Creativity and Art Hit the Front Page

Debates in North Adams
A conversation started in THE TRANSCRIPT by local artist and entrepreneur Eric Rudd:

“Editor’s note: Recent editorials, letters to the editor and a stream of comments on the Transcript’s Internet forums have generated much debate and some confusion about the contributions of and the potential for art and artists in our city. Well-known artist and entrepreneur Eric Rudd offered the following take. It is long, but we think well worth reading. We hope the issues and ideas he raises will generate intelligent, positive discussion — and possibly some action — in the weeks and months ahead.”

Continue to read by clicking the link below or Visit THE TRANSCRIPT Search Key work “Rudd” to see articles and reader’s comments

The Value of Art
By Eric Rudd

Article Launched:
Wednesday, June 25

Editor’s note: Recent editorials, letters to the editor and a stream of comments on the Transcript’s Internet forums have generated much debate and some confusion about the contributions of and the potential for art and artists in our city. Well-known artist and entrepreneur Eric Rudd offered the following take. It is long, but we think well worth reading. We hope the issues and ideas he raises will generate intelligent, positive discussion — and possibly some action — in the weeks and months ahead.

This is a silly controversy about the value of the arts in North Adams. It’s the same nonsense that a city councilor used more than 15 years ago. He’s changed, and I think everyone is more educated about this now.

I think everyone knows that art, artists, museums, galleries, visitors, new residents, new businesses, renovated old buildings, etc. have all benefited North Adams. Some people’s definition of art and artists is a bit juvenile. The artists in town are so varied that if you took off those “art” or “artist” labels, you would see these folks as small businesses involved with computer graphics, photography and video/film, paper making, textile design, woodworking, exercise, ceramics, furniture design, printing, Internet production, politics, education, writing and much more, in addition to painting and sculpture-making.

For example, as only one artist, I’m involved with robotics and animatronics, theme-park technology, polycarbonate blow-molding, outer-space technology, film, publication (nonfiction, fiction, children’s, tourist), real estate and historic preservation, home aid products for the elderly using new technology, theater, theology and physics — not to mention educational programs in art/technology and arts management, visitor tours, exhibitions and lectures, etc. That’s just the short list. Do these activities seem silly?

From an artist’s perspective, the goal of the art community should be that when John and Mary Jones come to North Adams to see Mass MoCA, there’s a 50-to-75-percent chance they will also go to a gallery on Main Street and to an artist studio in one of the mills. (This includes not only tourists but the many collectors and curators who come here as well.)

Imagine if 50,000 people went to these other venues. You’d have every retail store filled, every mill renovated into lofts and new construction happening all over. That’s all it takes. The real question that The Transcript should be asking is: Why is North Adams still dragging? Why are there so many vacancies in the downtown after so much progress elsewhere? Why do we have so many social problems? Where should we be and how do we get there? How do we increase the population? Has the Transcript helped to define our tomorrow?

Regarding the number of retail vacancies, the basic answer is: Retail businesses won’t open or thrive until we increase foot traffic downtown and to parts other than the museum. And people won’t move here and open up new businesses unless we increase our efforts to make North Adams very attractive, preserve the cityscape and environment, have excellent schools and create a lively downtown. This is not a one-time job; it’s continuous.

During the 1990s, in addition to city efforts, we had many groups working on solutions — North Adams Chamber of Commerce, Northern Berkshire Industrial Park and Development Corp., Art Technology Task Force, Economic Summits, Hyett Palma Report (and others), Downtown Development Corp., Community Development Corp., Contemporary Artists Center, La Festa, not to mention various groups working to make MoCA come true. How many do we have now? Thank goodness the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is still going strong.

What are the solutions? They are varied and will take teams of people to fine-tune and execute. Are the new and old residents up to it? Remember, MoCA happened because of a dedicated effort by a group of people. It took 14 years. What we still seem to be lacking is a vision. (After the vision, comes a master plan and what I like to call an “immediate action plan.”) A vision that North Adams could be the shining example — nationally and internationally — of a culturally-rich and economically-strong small town.

Here is my quick list to make that happen. Be my guest to add to it. Be my guest to get together and once again form organizations that will make these happen:

* Tourist Issues

There are 100,000 visitors to Mass MoCA. If we could get even 25 percent of them to Main Street, that would be a start. How?

1. Promote hourly trolley tours around North Adams, daily art tours, etc. Develop easier access to Main Street from the museum.

