DTMP: Section One – Arts, Culture, History

{In working towards a more affordable, more sustainable Asheville, it’s vital we attend to the arts.  Arts, culture and history give equally to all of us who live and work here.  Every day we’re informed, intrigued, or inspired by our artistic, cultural, and historical environment.   Art and culture engender civic pride in all of us, and we can prioritize affordable living and working space so our artists can continue providing us with a beating heart.  We can reaffirm our commitment to showcasing our history through preservation and cultural events.  We can create an Artists’ Resource Center to serve as a hub for business, art, and tourism.}

[This is the first of several posts examining the proposed Downtown Master Plan (DTMP).  You can see a brief overview of the plan here.  Click here for the entire plan.  Click here for the appendices. A public hearing on the DTMP will be held May 26th at the City Council meeting that night.]

Section One of the DTMP is focused on arts, culture, and history in downtown Asheville.  Folks all have their favorite and least favorite things about going downtown.  I love hearing music in the streets, seeing art wherever I look, running into friends, and the abounding culture of creativity.  A combination of low property values a generation ago, relentless entrepreneurship, city planning, and a most excellent populace has created a downtown full of life, where it feels like anything could happen.  It’s impossible to quantify the creative energy of Asheville’s downtown creative arts communities, but the DTMP throws out a few stats to provide context:

- Asheville is now recognized as the number-two arts destination among smaller United States cities (following Santa Fe, New Mexico).

- The arts and artists contribute sixy-five-million dollars annually to Western North Carolina‘s economy.

- WNC‘s artists comprise the largest percentage of self-employed workers in the state.

As unique as our arts community is Asheville’s architectural and historical legacy.  Section One of the DTMP addresses this facet.  Here are a few DTMP bullets to give you an idea of how historical preservation has been valued and to what benefits:

- Since 1976, there have been 82 rehabilitation projects in Downtown Asheville‘s National Register Historic District (NRHD). All of these benefitted from a 20-percent federal rehabilitation tax credit (for income-producing structures).  These projects represent over eighy-nine-million dollars in Downtown re-investment—beginning at a time when Downtown was neglected and deteriorating. In large measure, historic rehabilitation saved Downtown Asheville.

- Since 1998, project sponsors and owners have been able to double that tax credit (to 40-percent) by using North Carolina‘s matching tax credit for certified historic
rehabilitation.

- The dramatic impact of historic preservation is well demonstrated by Pack Place–a public/private partnership begun in mid-1980‘s and opened in 1992.

Follow me into ReadMoreLand for a look at how our arts and history can be strengthened, encouraged, and protected.

The DTMP focuses on how to make Asheville’s art and architecture “world class”.  While I appreciate the sentiment, it’s vitally important that we focus not on how to make Asheville appealing to the world but on how to make it appealing to artists and Ashevillians.  In meeting our own needs and following our own vision, the people of Asheville have garnered world-class attention. This has been the key to our success, and it’s part of what makes us unique.  Tend to the artists, and they’ll take care of the rest.

Of six goals for the arts in the DTMP’s Section One, this strikes me as the most relevant and valuable:

Ensure a constant supply of suitable studio space, performance space, and exhibition venues (at all rent scales and sizes) to allow Asheville‘s artists and arts associations to continue their work—from the Asheville Art Museum‘s expansion into a new architectural landmark to the proposed Asheville Area Performing Arts Center (PAC), and from commercial galleries and art-filled public spaces to individual artists‘ studios and live-work spaces.

I’m in favor of a future Asheville Area Performing Arts Center on Site B between City Hall and Eagle/Market St. neighborhood.  We’ve either got to renovate the Asheville Civic Center or unload it.  The DTMP calls for enough renovations to get us through the next five to ten years without any substantial changes.

What I’m most excited about is the creation of an Artists’ Resource Center (ARC) either in downtown, as per the DTMP, or in the River Arts District.  The ARC would be “a vital place for established artists, entrepreneurial artists and creative industries that provides resources, tools, programs and services for an efficient approach to business start-up, maintenance and growth.”

Helping to integrate the arts into a broader economic development strategy requires that we recognize the needs of artists.  An Artists’ Resource Center can provide the consultancy that most artists need to transform their passions into viable full-time paying jobs.

Artists are the vanguard.  Moving into inexpensive places, they create a vibrant community.  When others are atracted to that community, rents rise and space becomes more difficult to find.  Eventually artists discover the next affordable place and with them goes the beating heart of the community.  We can address this perennial problem by incentivizing live/work space in downtown, west Asheville, and the River Arts District.  Any developer or property management company willing to create and maintain truly affordable live/work space for artists ought to be afforded every incentive to do so.

Big Asheville street festivals, such as Bele Chere, Goombay, and Fiesta Latina can look to the success of the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF) to find a formula for continued success.  Focusing on local music, art, crafts, and manufacturing keeps our cultural dollars in our community.  Bele Chere, especially in the light of current budget deficits, must continue retooling its approach to engender an Asheville-centric festival.  Hosting the largest free music festival in the southeast isn’t a net positive unless local citizens, artists and businesses find it enjoyable and profitable.

The DTMP calls for a new alliance of all the arts organizations in town to create a unified effort to promote the arts.  This is certainly overdue, and the city or a future Downtown District Authority could certainly facilitate the beginning of this process.  The Public Art Board can purchase 90% locally, we can amend the Public Art Master Plan (created in 2000, reaffirmed by City Council in 2008) to require that public monies are being spent on locally produced art.  While I’m sure my taste isn’t everyones, I’d prefer an Asheville-made Steebo sculpture to the aluminum lizard in Pritchard Park.

The history of Asheville is everywhere you look downtown.  Below is a map in the DTMP laying out the past, present, and possible future:

Preservation and Change

Thanks to all involved for valuing our neighborhoods adjacent to downtown.  Every step taken in the downtown area has far reaching consequences for each of them, and it’s vital they’re included in the planning process.

The DTMP calls for allowing building owners who are seeking to expand skyward to sell air rights above their properties.  New buildings atop old ones would be set back forty feet according to the plan.  I need to hear more about this initiative to understand what it might mean to historic preservation and to downtown residents.  If new construction includes affordable housing or sustainably green strategies, then I can tentatively support the plan.  If it doesn’t, then what’s the point?

Private interests have done an incredible job of renovating historic buildings.  Our hats ought to be off to everyone philanthropist, developer, and preservationist who recognized the exquisite architecture and historical foundations of our city and who worked to preserve and raise awareness.  To support the private sector’s tireless efforts, City government can work to inform property owners about tax credits for preservation and green retrofits.

What are your thoughts about Asheville’s cultural future?