Arts center group decides that the village itself is the center

Tony Dallas (left), Laura Carlson, Beth Holyoke, Mary Campbell-Zopf and Jerome Borchers are some members of the Yellow Springs Arts Center Steering Committee who are helping to conceptualize what an arts center in Yellow Springs might be.

By Lauren Heaton

Having heard villagers’ nuanced opinions about what an arts center in Yellow Springs might be, and having studied and picked apart each of those opinions, members of the Yellow Springs Center for the Arts Steering Committee are ready to present back to the community what they heard as the village’s vision. Like an answer to a trick question, the 15 members of the steering committee unanimously agreed that the best arts center for this village, is the village itself.

The committee will hold a public meeting on Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Presbyterian Church to present a preliminary plan and begin making decisions on next steps toward attaining the vision.

The committee based its plan on the ideas of the more than 350 people who participated in the community arts center workshops held at the Presbyterian Church in March, according to Jerome Borchers, committee chairman, in a recent interview. Instead of depending on one centralized facility as the answer to local arts needs, the plan aims to focus on uniting the village’s existing arts infrastructure and make it stronger, he said. That infrastructure includes not only physical facilities for the arts but also the organizations and cooperatives that individuals and businesses have created to promote the arts.

“We think this plan has the combination of things that would allow artists to grow and would provide a foundation for economic vitality in the community,” Borchers said. “We feel we’re at a unique place right now to open doors for art in Yellow Springs.”

Because the village’s resources are limited by its small size, the first part of the committee’s plan involves using the unusually high number of artists and art lovers to enhance the village’s identity and reputation as a creative and innovative town. The committee hopes to promote creative collaboration between the arts and business communities in town, as well as between entities such as Antioch College, the Chamber of Commerce, Yellow Springs Arts Council, African-American Culture Works, Antioch Writer’s Workshop and local business owners.

Borchers cited the tile bench on the corner of Xenia Avenue and Corry Street as a good example of a public display of art that benefited from private and public partnerships. Arts Council members initiated the project and finished it this spring with the help of local engineering expertise and the complimentary installation of a concrete slab from the Village.

The second part of the arts center plan identifies the physical facilities around the village which could be improved or renovated with modest investment. The Little Art Theatre, the Antioch College south gym and the gymnasium at Mills Lawn School are a few examples of the many buildings in the village that provide adequate spaces for art events, but which might benefit from some enhancements. If the theater were able to purchase a digital projector, for example, perhaps it could serve a wider variety of events. And if, for instance, the space in the south gym often used for community dance concerts was outfitted with newer sound equipment and more audience seating, it could serve as a venue for literary, visual, music, and theater arts events as well. An increase in events held at each space would increase the sustainability of those venues while providing more and more opportunity for art to occur in Yellow Springs, committee members believe.

And thirdly, the arts committee recommends that the village revitalize the cultural vitality of Yellow Springs through programming initiatives such as village festivals or a signature expo to highlight the community as a center of innovation and creativity. Events would draw on not just artists but on entrepreneurs, designers, computer scientists, environmentalists and activists from all corners of the village. Basho Apparel was given as a prime example of a business that incorporates all of Yellow Springs’ artistic, business, environmental and social values with original prints on American-made, organic cotton clothing.

The arts center committee has spent nearly a year in phase one of the process, with guidance from two Minneapolis consultants and the help of a $100,000 grant from the Morgan Family Foundation. But to begin to make the community’s vision a reality, professional feasibility studies are needed to measure the costs and benefits of investing in each of the potential facilities and partnerships, Borchers said. And this, in phase two of the project, the committee hopes to draw in more participants who will critique the project design and take charge of the particular aspects that interest them.

In order to know which partnerships or spaces to invest in, the committee hopes to be able to rely on data from the feasibility studies, which could include architectural and engineering analysis, attendance counts for particular events, or other information needed to make investment decisions. And in order to know what kinds of feasibility studies to run, the committee needs more input from the community at the September meeting about where the greatest potential lies.

According to Borchers, the committee is already in the process of applying for a second grant from the Morgan Foundation to support phase two of the project. The third phase of the project involves a community fundraiser to start an arts endowment to help artists get their work out into the public and to perhaps generate more public art.

One of the things that consultants Tom Borrup and George Sutton note about Yellow Springs is its vigorous and highly opinionated citizenry who have managed to come together and agree on the art center idea.

“That’s important especially because this is a small community with big aspirations,” Borrup said. “But the fact that we saw so many vital cultural assets existing gave the committee the incentive to put together a plan that would lift many entities up together.”

Using information that emerged from the community workshop last March, the consultants gleaned 12 common values and visions for an arts center in Yellow Springs (see the Web site www.yscenterforthearts.org). The arts committee later categorized them into six qualities and six activities to focus on in building the center. The favored qualities were environmentally sustainable, financially sustainable, international reputation, art-producing community, intergenerational, and world-changing. The favored activities were to support what we have, develop mutually beneficial programs with Antioch, create a artist colony/retreat, create a community gathering place, raise artists, and host, produce, and promote festivals.

“The community wanted to see something unique and cutting edge, and so much of this proposal came from that meeting last March,” Borchers said. “It shows that the process really works when you reach out to as many people as possible to get ideas.”

Current arts center committee members are Jane Baker, Jerome Borchers, Mary Campbell-Zopf, Tony Dallas, John Fleming, Paul Graham, Chris Hill, Jerry Holt, Beth Holyoke, Michael Jones, Maureen Lynch, Rob Lytle, Jim Malarkey, Gayle Rominger, and Jamie Sharp.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com