By Neena Narayanan

Let the Creative Placemaking Begin!
Art Lives Here has opened its season of events with an April 24th Kick-off press conference starring Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker at 39th Street Gallery. The following day, the town of Mount Rainier will host Better Block Night, an evening of creative actions in and around local businesses.

Art Lives Here is a series of programs designed by artists and organizations that brings large signature events as well as random acts of creativity to the most blighted areas of the Gateway Arts District. Additionally, a visibility campaign is polishing the brand of our community within the Washington, DC–Maryland region. Through a large partnership endeavor that includes two community development corporations, a dozen nonprofit arts organizations, and more than 300 artists, creative placemaking is being lead by our stakeholders.

TTP staff Shonique, TTP students Jamal and Michael, and TTP Director Anthony[/caption]

Managing the Brand
Managing the brand of our arts district as it spans four distinct small towns along Route 1 is a huge challenge. The local press continues to refer to the Gateway Arts District by one of the towns that used the arts district label for a condo development. That one sign in neon and the glossy marketing surpassed our creative community brand within the regional marketplace. A visibility campaign has been core to our project to improve the consumer experience within a larger geography to discover all the creative places. Strategies to address this include visits to the four town councils to “cheerlead” the definition of the Gateway Arts District, share talking points, and provide stock images. Additionally, a one-stop arts district website (mygatewayarts.org) includes a registry, event calendar, and a studio space locator.

Baker to Return as Honorary Chair
County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has committed to serve as Honorary Chair of Art Lives Here. Baker called efforts to revitalize economic development in Mount Rainier, North Brentwood, Brentwood and Hyattsville “amazing” last year, stating “the Gateway Arts District has evolved from a great idea to one of the county’s best residential and commercial investment opportunities.” He is a tremendous advocate for arts education and shares personal stories of how the arts influenced his family. His son, a painter and conceptual artist, is running for state delegate.

Grady Management, a full-service, residential, commercial and real estate consulting firm, has come on board as an Art Lives Here sponsor connecting their powerful marketing department to our grassroots movement. A pop-up exhibit will be installed in their model home next month and performance activities will celebrate their grand opening.

Recent news features include:
http://www.gazette.net/article/20140422/NEWS/140429940&template=gazette 

Artists on Creative Placemaking
This week begins a six-month program of more than 15 unique creative placemaking projects. One of our artist teams, Kenny George and Patrick McDonough, eloquently describe their involvement in Art Lives Here:

“In our mind, creative placemaking highlights the abilities of cultural producers of all sorts to act as the conduit between various contexts, constituencies, and other entities. When done right, these activities and processes reinforce existing communities and economies, yet pave the way for new and different methods of engagement. We do feel that at all points we must be considering the ways that these interactions can be made durable and lasting, not fleeting and temporary. This is the opportunity of conscious place development-to not mimic the chronology of slowly building pressure on those without power.”

Their project is titled “Catalog Brewing, BEER GARDEN.” “Catalog Brewing” is the name given to a recently created nanobrewery. The concept behind this nanobrewery is to produce small batches of beer in the most local and sustainable ways possible. Some of the efforts to begin this endeavor include growing hops in container gardens made from reclaimed bathtubs, rainwater collection, filtration, and homemade solar water heating, and the exploration of different plant matter that is high in simple sugars and will grow abundantly in a confined space. “BEER GARDEN” is the name of the experimental lab space to test and explore sustainable beer making practices.