arts & business council

MetLife National Arts Forums Series

Greater Hartford Arts Council
Hartford, Connecticut

Arts & Heritage: Climbing to the Top of the Urban Agenda
09/27/2005

Panelists:

• Andrew Walsh, Trinity College, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion; Associate Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center of Religion in Public Life
• Harvey Lichtenstein, Chair of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Local Development Corporation
• Maurine Knighton, Senior Vice President for Program and Nonprofit Investment at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ)
• John Boyer, Executive Director of the Mark Twain House and Museum

Hartford is one of the poorest cities in the nation. It is also a city mired in Puritan tradition and resistant to quick change. As arts organizations in Greater Hartford compete with other worthy causes for the private-sector support that is crucial to their survival, they need to discover new ways of asserting the importance of the arts to the core city’s renaissance. This forum provided an opportunity to learn from prominent cultural leaders how other cities have successfully moved arts and heritage to the forefront of urban revitalization, challenging the stereotype that art is elitist and instead integrating arts into daily life. In an effort to more clearly understand the current local climate and better plan for the futurehe panelists' observations were framed against an historical perspective of the roots of Hartford’s beliefs and attitudes toward class, culture, and change .

Andrew Walsh examined the history of Hartford in the last century. He explained how the shifts in industry and immigration over the years have had a profound impact on the economic and cultural landscape of Hartford. Whereas the immigrants in the early part of the century descended from European countries, there is now a large influx from Caribbean nations with different cultural traditions and little interest in Western European-derived art. While many of the older generations have made their way into the middle class and into the suburbs, the most recent immigrants are faced with severely limited opportunities to advance. This has created a natural disconnect from Hartford’s earlier traditions and history. It has profound implications and is extremely challenging for the future of private arts philanthropy and audiences in the Hartford region.

Every community is unique in its circumstances, but Hartford can draw from examples in Harlem and Brooklyn to inspire change. Maurine Knighton spoke about the way in which Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) envisions community-building through a cultural and economic lens. UMEZ forged new relationships with local businesses by building mixed-use facilities that would showcase each site’s unique history, therefore strengthening the economy in Upper Manhattan through increased cultural tourism and ancillary economic development.

With significant funding from the public sector, the Brooklyn Academy of Music Local Development Corporation began creating mixed-use facilities with affordable space for arts groups, arts education centers, mixed-income housing, restaurants, and retail, creating a dynamic 24/7 environment that will foster the growth of not only the cultural institutions, but the city of Brooklyn as well.   
 
Hartford is currently undergoing an extensive revitalization driven by a new convention center, hotel, and new downtown housing units. Two-hundered billion dollars is being invested in new development downtown, but are the local developers and city planners interested in creating and supporting a true cultural district? As seen in the examples from New York, strong partnerships between cultural institutions, business, and government are vital to urban revitalization.