Tuesday, December 2, 2014

#REVERB14 (Day 2): Creative Placemaking Forum...Artists make a difference in their communities

CREATIVE PLACEMAKING FORUM AT THE FOX. Today, I attended a discussion hosted by the Atlanta Regional Commission on how communities and artists mutually benefit from one another when they collaborate. (all photos by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)
Greetings Pilgrims, Fellow Sojourners, and Creative Soulmates! Today, I am foregoing the #REVERB14 Day 2 topic to write about my visit to the Fox Theatre in midtown Atlanta today to participate in the Atlanta Regional Commission Creative Placemaking Forum.
TALKING ART AND COMMUNITY IN THE EGYPTIAN ROOM. Jamie Bennett, executive director of Artplace America, spoke about three major benefits of what art can do for a community: 1) Art attaches people to a place. 2) Art attaches people to one another. 3) Art creates more active citizens.

The two participants for the Creative Placemaking forum were Jamie Bennett with Artplace America, and Jason Schupbach, with the National Endowment for the Arts--two of America's largest financial supporters for Creative Placemaking. Artists, directors of community organizations, and politicians were in attendance to learn more about how they could get funding for art projects that would be mutually beneficial to both artists and community.
ARTISTS, COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS, and POLITICIANS. The audience was rich in talent and interest but in need of funding and ideas of how to engage community and artists in shared endeavors.
Callahan and Chris
It was fun to see my friends networking before and after the forum started. Callahan Pope McDonough, a visual artist and board member with me on the Women's Caucus for Art of Georgia (WCAGA), took time to talk with Chris Appleton, co-founder and executive director of WonderRoot, about the arts organization expansion in 2015 to a new facility.

Duluth Mayor and Christine
At the end of the forum, my friend, artist, and fellow InterPlayer, Christine Gautreaux spotted the Mayor of Duluth and wanted to connect with her envisioning future opportunities to engage in art and community in the suburb of Atlanta where she lives.

In addition to learning about intriguing, fun, and beautiful outcomes in major US cities as a result of endowments to the arts in Creative Placemaking from the NEA and Artplace and the powerful impact of that art in the communities was one big surprising fact!  While 96 percent of people value art, surprisingly only 27 percent value the artmaker! The perception of the artist in our communities definitely needs to change!

I was also left pondering something involving our own perceptions of self as artists. 

Jamie Bennett said that when people in an audience are asked if they are soccer, tennis, or golf players, a vast number of hands are raised. However, when an audience is asked if anyone is an artist, there may be only a few hands that haltingly go up. How is it that in the continuum of athletic prowess, people are willing to acknowledge their abilities to play a sport, even when on a continuum from beginning golf player to an expert one like Tiger Woods, their is a vast difference in performance ability? Yet in the art continuum of beginning singer, musician, painter to professional accomplished ones, people are reluctant to even to claim a beginning artist status. They don't even step into the arena!




If you happen to be one of these artists reluctantly claiming your place in the artist's continuum, I want you to write to me immediately and announce yourself as an artist! Do it now!

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me!
I AM AN ARTIST, A BLOGGER, A CREATIVE COMMUNITY BUILDER. As the creator and administrator of the Daily Creative Practice, a Facebook Group with more than 800 members, I am interested in how individuals can be supported by an online community as they explore their creativity in their homes. As a member of the board of WCAGA, I am also interested in supporting and finding ways to mentor upcoming artists in real time and place here in Atlanta. 

With reluctance, I did not write on today's prompt for #REVERB14 (Day 2).  
What unfinished projects from 2014 am you willing to release now? (Regret not required.)

INFORMATION ABOUT #REVERB14: Hallelujah for opportunities to reverberate, to REVERB with Kat McNally, whose mission is to remind you that you are never alone! Situated in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Kat has been hosting this December blogathon since 2011, and she does a heart-warming and inspiring job! Join #REVERB14 here for 21 days of continuous blog writing, posting, and commenting to prepare you for 2015!

10 comments:

  1. Never given it much thought, but this is so true - you can be at any level to call yourself a sports person, but when it comes to art, it's as if you need some level of proficiency to call yourself an artist. I'm nowhere near a professional level, but I'm a dancer. It took me a long time before I claimed it for myself and even longer to get comfortable with saying it, but now I can do it and I don't feel out of integrity. I'm a dancer!

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    1. Hurray Tat! Hurray! I celebrate your BEING A DANCER! You made my day!

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  2. Good job of releasing the "should" when it came to responding to the prompt! :)

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    1. Kat you are so awesome! Your remark just made me smile so big! Love this opportunity you are providing to write and reflect. You warm my heart when you leave me a comment! Thanks!

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  3. Dear Ruth, I AM AN ARTIST! It has been 11hours and 15 minutes since my last burst of creativity. It started last February, when a friend of mine turned me on to making art through her FaceBook Group, The Daily Creative Practice. The story of my addiction is a typical one. I started slowly, writing words to go with photographs, but then I was hooked. I needed more. So I started combining and altering the photos. But that wasn't enough. I started making videos, adding music to the mix. What a high. But even that wasn't enough, my addiction is so intense, now I need animation to maintain the high. My name is Trish and I'm an artist. They say admitting it, is the first step.
    Ruth, thank you for this blog, the DCP, and for providing a warm and welcoming place for us to come out as artists.

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    1. Hurray Trish! Hurray Special Needs Cat! Hurray for you claiming and pronouncing your BEING AN ARTIST! I have truly enjoyed watching your incremental steps towards this exuberant proclamation, "I AM AN ARTIST"! I am so glad you joined us on The Daily Creative Practice!

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  4. Sounds like a useful forum and a great chance to connect with others in the arts. And I couldn't agree more about the importance of claiming one's place in the clan of artists. I was literally life-changing for me when I first claimed aloud I was an artist. Powerful stuff.

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  5. Deborah! Yes to "life-changing" proclamations! I am an artist! You are an artist! We are artists! Hurray! I love the word CLAN! Yes to our being a CLAN of ARTISTS!

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  6. You raise such an important topic. This problem is far reaching. We no longer seem to value the arts. A good case in point is the response I get when I answer people's questions as to what my kids are studying in college. When I say "they'll both get a BA" most look at me with disappointment. One fellow even asked "why?" Thank you for this important post and the three answers of why art is important. I'll promote them. "1) Art attaches people to a place. 2) Art attaches people to one another. 3) Art creates more active citizens." Perfect.

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    1. Kelly what a great mom you are! I think a university education is important for preparing people (or voting citizens) for life! A broad education provides lifelong tools for learning. If we train young people for specific jobs in higher education, we've lost the opportunity to create thinking citizens. And, yes, I love the reasons for why art is important to a community!

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