As costs rise and Williamsburg feels more and more like the Upper West Side, older industrial cities in the Upper Midwest are becoming increasingly attractive to artists of all stripes. Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Detroit – you name it. Sticky cities are making waves with industrial space that has been adaptively reused by artists who want to live and work there.
Are we the new Brooklyn?
GLUE enthusiast, Cleveland lover, and arts advocate Seth Beattie put together “From Rustbelt to Artist Belt” to answer just that question. OK, it’s a little less simple and lot more substantive. Seth and hundreds of artists and arts advocates (like you) from across the region will spend the day discussing strategies to attract and support artists in our hometowns. If you are a fan of GLUE, you are a fan of this event. You must not have known it’s two for the price of one.
From Seth:
“From Rust Belt to Artist Belt and Pop Up Arts District will both be taking place in Cleveland on Wednesday, May 14th … the conference from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the Pop Up from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Both will focus on the unique challenges (and, more importantly, the unique opportunities) that industrial cities face in integrating artists into community revitalization efforts. We will have a series of nineteen speakers lined up (including representation from Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Syracuse), a couple of whom are members of the GLUE family.
Participants will also weigh in on an agenda for moving forward artist-oriented community development throughout the industrial Midwest, in preparation for a second convening next year. And we’ll be closing it all out with a fun and really thought-provoking event in the evening.”
Are you not familiar with pop up events? In short, they are optimistic manifestations of spatial ‘what if’ scenarios.
What if the vacant properties in this neighborhood were suddenly occupied by thriving local businesses that employ neighborhood residents?
What if this stretch of empty storefronts was a series of galleries?
What if this poorly designed waterfront access could have a do-over?
An overview of the program is available online.
See you in Cleveland!
[...] GlueSpace: Go to Cleveland on May 14th ““From Rust Belt to Artist Belt and Pop Up Arts District will both be taking place in Cleveland on Wednesday, May 14th … the conference from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the Pop Up from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Both will focus on the unique challenges (and, more imp (tags: Art Events) [...]