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs' Lois Weisberg and Maggie Daley, wife of the city's former mayor, Richard M. Daley. Its purpose is to attract artistically inclined city youth, aged 14 to 21 to work and exhibit as apprentice artists. Gallery 37 is currently run by After School Matters, a not-for-profit organization that

partners with the City of Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and Community-Based Organizations to expand out-of-school opportunities for Chicago teens.

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Their programme is diverse and now encompasses sport and technology in order to build positive young youth development. Studies of the project have shown that when participating for three or more program cycles teenagers:

Are 2.7 times more likely to graduate

Attend 11.8 more days of school

Enroll in college at an 18% higher rate

Chicago greeter is part of the global greeter organisation. This organisation acts as a broker between community volunteers (who they interview and train) who want to offer their services and visitors to the city who would like a more personal touch. The guides use only public transport to ensure the tourism is environmentally sustainable and they take the visitor to areas and districts of Chicago that they know well. They do not do culture tours as such as the feel these are best left to the professionals but they do tour the Chicago Arts District. A fantastic idea!

Chicago Arts Month (CAM) has been running in October every year since 1995. It is collated by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and includes exhibitions, arts walks, studio tours, conversations, workshops and presentations. Over 200 different program partners take part and something is scheduled to happen in every neighborhood.

Millennium Park

One of the major roles of the City Cultural agency in Chicago is to manage the magnificent Millennium Park which has transformed a city rail interchange in central Chicago beyond any previous ambition. The original plan that was signed off by the major had a theme harking back to Chicago’s’ past. Due to that fact that the park itself was being paid for by corporate and private sponsorship, the opinions of the funders had to be carefully considered. The biggest funder was the Hyatt Group and they felt that this direction was wrong when considering a park for the next century. The Hyatt group asked the mayor and the Council to reconsider in view of a $15million donation. There was much political shuffling and the original architects were replaced. Over $220 million was raised from private and corporate donors, these totalled only 115 donors! The park is concrete flat over an underground rail terminal and a car park for 4000 cars. This infrastructure building was paid for by the city at a cost of around $250 million. This was money that had to be spent by the city regardless of the park because the underground car park had become unsafe and the money was spent redeveloping it and refurbishing it. Compare this cost with the London Millennium Dome, the total cost of The Dome at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002 was £789 million, of which £628 million was covered by National Lottery grants and £189 million through sales of tickets etc. A surplus of £25 million over costs meant that the full lottery grant was not

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required. However, the £603 million of lottery money was still £204 million in excess of the original estimate of £399 million required, due to the shortfall in visitor numbers. Though the donors’ names can be found around the park no branding was aloud. Though MacDonald’s requested the golden arches or an onsite café they were turned down but they still donated and eventually created a cycle centre and an endowment which pays for a series of professional tutors to run fitness sessions on Saturday mornings. The park is home to a who’s who gallery of International sculptors and architects such as

Frank Gehry and Anish Kapour. The management of these egos particularly that of Mr Kapoor continues to provide a challenge but the highly polished Cloud Gate known locally as ‘the Bean’ is instrumental in the parks success as is the range of amazing concerts (many free) staged in the parks two unique venues. Cloud Gate has become a symbol for Chicago and the economic impact of the park has been

measured in recent studies as $1 billion annually in tourism, investment and profile, with a further $1billion generated through arts and culture related activitiy. There are many previous office spaces overlooking the park which are now being converted into condos as the rate per square ft for residential is higher $125.00 more than business. The park’s aim was to be a high class space with world class art and performance that everyone could access. Cloud Gate is Anish Kapoor’s first public sculpture commission. Jeremy Strick the curator of twentieth century art of the Institute of Chicago at the time, recommended him after seeing his work in London.

His Cloud Gate sculpture engages everyone who sees it as you see yourself in it as you approach it. There are 2 full time employees of the city who are engaged in polishing the sculpture daily. The outdoor venue The Jay Pritzker has been created to be both sympathetic with the new Art Institute extension which backs directly onto the park and the two buildings work together, though separated by the park itself. The sound system for this venue also sets it apart as it has overhead sound so there is

great sound for the entire audience and the system is used for sound sculptures when not needed for performance.

