Despite the economic struggles of many of Providence's artistic and cultural organizations, the initiative to produce a cultural plan for the city - Creative Providence - is soldiering on.
This month, the group, run by the Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, has been holding meetings for artists and community members to discuss topics including infusing the economy with creativity and increasing community access to and cultural participation in the arts, said Lynne McCormack, director of the department. The meetings, as well as community forums and a 2,000-person survey completed last year, will help develop the Cultural Providence plan, McCormack said, which would be ready for its steering committee's approval in May.
The program has allowed the arts community to identify the cultural resources of the city, said Hope Alswang, director of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art and member of the Creative Providence's steering committee. For a small city, Providence provides a "really rich diversity of arts opportunities," she added.
"The city is now branding itself as the creative capital," said Umberto Crenca, artistic director and founder of community arts venue AS220 and member of Creative Providence's steering committee. The group ensures that "there's as much substance as there is hype," within the city's art scene, he said.
The promotion of art and culture in Providence comes at a time of great economic turmoil for the creative community, said Alswang. Alswang and Craig Dreeszen, cultural planning consultant for the Creative Providence project, attribute the financial struggles of the artistic community to the economic downturn and resulting loss of corporate funding to many cultural organizations, reduction of endowments and decreased patronage of the arts.
"Our arts institutions in this city have not faced anything like this in living memory," said Alswang,
"There's a struggle, more so than I've witnessed in a while," Crenca said. "A lot of arts organizations ... are just trying to survive."
The crisis is hurting individual artists too, according to Crenca, who added that more artists than usual have been reaching out to AS220 staff for help finding work.
Dreeszen said the economic crisis is "the elephant in the room" for Creative Providence.
The group has had to adapt to the economic realities, McCormack said.
"I think we have been talking more about sustainability than we have about creating new things," said McCormack. "There has been a lot of talk about how do we sustain the organization, how do we make sure we don't lose our art scene, how do we keep spaces cheap and affordable."
McCormack said the economic situation has helped the committee focus on what is important to the community.
Dreeszen said Creative Providence also hopes to stimulate economic development through arts and culture by helping cultural organizations whose funding has been cut and assisting "individual artists and creative workers."
"We're trying to establish a climate in which these folks can prosper," he said, noting that this is more difficult in a tight economy where art and performance are seen by some as "discretionary purchases."
Alswang and McCormack said Creative Providence facilitates relationships and allows artists who wouldn't normally talk to each each other to work together.
While Alswang stressed that "there's no quick fixes here," the relationships that artists and organizations are building could help in the sharing of resources and potentially in the reduction of costs.
"We could do more marketing together, we could do more shared backroom costs," she said.
Crenca said he was impressed with the city's commitment to arts and culture "at a time when it doesn't seem like the obvious thing."
"There's plenty of excuses not to plan," he said. "Despite the crisis that we're in, we're continuing to look towards the future."
