NODA, A Study of the rise and fall of an Arts and Culture District

NODA is short for North Davidson, an area of Charlotte, NC that saw an amazing transformation in the late '80s, early '90's.

The transformation began with Paul Sires and Ruth Ava Lyons.

From Wikipedia:

In 1985 Paul Sires and Ruth Ava Lyons, 2 young artists, arrived in the dilapidated and neglected mill village main street of North Charlotte and became captivated by the areas character. They bought and renovated the Lowder Building and continued to renovate nearby buildings and mill houses as part of an ongoing revitalization effort, and actively participated in beautification efforts.

In 2011, Creative Loafing (Charlotte's arts and culture magazine) did a story on NODA, from the perspective of some the residents, including Paul Sires:

Sires: "In 1986, it was pretty well boarded up. There were a couple of bars. There was a machine shop — McCullough Auto and Electric — and there was a print shop. That was pretty much it. It was kind of abandoned and just a handful of artists. But it was a cool neighborhood. Mostly mill houses that were still intact. We could afford to buy our building for the studio space. Because it was a little business district, we could see something happening there as opposed to other parts of town with their long, long roads and lots of buildings. Our initial building, we renovated over five or six years. It was four storefronts and three upstairs. We'd rent space out to other artists."

An artist named Swanson gives his perspective:

Swanson: "When you came outside, you had to deal with the drug dealers making sales in front of your house and making it look bad for you. Then the cops show up, and they harassed any and everybody walking down the street. You couldn't even go to the store, and you couldn't wear nice clothes. If you did, they were jumping out on you, slamming you on the concrete, slamming you against the cars."

The area showed significant growth for 20 years, with many galleries opening. When I moved from Charlotte in 1994, NODA was the "go to" place for Friday night gallery crawls.

From Creative Loafing:

Galleries were thriving. Center of the Earth was joined by new places, such as Green Rice Gallery and The Rat's Nest. More people were gathering at restaurants like Boudreaux's and Smelly Cat. In 2005, NoDa School of the Arts opened. That year, Marcus Kiser moved into Mecklenburg Mill Apartments, where he and others formed the God City art collective...

A year later, the Mills were shut down, allegedly due to termite infestation, and the residents, mostly artists, had to relocate to hotels across the city.

A resident reports:

Wolly: "Half the people weren't even at home when that happened. But when you watched what was going on and saw how NoDa was changing — we're living here at reasonable rates and getting better or the same space as the new people who just moved in up the street at crazy rates — you knew something was going to happen. Gentrification happens all of the time. Some people didn't want to look at things for what they really were, but I'd seen the changes in NoDa on the art side. When that situation happened, it put a general distaste in my mouth for the people inhabiting NoDa. None of those people came to our aide, none of those people offered support."

Kiser: "You lost a lot of diversity when that building shut down. Back then, it was like a college atmosphere. I remember walking down to RealEyes Bookstore [now closed] and hanging out with Darren. I loved it. It was kind of amazing."

Darren Vincent, former RealEyes owner who currently owns Red @28th, recalled the effect the closing had on the neighborhood.

Vincent: "Once they were gone, our profits dropped dramatically. The clientele that was here before, it was really a community. It's just not that community anymore. You have a lot of people from the outside coming in. We used to know each other in NoDa. I don't know anyone in this neighborhood anymore."

The Creative Loafing article concludes:

Today

The recession has shut the doors of many galleries, and higher-priced homes have made NoDa unaffordable for young artists wanting to follow the paths of trailblazers like Lyons and Sires. But for the most part, residents remain optimistic.

****************

This is something for artists and those creating zoning for arts and culture districts to consider. It seems that often, those who do the hard work of transforming and area and making it vital and vibrant, are then cast aside when the fruits of their efforts are realized.

I've made the argument before that when it comes to the creative economy, artists are used as the "lure" to generate economic growth, but are often treated like "chum". This is what I'm talking about.

Ashland Town Council Approves Arts and Culture District

As reported in the Herald Progress, May 5, 2012:

The Town of Ashland has established an arts and cultural district to provide incentives for new arts organizations.

The district begins just west of the intersection of routes 1 and 54, and it stretches west down Route 54 beyond the train tracks and through the commercial area. It also encompasses the commercial area along the tracks.

Qualifying for-profit and non-profit arts organizations within the district are eligible for four incentives.

They would be exempted from the business, professional and occupational license (BPOL) taxes and fees for their first three years.

Permit fees (except for those that cover required public notice advertising) would also be waived.

The next incentive would offer regulatory flexibility on temporary signage used to advertise arts openings, events and exhibits. Such signs could be displayed for up to 60 days, whereas currently all businesses may only display temporary signage for up to 30 days.

Also, qualifying arts organizations would be allowed to use the Route 54 banner board to advertise art-related events so long as no corporate logos are displayed.

To qualify, at least 50 percent of a business’s income must come from art or arts and cultural activities.

I think this is a great step for Ashland. I think some details will have to be clarified through further council meetings.

One is the very definition of "arts organizations".

1. How many people does it take to make an "organization"? Does a single music teacher having a piano recital qualify? Are the teacher and students together an "organization"?
2. What falls under the definition of "arts"? My personal dictionary includes a LOT of things as "arts".