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The indoor performance venue, The Harris Theatre, is directly underneath the outdoor venue. It is a beautiful theatre capable of hosting ballet, opera and theatre with seating for 1525. The theatre entrance is the only thing visible above ground with the 5 stories of theatre below ground and also below the level of the lake which added many millions to the budget. The story of the park is fascinating and it took over

6 years to complete but its impact on the economy is huge as it is one of the must see places for tourists to Chicago. Frank Gehrys’ Millennium Bridge in the park is the design that he submitted for the London Millennium bridge competition but didn’t win. Getting his bridge built was one of the major ways that his involvement was secured.

The Crown Fountain One of the other highlights is the Crown Fountain. This is two huge faces taking up the entire 50ft tall facades of two glass towers who appear to be looking at each other across a 230ft long plaza skimmed with a pool of water less than an inch deep. At the same moment to two projected faces and from pursed lips emit spouts of water. The sculpture is by the Spanish artist Juame Plensa and it is a much beloved piece of the Chicago landscape.

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Boston Though Boston is known as the historic centre of the USA and the tourists flock here for the Freedom Trail and Patriot Story there is a different Boston trying to get out! The Mayor of Boston has 2 focuses with regard to the Arts, the first one is young people. There is much evidence to suggest that involving children in the Arts has a significantly positive impact on their lives. The most successful public school in Boston is arts based. The second focus is on Artists as good citizens and this is something I have not previously heard. Boston finds artists proactive and concerned citizens who involve themselves in their community and work within it to create positive change. With this in mind the city provides some subsidized accommodation for artists and a range of beautiful studios. The space for the studios though is changing as the artists have to move out as the areas they

inhabit become popular for retail! The focus for the arts is very much based within the neighbourhoods rather than downtown. The city wants to provide quality arts in the neighbourhoods that is relevant to the community there. It’s felt that the city centre is capable of looking after itself as most people come to the city for its heritage. The Strand Theatre in Dorchester MA is the Mayors pet project. During the last 9 years he has transformed the space with grants totally more than $6.2 million. The Theatre was run by not for profit organizations but fell into debt and bad practice, it is now run and programmed by the City. The City operates its own not for profit organisation that runs the programming of its venues and festivals. The annual $2million budget comes from corporate and foundations in the area and the events are well attended and the exposure valued by the funders. Boston has a high ration of not for profit per capita potentially the highest in the US. Its grants are given to organizations on a no strings basis in order to be used for operating costs. Such it the commitment of the mayor that there a plans to add a % to the tax for the arts in the way that Detroit got a millage. The city walks a fine line in protecting its heritage which is the draw for the tourists and also wanting to move forward its arts and culture plan. The Museum of Contemporary Arts opened in its new purpose built space in 2006. Up until that point it had been housed in an old police station. The contemporary arts are pushing forward little by little in Boston.

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Forest Hills Cemetery This was a place I saw on the television before my trip to the USA and I wanted to make sure I had chance to visit it. Though not community regeneration (as it will take more than art to get this community going) it is a permanent and temporary collection of site specific sculpture in an unusual setting. The Cemetery is a beautiful space for the work, surrounded by funereal sculpture this contemporary work sits comfortably alongside.

The Fenway Alliance. The Fenway Alliance (FA) is a consortium of 22 arts based organizations and academic institutions which make up the Fenway area and also the Cultural District. There is also a committee of 45 representatives who encompass smaller organizations in the area and spread the impact of the work of the Fenway Alliance.

MEMBER INSTITUTIONS include;

Berklee College of Music The Boston Architecture College Boston Symphony Orchestra Harvard School of Public Health Huntingdon Theatre Company Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Museum of Fine Arts Boston New England Conservatory of Music YMCA of Greater Boston

The FA started in 1977 as a response to the declining neighbourhood and the related issues with public safety. It’s difficult to see this now as the beautiful brownstone houses set in tree lined streets do not immediately make one think of decline! The initial alliance focused on setting up neighbourhood watch schemes and lobbying for increased policing. They saw the power of their leverage when they came together and their capacity to make a change. By the 1990s the focus had moved from public safety as those goals had been achieved, towards beautification.

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FA has gone on to achieve recognized status for the Avenue of the Arts designation for Huntingdon Avenue where they are all situated. It has citywide recognition as Citywide Cultural District bringing in a further $12million of investment in the area for the maintenance of the green spaces. This is a public/private partnership and where the council maintain the hard elements of the environment including infrastructure and transport the FA manage the parks and green spaces. In March 2012 the FA achieved state wide designation as a cultural area one of five to be recognised in MA. Though this currently brings no further investment this may change in the future. The work of the FA on the local Muddy River park has been amazing. The park had been left to decline over a significant period of time. As the area was meant to originally help manage the impact of rainfall and the related flooding its upkeep was important especially as the cost of flood damage to the FA institutions was not easily managed. This FA put together a plan which involved the federal government and it was successful in eventually levering $92million for the parks restoration. Much of the work is done with the help and support of volunteers’ and many organizations give gifts in kind to the FA. Evidence of this can be seen in a new public art piece from an architecture firm.