2. Offer bicycle rickshaws during warmer days (creating jobs for students).

3. Create better maps of attractions.

4. Put local art (with artists’ bios) in every motel, inn, hotel room in Northern Berkshire. (All framed locally.)

5. Find someone to coordinate groups who want to visit and experience more than just the museum, but who also want to see alternative art spaces and open-studios — to have a lecture by an artist or curator during dinner and enjoy cocktails in an artist’s loft.

6. Create a souvenir book about the area.

7. Have music and performances downtown every day (or every week at a minimum to start).

8. Redirect Route 2 along River Street and turn the area between Big Y and the back of 85 Main St. into a village green or Mexican-style plaza.

9. Create sculptures all over the downtown. And the back of Peebles could have big photo-murals. Not to mention projections onto what was Roberts Co.

10. Encourage ethnic restaurants. We need more to create a critical mass. Raise money to offer free rent for small eateries to open up — why don’t we have a good Middle Eastern or Vietnamese or Tapas place in town? Just go to Northampton, and you’ll get the idea of what we need.

11. Establish constant programming year-round, so if one doesn’t get downtown, one will miss the action.

12. Raise money for the Mohawk, but raise 25 percent more for programming. Quite honestly, I would keep it small, turn it into Images 2 and give that organization money to operate both theaters (it is a nonprofit). Daily offerings of independent movies, coupled with a space that’s affordable for events, might be the way to go. By the way, Images has a great policy that anyone over 85 can get in free. Imagine if we had this in town. A smaller theater space would be used for all sorts of things, from birthday parties to showings of films by local filmmakers.

13. Petition the Massachusetts Cultural Council to direct that 5 percent (to 10 percent) of all grant funds for large museums have to go to small venues. In other words, when MoCA or the Clark applies and receives a $100,000 grant, they’ll need to partner up with local galleries and art groups and give them $5,000 to $10,000 of that grant money for specific goals. Big guys need to help the little guys; it’s not happening now.

14. Get oversight to keep North Adams as a cultural theme park. If 100,000 visitors are going to the big roller coaster (MoCA), someone needs to make the changes so those folks go to the “other rides” within the park.

15. Organize volunteers as “welcome guides,” wearing special “Ask Me” T-shirts. The personal touch goes a long way.

16. Put a copy of Nancy Kelly’s movie “Downside Up” in every motel room.

17. A group of Gallery-Eateries — no, not just art hung in restaurants — a radical new concept and design and a new economic model for galleries (I can explain later). Galleries can’t make it 12 months of the year, but if the proper design incorporates a place to eat, then both will make it. And what better way to see art than to be seated and eating?

18. Sow grass over half of Main Street. (OK, just testing to see if anyone is reading, but that’s how the Eagle Street Beach idea came about 10 years ago).

19. Move the fall parade to a Saturday. People come and they leave. No net business. Then start a spring crazy-art parade.

20. Post 10 mph speed limits (“Slow: Watch Out for Children, Visitors & Artists” signs) in the downtown.

21. Create a major new downtown building project — the scale of Mass MoCA — that would involve public-private money and that would include residences. (There are business models that will work, even in this economy.)

22. Encourage better use of the Internet, by all institutions, etc. And linkage.

23. Develop new imaginative programs in all the schools that would relate to the newly defined town.

24. Ask Paul Marino to write short descriptions and put historical markers all over the area.

25. Have a greeter who meets every visitor who walks to or from the museum, promoting other attractions nearby — and a tourist booth in the parking lot.

26. Publicize all the free attractions: Eclipse Mill Gallery (which could have nine galleries or exhibitions alone), A Chapel for Humanity, Beaver Mill galleries and studios, Natural Bridge State Park, Open Studios, about 10 to 15 downtown galleries and art spaces (forgetting the one that has stolen art in it), Studio Works and Kolok in the Windsor Mill, Fish Pond, Northern Berkshire Creative Arts and the Visitors Museum in Western Heritage State Park, etc., etc. Collectively, there could be 40 venues — almost all free. Collectively, and with some support, that could have the same impact on the downtown as MoCA, i.e., double the good impact.

27. Establish an “About North Adams” kiosk and downtown tourist office, so that people might fall in love with the town, move here and open up businesses.

28. Ask artists to do community and downtown installations. The crazier the better.

29. Offer discounts to stores, restaurants and free SteepleCats tickets for all visitors to the museum. Offer a free juice from a new juice bar on Main Street (supported by a merchant association’s efforts) (or hot soup from a soup bar during winter months). In other words, give visitors a package of goodies so they would be crazy not to venture downtown.

