Officials plan to stimulate art, economy

Officials say fostering arts, culture in Greater Lansing will foster tourism, create jobs

Despite a crumbling national economy, a state budget crisis, rising employment rates and recession, East Lansing and Lansing officials said they have a plan for recovery. Officials from Lansing, East Lansing and MSU unveiled their hope Tuesday evening to create local jobs and revenue by converting Greater Lansing into a Midwest regional arts and culture epicenter.

“This will contribute positively to the economy, to our quality of life and to the sense of place that motivates investment in the region,” Lori Mullins, community and economic development administrator, wrote in an e-mail.

The plan will emphasise arts and culture as a means to create jobs and attract tourists to the area.

Milwaukee-based planning firm Creative Community Builders devised the plan after a series of meetings with residents, city officials and experts.

The plan emphasizes adding room for arts and culture to existing projects to improve Greater Lansing.

One project mentioned was integrating ideas from the study into an existing plan to renovate the Michigan Avenue corridor or beginning smaller projects such as a community calendar or box office to centrally locate information about arts in Lansing, East Lansing and MSU.

“It does not go into great detail, ‘You will do this, you will do that,’” Creative Community Builders principal Tom Borrup said. “There are some starter, momentum builders, in the plan.”

Borrup said when he and his team of associates came to assess the area in May, he wasn’t sure whether Greater Lansing was a fertile place for creative development. But he found a place with resources and activity to foster cultural growth.

“It was pretty quick, we started to pick up on the fact that there were all of these things going on, but they needed to be stitched together in a better way,” Borrup said.

Borrups’ company suggested Lansing, East Lansing and MSU should work more closely as cultural entities to support artists and growth. Some of the suggestions included making a more artist friendly community and using the arts as a way to attract visitors to Greater Lansing.

Through focus groups, resident surveys, case studies and public meetings, he discovered a high volume of young professionals and an infrastructure that supported more arts.

Borrup and his company did research about trends locally and nationwide. He found that a younger crowd is moving into Greater Lansing and is looking for more opportunities to engage in cultural experiences. Borrup also found that more people were listing themselves as self-employed through the arts.

“While the economy has shrunk overall, there is a counter trend in the creative sector,” he said.

Funding for the improvements will come on a project to project basis, with each one being a part of the larger picture to stimulate artistic and cultural development.

Officials plan to partner with private entities and seek grants to fund the projects.

“Some of (the projects) are short term and can be done very quickly,” said Ginny Haas, MSU director of Community Relations. “Some of them are long term.”

Associate professor in the Department of Sociology and MSU Extension Toby Ten Eyck has done research in various parts of Lansing to see how an active art culture can affect a community.

Ten Eyck said it’s not necessarily about supporting artists by buying art, but often by attending art shows, being patrons of the community and engaging in new ways of thinking.

Adding art and culture to a community makes people more attracted to living and working there, Haas said.

“One of the things that people are talking about is developing areas that really have a sense of place,” she said. “They’re especially places that people really want to be in.”

Holt resident Heather Lydon, who participated Monday in a drawin class in Old Town’s Studio 1210, said art is inviting to visitors.

“Artists put murals on the walls because when they see art instead of an empty storefront, people don’t get scared and they keep shopping,” she said. “When they see an empty storefront, it sort of discourages them.”

Borrup said Lansing’s Old Town — formerly just another dilapidated section of
the city with 90 percent of storefronts empty — has made a name of itself as
a success story of how nurturing arts and culture can revitalize the local economy.

Since the rebuilding effort began, Old Town has come back to life and 95 percent of storefronts are filled.

Time will tell if the plan officials unveiled Tuesday will yield similar results for Greater Lansing.

“It will foster opportunities to make this place more than just the Capitol or Michigan State University Spartans,” Ten Eyck said. “We want to make people interested in new ways of thinking.”