I don't quite understand the corporate logo thing. Corporations, profit or non-profit, can post information on the sign, but they can't display their logos? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I'll be posting more on this in upcoming days and weeks.

A Tap Dancing Vagina

"V" is for Vagina in the A to Z Challenge

Ok.. I'm a day early. But I couldn't think of a U post for today, and this one is worth having top billing for two days on my blog.

I live just outside of the small town of Ashland, Virginia. I lived dead in the heart of Ashland for six years. Ashland has got railroad tracks running straight down the center. Apparently this was one of the few stretches of tracks not destroyed during the Civil War (War Between the States, War of Northern Agression, yadda, yadda, yadda) so when they rebuilt the rail systems, a lot of it was tied into the extisting tracks. Ashland gets a LOT of rail traffic.

Photo by R. W. Dawson

Here's the music video Transmit Dopamine (I keep telling you it is Parkinson's Awareness Month!) which was shot primarily in Ashland:

Ashland bills itself as the "Center of the Universe". This is something Ashlanders... ites... tend to be quite proud of. From a certain perspective, Ashland does feel like it is the center of something. There is a college (RMC) smack in the middle of town, and if you live right there near the tracks you can walk to the post office, the grocery store (Cross Brothers, celebrating it's 100th year!), hear fantastic national acts at Ashland Coffee and Tea, get a nice dinner at the upscale Iron Horse, have your choice of bars to sit at with the Iron Horse, Trackside Grill, or Andy's, have some jewelry custom made, get a morning cup 'o Joe at either AC&T or The Caboose, shop at Train Town Toy and Hobby, one of the best stocked train and hobby stores in the southeast, attend a Friday wine tasting at the Caboose, which has one of the best beer selections I've ever seen, and hang out at the Libarary. All these places are within several hundred feet of each other. The Strawberry Faire and Train Day are huge draws.

The name Center of the Universe was apparently dubbed by a former mayor, Dick Gilis. As it was explained to me, when Dick heard at a lecture by a professor of astronomy at RMC that there was no objective center of  the unverse, Dick said "then Ashland could be the center!". And so it is.

(My own personal take on it is that it is I, me, myself is the center of the universe, and every step I take sends the universe in rotation under my feet. Try it!)

Well, lately there has been a lot of talk about making central Ashland an "arts and culture district".

This is from http://www.vaartsandculture.blogspot.com/

"HB1735, initially sponsored by Chief Patron Delegate Shannon Valentine, proposed that all Virginia localities have the authority to create arts and cultural districts without individual authorization from the Virginia General Assembly.

The localities will have the authority to grant tax incentives and provide certain regulatory flexibility in the arts and cultural districts. The tax incentives include, but are not limited to, reduction of permit fees, reduction of user fees, and reduction of any type of gross receipts tax. The regulatory flexibility includes, but is not limited to, special zoning, permit process reform, and exemption from ordinances.

Arts and cultural districts are an increasingly popular economic development tool for local governments across the country. When theatres, performing arts centers, museums, art galleries, and artist studios are encouraged to locate in the same neighborhood, the neighborhood becomes a magnet for the general public."

I think this is pretty fantastic. I'd love to see working artist studios that are open to the public in the center of Ashland. Sort of like you see glass blowers and candle makers in Colonial Williamsburg.

There are a lot of other things I'd like to see. For one thing, a functional performing arts space. (you know... one with wings, fly space, adequate power, a green room)

However, in my book you can't just call something an "arts and culture district" without having an arts and culture district. It is sort of a cart and horse thing. The thought I guess is that if you build it, they will come. Make the area more friendly to artists, and artists will come. But there's the key phrase.

You have to make the area friendly to artists. And that doesn't just mean zoning. It means paying attention to what artists create. And what artists create isn't always comfortable. It isn't always safe.

An arts and culture district is the proverbial genie bottle. Once you uncork it, there is no putting that genie back in. What am I talking about?

How about a tap dancing vagina.

Yep... a tap dancing vagina. See, when I was doing my stint as prop shop manager at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, WV, one of the shows we did was the wonderful, quirky, Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show. It is set in a near dystopian future, where 3D holographic technology can bring entertainment right into your living room. Folks living in a communal home gather in the central room each night to watch the Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show. It has musical and variety acts with thought provoking songs such as this:

One of the costumes we had to make for the show was a tap dancing vagina. The talented Michael McKowen spearheaded the project, and there were a number of hands involved in its construction.

Here are some process photos:

One of our talented interns adding finising touches

Hanging up to dry

And here is it in the show, dancing(  in a commercial break from the projected holographic show) along side a gynecologist, singing about... gynecology. (I guess the thought is that if we once had dancing cigarette packs hawking cancer, and we can advertise erectile disfunction drugs on prime time television, why not a tap dancing vagina to promote your local OBGYN in some not too distant future?)

Photo from catf.org

Anyway, my point is (I usually do have one, despite my meandering ways. Sue me, I'm a storyteller!) that if you want to have arts and culture, you have to have artists. And artists can be messy. In more ways than one.

"V" is for Vagina in the A to Z Challenge, and April is Parkinson's Awareness Month