Arts Incubator Idea Hatching Here as State Pushes "Creative Communities"
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Older buildings like the Bay City Masonic Temple might be considered as venues for an arts incubator if the the concept is embraced here.
Crusader is featured in stained glass window in the game room of the Bay City Masonic Temple, exemplifying the age-old historic roots of the Masonic organization.
Is the time right for an arts incubator in Bay City?
Local leaders may be asking themselves that question as two Delta College educators and a local arts organization explore the idea.
Arts incubators are being hatchedall over the nation, including Michigan. The concept is about 17 years old and is part of the business incubator movement that began nearly 30 years ago.
The arts incubator concept may find an especially fruitful environment in Michigan asGov. Jennifer Granholm continues to plug her "cool cities" initiative.
County Executive Thomas L. Hickner is also among advocates for the arts incubator idea and has facilitated meetings between artists and business leaders to explore the concept.
A series of meetings are scheduled in eight locations across Michigan next week to help communities make the connection between the arts and economic development. The programs are entitled "Building Cool Neighborhoods in Creative Communities."
The Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies has extended an open invitation to "on-site project-based learning opportunities" beginning June 8 and running through June 23 in Detroit, Port Huron, Marquette, St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, Jackson and Lansing. (Please see www.macaa.com.)
Goal of the MACAA program is to develop partnerships between local cultural and economic development interests and implement projects such as mixed use affordable living and/or working space for artists, public art programs, and strategic historic preservation.
Arts incubators offer a nurturing center with low rents for small, developing arts groups. Centralized services may be offered. Some arts incubators are run by for-profit companies and others by consortia of non-profits.
Delta professors Charissa Urbano and Ann Sieggreen are advocates for the arts incubator idea in Bay City. They have been looking for a suitable site and have talked to building owners on Center Avenue and elsewhere downtown in a effort to find a fertile atmosphere for the incubator.
The Bay Arts Council is looking at the possibility of discussing cooperation with the Masonic groups that own the Bay City Masonic Temple if the arts incubator idea goes forward. Council board member Eric Jylha and arts advocates such as Dave Skinner, chairman, and Leo Najar, director, of the Bijou Orchestra have indicated the community might benefit from an arts incubator approach. Some discussion has been held about a music conservatory to be operated in conjunction with a potential arts incubator.
Planners for the long term future of the Masonic Temple like the facilities the building offers: a large kitchen and dining room on the ground floor, a magnificent auditorium performance venue with seating for about 400 and a variety of smaller rooms that could be used for rehearsals, recitals, offices, meetings and classes.
The Masonic Temple, or another suitable building, could provide a "home" for arts groups of various kinds. Artists need places to operate wheels and kilns for pottery work, do welding for metal sculpture and apply paint and other media on crafts and other works of art.
Ms. Sieggreen, a dancer with big stage experience, notes that dancers need wide open spaces, especially for performances. She is evaluating the Masonic Temple and other available buildings to determine which space might work.
Arts incubators are thriving in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Fort Lauderdale, San Jose, Houston, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans. Even Harrisville, Michigan, has an arts incubator that has won plaudits from the University of Michigan.###
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