Enfold in Evans Park is a temporary public art piece which eventually cost the FA $10,000 which is a small sum for the work and impact. The FA receives some local government funding and some private. It runs for less the $500,000 pa and its impact is far reaching. Much of the money is spent on programming events such as the Columbus Arts event which

happens annually. The FA continues to work for the benefit of the area, though the challenges of a small team seem to be something that is evident worldwide. Their CEO Kelly Brilliant spoke of her frustration at having to pick up the litter in the park as she is 50% of the staff employed to look after the investment and as yet a management plan for maintenance is not in place. We have similar challenges in the UK. The FA is an amazing demonstrating of the positives that collaboration can bring.

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Lowell Lowell is not as I expected, it’s smaller but prettier. It is very ‘small town America’ and it’s still rebuilding itself after the financial collapse of 40 years ago.

Unlike other mill towns Lowell’s manufacturing facilities were built based on a planned community design. Specifically Lowell was planned as a reaction to the mill communities in Northern Britain which were perceived as cramped and inhumane. Initially the mills of Lowell were built with ample green space and accompanying clean dormitories in a style that anticipated such later architectural trends as the City

Beautiful movement in the 1890s, a forerunner to the Garden City Movement. These massive water powered mills brought employment for women primarily once they were operational and economic migrants came from across the state and beyond with the

promise of work. The mills brought prosperity and helped the community grow to its present population of around 270,000. Local government does not currently have enough statistics to show the number of artists working locally but the facilities available to artists prove they are in the neighbourhood. There are currently 3 full buildings devoted to artists and plans for another 2 catering for an estimated 550 artists working locally. COOL is a not for profit organization that manages the arts and culture

offer for the local government. They disseminate state funding for the arts with a pot of $46,000 offering grants that on average do not exceed $3000. However, this is set to change with the upper limit removed to allow bigger ideas to come to the fore. They work closely with the Mass Cultural Council. This is a department which looks at cultural development through the arts and is also responsible for the Art District Cultural Designation which Fenway Alliance has just received. The Motto of COOL is – Art is the Handmaid of Human Good. Cool is also responsible for much of the licensing for entertainment etc in Lowell and is currently working on making it easier for galleries to serve alcohol at their private views as the currently license cost is $1800 which is prohibitively expensive for most galleries.

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They work hard to make it easier to be an artist in Lowell, being the advocate and offering training and help with regard to business matters. There are approximately 15 festivals in the summer in Lowell with 2 of them organized by COOL. The most successful is the Folk Festival and the Cambodian Light Festival follows closely behind. This is a multicultural town with a long-term commitment to the arts and the benefits they bring. There audience figures are above average for participation within the youth category and though this is conjecture, I think this is probably due to the town’s focus on the arts that has put them at the forefront of culture/daily life. It’s obviously taken a generation to bring about a culture of engagement and it will be interesting to follow how this engagement increases over time. They work hard to put on events that are specific to the population such as a Cambodian opera. This is the first appointment I have had where I have managed to bring something to them. My discussions with them about a failed Arts Census project which didn’t complete due to a lack of funding brought up the question as to where and who the artists are and where they come from. There are a number of Galleries in town and they cover a variety of genres. One of the galleries is devoted to the work of young people and this is the same as Chicago though it’s surprising to find this in a much smaller city. COOL is responsible for a marketing budget which it used to provide promotion for the town. They produce a range of leaflets. Unfortunately I did not find any of them at the local heritage visitors’ centre and they are trying hard to work with the town’s federally funded attractions to do cross promotion. All the festivals put on in the town are free and with the economy continuing to challenge all of us the free events encourage participation. I found Lowell’s commitment to the Arts was genuine and it works well with the National Historic Park status of the town too. The National Park Status was awarded to Lowell as it is considered the birth place of the industrial revolution in the USA. It was here that technology taken (without permission) from the UK was used to create a town to serve an industry. Before the mills Lowell did not exist. The National Park status enabled the town to get some federal funding and this was used to convert some of the buildings for occupation by artists. Unfortunately federal money meant that the specification for the spaces was not suitable for artists and they were used by the low paid instead. To reside in these spaces you have to submit tax returns every year to prove that you still qualify for the accommodation. The buildings housing the artists which are 3 large mills and a series of smaller buildings are in the main commercial enterprises. Though not massively profit making the artist tenants makes sure the building isn’t loss making and they provide an excellent alternative for a building that is not in a great condo location. The Arts district began developing in the 1990s, based on a model from Paduka Kentucky which allows artists to live and work. As artists are self employed it is difficult for them to get a mortgage.

