This month, we caught up with MLP Artistic & Executive Director, Beth Boone to further discuss the collaborations and ideas that came about from the January 2013 Creative Placemaking Summit.
ARTPLACE: Can you tell us a bit about what new opportunities or collaborations that you identified from conversations with other creative placemakers at the summit?
Beth Boone: The potential for collaborations/strategic partnerships was made even more evident at the January Creative Placemaking Summit because we all had the opportunity to finally meet and brainstorm in person and learn about all the complex and incredible projects that are going on. That said, there is never a shortage of great ideas and collaboration possibilities, the challenge is how to find the resources and staffing capacity within your organizations to research and implement the great ideas that make most sense for your organizations.
For several years, MLP has been in discussions with Art Space about developing a partnership that will help us move a critical idea/goal forward. One of the burning topics for us is sustainability beyond the usual 3-5 year plan. Since our project is rooted in a physical space that we do not own, our burning topic is: who are we 10 years from now?
What crushed us as we developed our project, was building the building! We aren’t builders- but they [Art Space] are, they have the staff, the resources and the expertise to develop and build, and more importantly to assess the implications of real estate based decisions. As such, the relationship we are most eager to pursue is with Art Space. They will be making a 2nd visit to Miami in late Spring 2013 so we can continue a conversation that was begun with MLP, Art Space and Roberta Uno of the Ford Foundation in January 2011, about building a space in Miami.
I was very honest in one of the larger group discussions, which incidentally, included our landlord, about my concerns about Miami Light Project’s ability to maintain our presence in a neighborhood we helped develop, specifically given the increases to rent and property value. When our lease is up in 10 years, what happens to our rent? We can’t afford what the market rate will become in the neighborhood that we will have helped to create. I believe that we can begin to answer all of these questions with the help of a collaborative relationship with Art Space.