Transcript
Narrator 0:00
The patterns of urban geography in America began shifting in the 1960s with the decline of American manufacturing and the economic downturn that followed in what has become known as the urban crisis, cities across the nation reacted to a number of economic and demographic trends, de industrialization, which included deteriorating city centers, middle class, flight to suburban peripheries, high unemployment and financial cutbacks were just a few of the problems with which city leaders contended. In this climate, cities adapted by generating strategies for government reform and Community Renewal in order to market their cities, improve their workforces and foster economic development in Indianapolis, a primary component of the city’s urban renewal strategy was a commitment to sports and arts as economic stimulants. Although Indianapolis became widely known for sports, city support of public art helped initiate a cultural rebirth from the late 60s forward at the Richard M. Fairbanks symposium held at the University of Indianapolis on February 5, 2016, arts professionals and city leaders discuss the use of arts as revitalization and development tool, highlighting the history of one of Indy’s most popular cultural neighborhoods. Mark Rushman, Chief Fine Arts Curator at the Indiana State Museum, elaborates on how the arts can make a city economically competitive and creatively vibrant.
Mark Rushman 1:23
Most of you know of Massachusetts Avenue as a place with upscale restaurants, theaters, some galleries, a really cool and hit place to be. But Massachusetts Avenue was not always that way. It in 1984 this is what Massachusetts Avenue looked like, very different than it is today. In fact, most of Mass Avenue was boarded up buildings, the Sears building was vacant. Just down the street from this, there were some things going on in the 300 block. Stout shoes was in the 300 block. But as you move further north, it was either underused buildings, vacant buildings, and areas that you just really wouldn’t want to be in. And you wonder, like, how did we actually get to this point? How did we go from a stuccoed up building nobody’s using, nobody’s around to an area today that’s vibrant and inviting and everybody likes to go to. And for that, I credit two pioneers here in Indianapolis. The name is, one of the names is Scott Keller, who is a real estate developer who had a passion for historic properties. And the other person is Bob Beckman Jr., who was a realtor for FC Tucker and also very involved with the arts community here in Indianapolis, involved with the arts council, one of the founding members. He was also involved with WFYI and a number of other organizations. So these two gentlemen actually were the reason, in my opinion, why Massachusetts Avenue made the turn and became what it is today. But their plan really was to go out and recruit galleries such as Rushman Gallery to come into the area to help stabilize it and help turn it around, making it a vibrant place for people to come and visit. And with that, I signed on, Patrick King Gallery signed on, 431 Gallery, which was affiliated with Heron School of Art by former Heron students, Precious Design Studio, and then the Cunningham Gallery in the 300. And it was really the the galleries that went in first, before anybody else was around. As I said, I used to stare out my my door at that white stucco building. And it was the galleries, the arts, some of the performing arts venues, that moved into the area, and they helped stabilize it. They helped bring people back down. We would have Friday night openings, and we would have hundreds, sometimes 1000s of people come out. Now, keep in mind, this is in an area that most people weren’t walking around, you know, they didn’t feel comfortable being there, but somehow, through the arts, that that made it acceptable, whether it was a sense of danger or whether it was a sense of of of just, you know, being in the hip place and being on the cutting edge, but it was really through the vision of both Scott and Bob that they planted that seed that this could be a vibrant and an important place for the arts to thrive.
Narrator 4:11
Julia Moore of the Arts Council of Indianapolis further discusses how the artistic development of urban spaces and neighborhoods improves overall quality of life and enhances a city’s profile.
Julia Moore 4:22
As a public art administrator, my perspective means that most of the time I think about ideas that get the arts out in front of people where they’d never expect to see them. And the ideas that I’m going to talk about today are some ideas that share one commonality. They’re about infusing events and places with art, even if they are not artists related. And so this is the biggest idea. The overarching idea is that a thriving city knows that the arts should automatically be a part of everyday life for the people that live in it.
Narrator 4:53
Moore identifies one key idea, which she calls the Blitz that helped shape Indianapolis into a cultural destination. And boosted the city’s reputation.
Julia Moore 5:01
So the first idea I’m going to talk about is I’m going to call it the Blitz. And I’m going to call it the Blitz because it has to do with sports. And the idea was to include the arts whenever we host a major sporting event, is to also host art as part of it. And we did this very, very early in our quest to develop the city as the amateur sports capital of the US. And this was during the Pan American art Pan Am Games, which Indianapolis hosted in August 1987 the city, at the same time, said we’re going to also host a Pan American Arts Festival all over town. So over 60 arts and cultural organizations participated. Cumulatively, they spent about $4 million. Four million dollars on programs, events, performances. There were over 1000 opportunities for people in the city to experience the arts. And the idea was to learn about the arts and the heritage of all these different countries that were visiting to participate in the games. And that was the idea of hosting the Games in the first place to learn a little bit more about the world, right? So you had local artists participating. There was a 300 voice choir. There was 1000 member marching band. The Indiana State Museum had an exhibition of Canadian art glass. The children’s museum had an exhibition about Mayan history and culture and the IMA and I got a couple an image there had a major exhibition of Latin American contemporary art. I mean, absolutely amazing. I went to see it, and I was totally blown away. It was the first time that such a large presentation had been done in over 20 years. So it was about time it got a lot of publicity, got a lot of critical acclaim, and since it was a traveling exhibition, it did a lot to raise the profile of Indianapolis for high quality and thoughtful contributions to the arts. So it was a kind of a morale and brand booster for the city as well. And that attention and saying, hey, you know what? Indianapolis has got something going in the arts here. It really forced the city to up the cultural game every single time.
Ted Frantz 7:09
This podcast was produced by the Institute for Civic Leadership and Mayoral Archives and the Department of Communication at the University of Indianapolis. It is made possible by the support of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Indiana Humanities, and the Lily Endowment. For more information, please see our website, uindy.edu/mayoral.