Conference: Drawing the Lines
<Looking back at November 2006>This conference occurred more than 2 years ago at Indiana University Northwest. This is the kind of stuff that peeks my interests and tickles my hand. There was great significance to hosting such a conference at this time and place. Northwest Indiana had been looking for strategies to revitalize the region. They had developed the Marquette Plan, the Regional Development Authority, transportation projects, etc. This was in a continuation of efforts to move things along.
This brings to mind two issues.
- What is the role of the Artist in urban vitalization?
- Too often the artist’s voice in these kinds of discussions are treated like a craft booth artist, pedaling their cute works. Otherwise they are deaf, dumb and blind. Artists are to perform and be quiet. This is what I call the “Dirty Dancing” treatment. I am often embarrassed for Artist who accept such roles.
- I believe the Artist needs to step up and contribute their voice to the built environment. I believe that Artist voice should take the leading role more often in civil society.
- And what has happened in the last 2-years?
- I am not certain anything has happened. I don’t know of any new initiatives or changes in the way the region is approaching revitalization.
- It appears to me with the announcement of the BP project the region has actually regressed from advancing such initiatives.
- Revitalization of the region reverted back to a reliance on old heavy industry, in this case the refining of the even dirtier fossil fuels - the Alberta tar sand.
- The region became ensnarled in a lack of initiative and culture once again. Indiana and regional Leaders approved environmental permitting with out ANY objection. It wasn’t until Illinois voice objection to violating the the Clean water act that the issue was heard. Regional Leaders and the press did not investigate. They promoted the project without investigation. They approved with out reviewing impacts, particularly to initiatives outlined in this conference.
Drawing the Lines: International Perspectives on Urban Renewal through the Arts
This conference promotes conversation about art and urban renewal on the broader international scale alongside more local applications in Northwest Indiana. Drawing the Lines brings together the multiple constituencies whose perspectives are necessary to evaluating the merits of urban revitalization models.
Drawing the lines seeks to:
- Explore models of urban renewal through the arts,
- Reflect on the impact of renovations efforts in the community,
- Understand how government and private markets affect urban change,
- Share best practices among community based leaders and scholars, and
- Build a coalition to create concrete initiatives for the Northwest Indiana region.
Conference Abstracts:
- “The Arts Can Define a Region”
John M. Cain, South Shore Arts - “Revive: Using Art to Help Heal a Superfund Site”
Minda Douglas, Marcia Gillette, and Ann Cameron, Indiana University Kokomo - “The Impact of Visual and Expressive Art on Public Policy and Public Voice”
Karen G. Evans, Indiana University Northwest
Daniel Lowery, Calumet College of St. Joseph - “Cool Cities” Through Their “Creative Class”: A Model for Revitalizing Indiana’s Essential Cities”
Bruce Frankel, Ball State University
Deborah Malitz, Indiana City Corp.
Larry Francer, Historic Farmland
Flo Lapin, Goldspace Theater, Muncie
Richard Sowers, Anderson Symphony
David Bowdon, Columbus Symphony, Terra Haute Symphony, Carmel Symphony - “The Interstices Between Art and Economic Development”
Michelle Golden, Books, Brushes and Bands
Mary Kaczka, Hammond Development Corporation
John Davies, Woodlands Communications
Daniel Lowery, Quality of Life Council - “The Poetics of Space: IU Northwest’s Sculpture Garden”
Neil Goodman, Indiana University Northwest - “Available: post-industrial development and design at Lake Calumet”
Ellen Grimes, w / M. Powell, A. Kirschner, and M. al Khurasat, University of Illinois at Chicago - “Urban Redevelopment and the Arts: Flagship Cultural Projects in Los Angeles and San Francisco”
Carl Grodach, University of Texas at Arlington - “Leveraging Culture to Build a City’s External Brand and Internal Cohesiveness”
Tom Jones, Smart City Consulting - “The IU Northwest Klamen Mural Project”
David Klamen, Indiana University Northwest - “Art in the Region”
Patricia Lundberg, Indiana University Northwest - “Looking at Urban Renewal Trials”
Peter Matthews, University of Mar - “Spaces of vernacular creativity”
Steve Millington, Manchester Metropolitan University - “The Other City Beautiful: Philadelphia and its Avenue of the Arts”
Micheline Nilsen, Indiana University South Bend - “Bilbao: a spectacular but somehow disenchanted city”
Antonio Román,, University of Deusto - “The Creative Class and Urban Economic Growth Revisited”
Michael Rushton, Indiana University, Bloomington - “Creating A Vision for International Community Development: Indianapolis in 2050”
William Plater, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis - “Projects to Save a City”
Sanjit Sethi, Memphis College of Ar - “The ‘Guggenheim Effect’ and the ‘New Bilbao’: On the Social Costs of Bilbao’s Urban Regeneration”
Lorenzo Vicario and Manuel Martínez-Monje, University of the Basque Country.
Case Studies, Economics, General Arts, Multi-media, Northwest Indiana, Regional
