recap! from rust belt to artist belt

Long day! I spent most of it attending From Rust Belt to Artist Belt: A National Arts-Based Community Development Summit. Just as impressive as it sounds - a number of speakers, from all over, tackling different issues related to the development of infrastructure to support creative culture makers - things like marketing efforts, artist housing, public studio space, galleries and other business issues related to the arts.

It was a lot to process, and frankly, my brain started to feel like silly putty after the tenth PowerPoint presentation, but here are some of the ideas/words/inspirations that stayed with me:

• Anne Markusen's emphasis on the need for smaller, decentralized, organically formed arts districts versus forced "creative districts"
  
• The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit's use of several gallery spaces instead of one big center to better reach their dispersed audience
  
• Lillian Kuri's call to bulldoze decrepit abandoned homes and reuse the materials for art (APOC! APOC!)
  
• Pat Cirillo's artist housing market research showing that safety and affordability are key issues (we knew this already, but statistics are a good thing)
  
• The amazing website Chicago has built as an artist reference tool
  
• Marc Folk and the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo's social networking events and online directory of artists
  
• Esther Robinson's comments about active artists versus aspirational artists, and why both should be valued
  
• Mark Barone's statement that gentrification happens when people start being forced out of their homes - investing in neighborhoods does not equal gentrification

There is a lot of good, raw ideas here - for example, wouldn't it be great to see a MOCA NearWest branch with a small display space in the Gordon Square Arts District? And an user friendly online directory listing all of the area's working artists, designers, writers, performers, etc. along with information about work spaces and potential gigs? I know I would love to see more efforts made at facilitating informal mixers where creative people of all stripes can meet to talk shop and support each other.

(Hm ... this is giving me ideas... I think I'll need to post more about this mixer thing ...)

Kudos to CPAC, who set this whole thing in motion. Hopefully, it will be like the proverbial pebbles that start an avalanche.

P.S. Due to the mysteries of PhotoBooth, my photo reversed - dang! I posted it so that you could see that my name tag reads "Founder, Even*Cleveland Blog." I found that mildly hilarious.