{"id":24344,"date":"2012-08-05T11:38:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T15:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=24344"},"modified":"2012-08-05T10:39:04","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T14:39:04","slug":"art-and-urban-renewal-in-the-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/08\/art-and-urban-renewal-in-the-bahamas","title":{"rendered":"Art and Urban Renewal in The Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mural on Frederick Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The presence of public art installations and communities of artists in downtrodden cities around the world have consistently brought vitality back to the areas in the form of a thriving culture and economy.<\/p>\n

Often, such a transformation is accidental \u2013 that is, not always included in government plans to improve and redevelop stagnant communities. Rather, artists often move to areas offering cheap rent rates and do what they do best: create and form community.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, government\u2013funded initiatives are on the same page and use art and culture to inject life back into their cities \u2013 just look at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or the decision to make Nantes, France a place of public art, saving the city. In these cases, the move is an often-desperate last attempt to save a struggling city \u2013 and it works beautifully because art has the power to transform urban economies and communities.<\/p>\n

Such was the message at a talk this past Wednesday morning on art and urban renewal led by Vaughn Roberts, the former managing director (and current board member) of the Downtown Nassau Partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think public art installations are absolutely critical to a city\u2019s development from the perspective that it engages a community of creative people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work often represents the identity of the place and puts it in a public forum for others to engage with to improve their quality of life, allow them to imagine other possibilities, to be creative, and to have discussion and dialogue around social issues. So it\u2019s very important for art to be taken out of the gallery and museum and put in the public realm.\u201d<\/p>\n

As managing director of the DNP \u2013 formed to achieve progressive redevelopment of the city of Nassau \u2013 Roberts recognized the significant role public art could play in achieving their goals and launched in 2010 the Love My Bahamas Downtown Art Project. Funded by Coca-Cola, it invited 14 local artists and two internationals artists to create murals and art installations in the downtown Nassau area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work downtown is critical because of the economic development and activity that comes from it,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cIt\u2019s also much more attractive looking at beautiful art than looking at a derelict building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as a vehicle for social dialogue and change I think putting art in the public realm is important,\u201d he added. \u201cPublic expression of art is important regardless of where you live \u2013 you have an opportunity to engage the public in this dialogue and to inspire the public through this expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why then, as this community dialogue was taking place, were two of these completed murals painted over?<\/p>\n

Indeed several of the participants in the morning\u2019s talk were shocked and saddened to witness, as they rounded the corner to take the bus on Frederick Street, that the vibrant murals by local artist Toby Lunn and international artist Maya Hayuk had completely vanished. Similar sentiments echoed across the community as the image made the rounds in social networks asking who was at fault, and whether any of the other murals were next.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the contract with the building owners upon which the murals were painted had run out at the end of last year \u2013 and many of the other contracts have too, save for the few pieces \u2013 like that by Antonius Roberts \u2013 in public space. However, it is up to the building owner now, says Roberts, to decide to remove the piece or not. Add to that the change in the management and direction of the Downtown Nassau Partnership \u2013 as Roberts left his managing director position yet still serves on the board and shares that less emphasis will be placed on programming \u2013 and the Love my Bahamas Art Campaign murals and installations stand in limbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was that as we approached December 2011, we would go back and make an assessment of the works and see if any needed to be refurbished or maintained, and also visit with the property owner to see if there was an appetite to extend beyond the contracted end, or to look at possible relocation of some works,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cThe project was also meant to expand too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut unfortunately, I left my position and the DNP day-to-day, and there isn\u2019t really anyone involved with the day-to-day, so these projects are the ones that tend to have lower priority,\u201d he continued. \u201cNobody there is as interested in art as I am, and there isn\u2019t anyone who was as focused on programming as I was. So that\u2019s probably why it never got executed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prospect of losing such public art pieces like the two already vanished is rather unfortunate indeed. Like the East of East Street project which sought to paint over dilapidated buildings in the eastern part of downtown Nassau, the Love my Bahamas Art Campaign has for years added colorful facades, as well as thought-provoking subject-matter, to the life of downtown for both locals and tourists to enjoy. Just as East of East Street has since seen economic activity on the eastern side of Downtown, the Love My Bahamas Campaign was the source of a variety of downtown art tours. What happens if we lose these?<\/p>\n

For Roberts, the way to go from here is to expand the use of art in the public spaces to all over Nassau. As he points out, urban renewal is a hot topic these days, and the focus is not only on downtown Nassau any longer, but rather \u2013 with Urban Renewal 2.0 \u2013 all over New Providence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the efforts in the inner city communities to address crime and social development needs to expand beyond social change toward economic empowerment and economical development, education and training, and significant investment,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cI think certainly art and creative industries have a role there when you think about a way to engage people in the community and the creation of work and to use art as a vehicle to promote change, education, awareness and upliftment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Urban Renewal 2.0, one of the goals is to engage young people in positive activities. What if this expanded the role of the Junkanoo Shack?<\/p>\n

What if this meant establishing a mural painting community initiative for public spaces that sought to beautify derelict areas with paintings that engaged with our cultural identities and history?<\/p>\n

What if this meant establishing a sculpture-building initiative like the Bench Making Program by Antonius Roberts, that seeks to recycle discarded material and teach young men certain skills?<\/p>\n

What if this meant creating more spaces not only for Junkanoo practice but where positive film screenings like this weekend\u2019s Black Power Community Film Festival, or this summer\u2019s Theatre in the Parks, can take place?<\/p>\n

What if every church used art to define its spiritual grounds and bring its congregation and surrounding community together in a sacred space of public art like the New Providence Community Church?<\/p>\n

What if art was at the center of every new roundabout, incorporated into every new space? What would happen then?<\/p>\n

The only way we will know, says Roberts, is not to wait on any government entity to do it (nevertheless, if Government officials happen to make it into this paper section, please take note). Displays of public art are up to the community of artists \u2013 and if this week\u2019s loss of two great murals has shown us anything, it\u2019s that it is time for the arts community to step up and take responsibility for starting and continuing these kinds of conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what this suggests is that people involved in the arts community need to take bolder steps to expose the community to our work,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cI\u2019d like to put more responsibility on us in the art community to be bolder about how we engage the public and not about the public pushing us back into the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is this need for public art to change, for there to be this constant sort of freshness about it so that the engagement and the conversation actually continues, and so that it doesn\u2019t just become part of the landscape or background, but rather live at the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Roberts, it means jump-starting a public art fund that raises money for significant exhibitions around New Providence \u2013 something that has been on his mind of some time, and now become even more urgent with the loss of two murals. For his part, he\u2019s meeting again with the sponsors of the Love My Bahamas Art Campaign \u2013 Coca Cola \u2013 to see how he can make this a reality.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s going to take more than one person to remind the community that art matters. It was up to the building owners to paint over their building, and their decision rings clear with their thoughts about public art. As Roberts says, there will be people who like the work and people who don\u2019t, but if we as an art community stay in the vacuum, we have no recourse to wonder why we are the only ones who notice when art dies.<\/p>\n

By: Sonia Farmer
\nSource: The Nassau Guardian<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think public art installations are absolutely critical to a city\u2019s development from the perspective that it engages a community of creative people,\u201d said Vaughn Roberts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[26,115],"class_list":["post-24344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-arts","tag-nassau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}