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The Western Ave Studios The Western Ave Studios were turned over to artists after a commercial tenant pulled out. The owner was searching for a use for the top floor of the building and the artist studio concept proved workable, gradually taking over the entire building. Many of the artists are on their second careers so they bring many skills with

them that have helped to bring this from a concept to a reality. The live work studios were created with a loan of $5million and 50 units were created. One of the other mill developments cost $43million and provided 133 units. The Western Ave ones are basic but inspiring in their urban chic. The polished concrete floors are fantastic and the bathrooms are built with a strong enough ceiling to support another floor above.

The live work spaces are 94c per sq foot which equates to $835.00 for 750 sq ft to $1594 for the largest apartments at 1600 sq ft. The developer is committed to the artist community as he finds it so easy to rent out the spaces. The rentals are managed by a tenant group so that the artists are placed in environments that are harmonious and that fit with their work style. This is a

genuine community and bears out the idea of the major of Boston that artists are active citizens. The artists all rally round when needed and there are rotas for artists to maintain communal spaces. There is a garden with barbeque and fire pit as well as exercise classes for the community. The community is a mix of ages and disciplines as well as visual artists there are musicians and performers.

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Artists have a strict procedure to go through in order to get a space as well as having to sign away their right to complain about any noise or mess - though this is not a problem.

By Spring 2013 there will be over 300 artists in this community as more space in the building is turned over to artists. It’s a fantastic community of open doors. Each artist decorates the area outside their studio in order to promote their work and they enter into collaborations with other artists ensuring a cross fertilization of ideas. There are examples of this across the building. There is a commercial gallery which has a general exhibition and a

personal exhibition, changed every 6 weeks and the artists take turns to staff the gallery. Sales are made on a regular basis of which the gallery takes a 10% commission which goes into a pot for the gallery management. There is an open studio event every month on the first Saturday from 12 – 5pm. A recent survey of the artists shows that they come in general from a 1 hour radius of Lowell. Artists pay $50 per year to a marketing budget and a similar amount towards private views for the year. In- house skills manage the marketing and publicity as well as accounts and invoicing. This is a fantastic demonstration of what’s possible

Summary and conclusion It’s been an incredible learning experience, one that I don’t want to forget or not make use of. It has made me want to work more internationally within the arts, I don’t see the barriers that I previously did. I wanted to create a presentation alongside the report so I can talk to people about the things I learnt and hear from them about comparisons they have seen. I have tried and failed to have any discussions with the Arts Council in the UK. They were very unwilling to talk to me and just referred me to their website. I won’t put in my report my thoughts on the management of the arts in the UK in as it would only be based on the documents in the website and not from any real dialogue. Detroit Detroit in its previous incarnation is gone and its problems are complex and tangled in its history. It seems on the cusp of a rebirth. An influx of young people will always bring with them energy and an enthusiasm for the new. This is the environment in which creativity flourishes. There is a fascination with its decay from people who have not been impacted by it and they are flocking to the city to immerse themselves in this unusual environment. The residents of