* Social Issues

We need to decrease our social problems. We need to set new — high — standards (written in stone and advertised) for all children in the area. Businesses will not move here unless we offer the best opportunities. These are the areas to focus more resources upon. No matter how much is being done now, it’s not enough. We need to do more. With a population of 5,000 children, we can manage it.

1. All children need better (equal) screening and help, starting from kindergarten (really from birth) about health, especially:

a. Weight: Too many residents and children are overweight, leading to a host of health issues and early death.

b. Diet: Well, this goes with weight, but we need special attention in early years about healthy ways to eat — and we could also support “local grown” at the same time.

c. Dental care: Take a look at a large proportion of children’s mouths — need I say more?

d. Exercise: We need to structure this in more with school programs.

e. Smoking: It’s a No. 1 reason for health problems, not to mention the cost of smoking today. There are programs working; let’s increase them 5,000 percent.

f. Sex education: The city’s teen pregnancy rate is way too high.

g. Living environment: Too many apartments have deplorable conditions (see No. 8 below).

h. General education: Think out of the box and initiate incentive programs. Give rewards.

2. All kids go to college or a school beyond high school. For free. One hundred percent is the goal.

3. All kids should have a laptop from grade one onwards.

4. Make uniforms in schools mandatory for all grades.

5. Change the name of McCann Technical to McCann School for Design and Technology. It’s a great school, but the name is outdated.

6. Create a summer job program for teens.

7. Establish nationally unique and exciting new programs for MCLA.

8. Encourage clean homes and apartments: There are slums in our town; we need a program to help clean all this up. Perhaps a team of volunteers and staff that will turn around an apartment in six hours. That would transform 300 units in one year.

9. Discourage the sale of lottery tickets: This is a desperate attempt by some to get out from poverty, and it’s really a nasty tax on the poor; get rid of them.

10. North Adams should be the first community in the state/nation to have mandatory art classes for all students, rather than a small or optional program.

Repeat: Publicize the town’s educational and social goals and objectives. Even on billboards. It has to be written in stone.

* Economic Issues

1. Manufacture a product for international sales; (I have two in mind) using new technology and design (i.e., create a new “capacitor”). Manufacturing can still be a partial option, but it needs to be a new product that logically should be done here rather than overseas.

2. Partner businesses within the county to create new opportunities.

3. Identify those existing art products and businesses that can be expanded to national marketing.

4. Cash in on the state’s emphasis to support robotics and new technology.

5. One can’t compete with the nationals (Wal-Marts), so we must focus downtown on visitors and specialties. And promote them. For example, how many towns have an old-fashioned toy store, rather than three aisles in a chain store? But the stores need people on the sidewalks to make retail really thrive.

6. We need a serious, local Chamber-type organization. When the Northern Berkshire Chamber moved/merged with Pittsfield, local activity declined 95 percent.

7. Renovate the remaining mills and vacant houses.

8. Fill the river channel with water and use it recreationally (the increased value of real estate will offset this expense).

9. Change the route to Mount Greylock — make it start from Western Heritage State Park.

10. Create bicycle trails immediately.

11. Have imaginative retail signage downtown and not small, conforming signs.

12. Create a venture capital fund to support new businesses and building projects.

13. Encourage new businesses and residents. We have exactly the candidates we want coming here; give them free tours and promotions from the museum. It’s much better than cold-calling to people outside the area.

14. Promotion, promotion, promotion.

15. Hold a national talent contest for the best new business and then give them free space, free labor and help for one year.

16. If parking meters have to stay, turn them into lottery meters — i.e., every hour, a prize is awarded.

17. Do all work in-house, in-town. There’s enough talent here.

18. Roll out the red carpet; give royal treatment for all proposals needing city permits.

19. Remember, most investments to get projects off the ground repay themselves 10 times over. Do all the economic ideas (listed above) that increase tourist spending.

You get the picture: There are problems but there are solutions. Either we make the team effort, or we won’t even keep up with national standards. But we really need to set our own standards, much higher than a national standard.

We have made wonderful progress in many areas. MoCA is real. We have new schools, library, athletic fields, hotels and condominiums and a decent cityscape. But we need more. It’s not time to sit back. This is not the job for the mayor or council to do; this is a job for all of us in the private sector to do.

Nationally, the country has been going in the wrong direction since Bush got into office. There’s hope for next year, but climbing out of our mess will take time. Locally, we were bound to feel that decline. But we are small enough to turn things around and buck the downward trend — or lead the upward trend.

