Want to Expand Arts in Sarasota?

Virginia Hoffman wrote (actually continues to write) impassioned pleas regarding support for the arts that is on par with other efforts.   In the June 16^thedition of SRQ Daily (subscribe here) she introduces the concept of the Cultural Stadium – hoping to elevate the arts among the power and money brokers in town by talking in sports metaphors.   Bingo Card from Bike Jax (dot org)

Linking arts to sports is one way to go about it, but there is another game, so to speak, where art is taking center field.  To whit:

• The Project for Public Spaces has a new effort called “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper” in response to planning fatigue where the patience with endless planning runs out, but money for implementation is scarce.   Opportunistic, short term projects are now popping up all over; think pop-up festivals, food trucks, yarnbombing and tactical urbanism.
• Artspace is a POWERFUL partnership of funders and arts agencies that just gave away over $15 million in 47 cities and rural areas.  Some of the examples: in Boston, money to fund “random acts of culture” and ventures to engage artists to creatively combat urban vacancy in several cities.   
• There seems to already be quite a bit community initiated arts here already.  sARTq, launched by the HuB is a good example, and the Chalk Festival  began as a bootstrap event.  Several local artists have successfully used the crowdsourcing website Kickstarterto raise funds.   Ballet practice takes place downtown in an empty storefront.  Flashmob dances show up on Siesta Key. 

There are a couple of themes worth noting. 

• To borrow words from a Bruce Katz tweet, “The new era in (art) will be crowd sourced vs. close sourced, entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic, networked vs. hierarchical.”  He was talking about metropolitan areas, but the same applies to the arts.
• Arts have to help solve something, fill a gap, and be related to placemaking.
• Art projects in the age of austerity, if publicly funded, will need to perform double and triple duty.
• If placemaking and the arts are not hierarchical, a new kind of leadership needs to combine the best of the established art community with these new spontaneous random acts.

In Sarasota, what are the opportunities?

Homemade wayfinding signs in Raleigh NC

• Arts and Transit – SCAT’s transit maps, bus stops and other information are pitiful.  Other cities are using information graphics, technology, and better sign posts to help patrons navigate the system.   Asheville, NC transformed its buses into art and performance spaces.

• Arts and Stormwater –Much of our public space is dominated by palm trees and high input (water and fertilizer) landscaping.  We can turn that around as other places have with installations that actually clean water before it enters the Bay.

• Arts and Health – Columbus Ohio’s Department of Public Health sponsors Columbus Art Walks in nine different neighborhoods.  Yes, the Health Department and Public Arts got together.
• Arts and Economic Development – Sarasota has tons of video production talent, but it seems scattered.  Imagine a consortium making a video like this, but instead of “Made in Brooklyn” it’s “Made in Sarasota.”  By the way, like Brooklyn’s Makerbot company, have a growing 3-D printing industry growing here.  Call me if interested because it looks like the early applications are jewelry, art and 3D printing for food.  No kidding.
• Art and Underused space - Imagine all the places in Sarasota where a dusty lot or even cracks in the sidewalk might be transformed.

Let’s cut to the chase here.  Placemaking+arts immerses people in art on a daily – even hourly – basis.  Linking arts to other passions ensure wider support, so someone who loves the idea of a healthier community will be all over arts and walking.  We know who does art - who does place? 

3-D Printing - The Future of Manufacturing?

Imagine this nightmare scenario: just before holiday guests arrive, you run the last load of dishes “SNAP,” the end of the top sprayer arm breaks off.  Nowadays, you are stuck with either calling a plumber or going to the parts store.  (I realize that you could also hand wash the dishes, but stick with me here.)   Instead, imagine a future where you go to the manufacturer’s website, click on the part, hit Control-P and within minutes, you have the new part, ready to snap back on.

That future is already here and it’s called 3-D printing.   It is just like ink-jet printing, but instead of ink, resin squirts out in layers to make something.  The technique has been around a while, called “rapid prototyping” or additive manufacturing.  Used now mainly to test prototypes stateside before sending  final blueprints off to a Chinese factory, 3-D printing basically poses the interesting possibility of bringing mass production to the masses here.   Websites like Thingiverse and Ponoco offer digital blueprints for a growing “personal factory movement.”  A new company called TechShop is a chain of workshops, the kind your Dad had in the basement, but on a larger scale and fewer unmarked coffee cans filled with God-knows-what.

While DIYers will compose a large segment of 3-D print users, this could be a really big deal for manufacturing and jobs.  The commercial trajectory might resemble how printing companies like Kinkos grew (and continue to grow).  At first, 3-D printers will be expensive as original printers were, so you can imagine a store like Kinkos processing on-line orders for pick-up or delivery.   Individual businesses will also be in the game, making everything from building supplies to medical devices on the spot.   Each of these will occupy a different kind of factory space depending on the size of product lines, transport needs, and the toxicity of the materials used.

Speaking of materials, this is going to be an exciting new field.  The race is on to create the strongest materials with the fewest negative side effects.  Imagine mining landfills for new source materials.  MIT is pondering that possibility now in their Media Lab.      

So why would a land use person have any interest in this?  The answer is plenty.   There is an interesting conversation here is Sarasota about increasing the quality of uses allowed in land otherwise slated for light industrial development.  I’ve also lived in other places that introduced higher quality uses into industrial areas, and the result was not pretty.  Once you scale up, it is hard to go back.  Shoppers and theater patrons may like a small dose of industrial-chic, but not the big trucks, smell and noise.  Retail owners will fight back on new industrial businesses, partly because of impacts and mostly because of parking.  Boosting retail in industrial areas can have the effect of enacting a moratorium on industrial uses; 3-D manufacturing basically means we are going to need that land for making things.  

That industrial zoning might not even be right in the first place.  Most Kinkos are located in General Commercial zoning, and 3-D printing (depending on the resin used) might be a great fit in neighborhoods.  At a minimum, if 3-D printing challenges old notions of manufacturing, we're going to have to take a new look at zoning codes.

Warehousing and import business will also change radically.  3-D printing takes inventory from “just in time” to “right on time.”  In fact, “right on time” will also be “made right here.”   This begs the question of who will take the biggest economic hit, and Chinese factories, international shippers, and ports seem high on the list. 

All of this spells a manufacturing future, but one that differs from what we know now (or set up incentive programs for).   In addition to some big ticket manufacturing, work will likely be generated in small, highly specialized shops. In fact, much of it might be mobile as all manner of craftsmen (and women) are able to assess, measure and manufacture with an on-board printer.  Places like Sarasota will now have a chance to be in the game, because we have the design chops (think Ringling College) and an army of skilled, retired and restless innovators. If anyone in Sarasota is interested in pulling together a field trip focused on how an entire community takes advantage of 3-D printing – drop me a line.  This could be huge.