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the city who have been impacted by the decay feel resentful and left behind. In the main these people are not the audience for the arts. The economy is such that the starving artist can afford to live well in Detroit, with space abundant and inspiration all around (depending on your bent). There is a danger though of miring the city in its past and unexpectedly I have seen this reflected across the other cities in different ways. Detroit is recognized as one of the most photographed cities in the USA and these photographs influence the world’s view of the city. These photographs are succeeding in putting Detroit on the map but are in danger of becoming its permanent symbol and holding it back in the world’s eyes from moving on. While I was in Detroit there was complaint that the BBC were there filming and focusing on the decay rather than the regeneration. The film ‘Detropia’, was released while I was there and had done well at the Sundance film festival. Again there was much focus on the decay and the unreasonable wishes of the resident population. The art that was showcased was inspired by the city itself , though not well received by the locals who get sick of the same symbols representing them. The Heidelberg project is different as it’s developed from within and though it’s adventurous and physically accessible. It’s an arts element that works directly with the resident population and though it took a long time for the resident population to acknowledge it, it taps into the practical element of the economy by helping people into employment and works directly with young residents to add to their education. It’s an uphill battle in Detroit as the residents want practical answers to their problems and though art can be part of the solution it is difficult to for such a dejected population to accept. The audience for the arts is the young professionals moving in to the area with Dan Gilberts continued investment, and college students. This is an educated audience and if this is the new population, then it’s going to take a further generation for the arts to move on from the symbol of decay. Detroit is dominated by its problems. The racial problems that beset it in the past are still very much evident. This was demonstrated many times in the 2 weeks I was there. The Federal Government offered to step in and take over a Detroit jewel, Belle Isle and turn it into a National Park, but the city council stated that they didn’t want ‘them’ to take it away. The City Council are attempting to downsize the urban sprawl. The city cannot afford street lighting, rubbish collection of public services for the entire city. Some streets have only one individual house with tenants. The city wants to consolidate and create new communities that are tighter to the central population but the residents are resistant and have started a campaign to answer this call which asks the city to supersize. It’s difficult to separate the economic development, the urban landscape and the impact of the arts as it’s so closely related. What do I take back with me? Sometimes you have to accept and walk with the population that is engaged. Work with them to develop the audience wider and change the cultural landscape. It takes time but it is possible. Chicago It can take just one investment with the right artists to completely change the cultural landscape. The Millennium Park has been a catalyst for an incredible cultural shift. It’s a

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massive private investment as well as a public one. The public money went to infrastructure not cultural development. Left to their own devices they would have put in a historic park rather than the groundbreaking public art space that is currently there. Anish Kapoor lost out to Kathryn Gustafason to design the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain Hyde Park and went up against her again to for the Millennium Park Chicago Commission though this time he won. You can’t help wondering if he had won the commission for Hyde Park would that have had the same economic impact of ‘Cloud Gate aka ‘The Bean’. It’s not just a case of ‘put sculpture up and it will work’, it is putting up the right sculpture. The Millennium Park has space for the performing arts which also doubles as a visual arts space; its work with sound sculpture and other more challenging concepts mean the space is exciting and energetic. Chicago is proud of its history and heritage but it doesn’t let this dominate its future. Its cultural department makes brave decisions and tries to work with its cultural community to support it. What do I take back with me? ‘Brave and bold actions reap brave and bold reactions’. The British nature is often the thing that holds us back, I didn’t hear the word ‘only’ used to describe anything I saw in the USA but as soon as I returned, it was there, ‘well we are only a small town’, ‘if only we had the money’, etc. The things in Chicago happen because of the passion and determination of its people as well as a well thought out infrastructure to support the arts. We can do that in the UK too! Boston The different thing about Boston is its support of artists because it believes them to be active citizens who can change their communities by their presence. This has also been borne out in Lowell. The focus that the Mayors have on community spending is not replicated in the UK. In the USA a Mayor’s focus has an enormous influence. There aren’t any that do not have a focus on young people and provide high quality arts relevant to the different communities. Latino or Haitian communities get their own Opera or Ballet. There is a focus on trying to offer the things that they will see as relevant to sections of the community who are not currently accessing it. What do I take back with me? ‘Artists as active citizens’, is a revelation and something I will push as a positive to promote the support for artists in communities. Local government is always trying to find new ways to deal with apathy when regeneration proposals are put to communities and this could be the answer. Lowell I had a great conversation about engagement while in Lowell with their Director of Arts for the City. We talked about passive and active engagement. How passive engagement is done by the entire community but for the most part not recognized. The active engagements where people have to do something to engage such as attend an event or even pay for something. If we can get people to recognize their passive consumption of culture then maybe we can get them excited about participation.

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Lowell has invested such a lot in the arts in terms of time, real estate and money. This is a blue collar city/town with a large immigrant community and it works hard to make its investment pay. It is a struggle for everyone in the current economic climate and I see Lowell maintaining its commitment. Its development of active citizenship through the arts is building sustainability into its programme. As their artist community is a mix of young and old there are skills and an economic resilience built in with people accessing the arts as a second career. Lowells’ Arts investment makes it a very special place, unique, if it continues with its commitment to the arts it will make its mark internationally in years to come. What do I take back with me? The arts are solid, bankable, and make economic sense. The UKs focus on quality holds back much of the community and participation in the arts that we see in the USA. In the UK we use the word ‘only’ when describing the things we do and where they come from. We limit ourselves. In the places I visited, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get creative’, through this they achieve amazing things.