This will be a tough winter coming up. Gas and heating fuel will hit everyone hard. We need to do many of these ideas just to offset the expected decline in business. If we work very hard, we’ll make progress and increase jobs, sales, income and, most of all, have a much better environment for our children, grandchildren and ourselves.

P.S. For all those people who have nothing better to do than attack negatively, please take a deep breath and run around the block instead. There are many good efforts going on in the city; this letter was not to list them, but to suggest that we need to do more. I’m sure your positive ideas and efforts will be appreciated.

Among Eric Rudd’s long list of local achievements are the founding of the Contemporary Artists Center, the development of the Eclipse Mill into privately-owned artist lofts, the co-founding of the robotic arts program at MCLA and the creation of the Eagle Street Beach Party, celebrating its 10th year this July 16.

A city on the move

TheTranscript.com

Article Launched:
Thursday, June 26

Local artist and entrepreneur Eric Rudd certainly has no shortage of ideas (“The value of art: a blueprint for North Adams,” Transcript, June 25), many of them good and some a little out there, but no one can deny his passion for and concern about this city.

In recent days some controversy has erupted concerning the influence of art and artists in North Adams, with a small-minded minority suggesting the community is divided — “us and them,” the true-blue natives vs. the outsider artists. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is no denying the value of art in turning around the fortunes of this city. Without Mass MoCA, the sprawling former Sprague Electric Co. would be a deteriorating, festering mess of abandoned factory buildings — a nightmarish, polluted eyesore.

The Eclipse Mill on Route 2 would be an empty shell filled with broken windows, a sorry eastern gateway to the downtown. The number of vacant storefronts downtown would be quadruple the number now.

There would be no Porches Inn. There would be no new district court building. Many local restaurants would be out of business or never would have started up. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts would have no presence on Main Street. Thousands of tourists would bypass the “City of Steeples” en route to The Village Beautiful or other greener pastures.

Forget about new condominiums and apartment buildings; some grand old houses would have rotted and crumbled, and the city would have lost almost as much of its rich history as the razing of the south side of Main Street wrought during urban renewal. The idea of a Lowe’s store and retail complex on Curran Highway would be a joke. Plans to renovate the historic Mohawk Theater would have long been abandoned.

While art has been a catalyst for revitalization and has attracted new, vibrant people to this city, it is by no means the end-all and be-all. Many of the so-called “artists,” as Mr. Rudd pointed out in his commentary, are technicians, tradesmen, writers, graphic designers and craftsmen. Like most of the proud natives and many transplants here, they work for a living. More traditional artists, who might paint or sculpt, most often have to find “real jobs” to survive, as few indeed can earn a living wage from the sale of their work.

None of these “artists” should be scorned or shunned but should be welcomed and encouraged, as the vast majority of residents here have welcomed and encouraged them.

But neither should this city lose itself in some idealistic vision of murals and sculpture on every sidewalk and byway, galleries on every corner and gondoliers in the flood control chutes.

Our government and many in the private sector have followed a blueprint of sorts in making North Adams a far better place to live than it was 20 years ago, after the demise of Sprague and the loss of thousands of jobs. Our roads are repaired, our taxes are low, our downtown is beautiful. Our recreational fields and playgrounds are among the best in the state. Most of our old mill buildings are full or about to be. Affordable housing is being built all around the downtown. We have a modern hospital. We have diversified our economy, and many small businesses have stepped up to fill at least part of the void that Sprague left behind.

Many of the suggestions Mr. Rudd made in his commentary are already being tackled: A task force is examining the problem of blighted housing. The city has cracked down on derelict landlords. Plans for the Mohawk Theater have been scaled back to make it more intimate and have it available for community events. New and imaginative programs have been developed in our local school system, which has greatly improved over the past five years. City officials have tried for years to promote access to Mount Greylock from Western Gateway Heritage State Park, Furnace Street and Reservoir Road, but funding has been scarce.

Beyond that, many of Mr. Rudd’s proposed initiatives are ones that must be pursued by the private sector, not local government. To pursue the “vision” and creative ideas he outlined, artists, entrepreneurs and business people like himself need to step forward and make the necessary investments.

Some people may take Mr. Rudd’s commentary as a criticism of this city and its government. We don’t believe it is. Rather, it is an outline for a potential future, full of opportunity. It should be a future that has room for all of us — whether we are artists, store clerks, construction workers, teachers, doctors or plumbers.

North Adams has moved forward to a point few would have predicted even 10 years ago. Our bet is the next 10 years will see more positive growth, exciting new enterprises and a populace proud of its heritage yet never afraid of challenges — or change.