ri190510 The sign on the bus: Metro features Uptown  

It was a sense of heart-crack (which is something of less emotional impact than heartbreak) that I felt when I saw the sign on the side of a Metro Bus yesterday featuring Uptown. It seemed to be promoting the virtues of my neighborhood based on the arts district designation achieved two years ago.

Arts district was an idea promoted by the city government one of the means to improve the overall economy of Seattle by tapping into the creative economy. It’s well-documented that the presence of art and cultural activities is a driver of consumer activities. Art and culture are – in the view of the city – lucrative and therefore should be promoted.

The sign on the side of the buses had images of arts and culture activities supposedly making Uptown (AKA Lower Queen Anne) a cultural center and a destination. One of the images was difficult to make out at first, but it turned out to be of a person’s hand pulling a squeegee. It referred to the VERA project, a mixed program of printmaking and music.

Also on the sign were the logos of contributing organizations and the Uptown Arts and Culture Coalition of which I was a part until 14 months ago. I left because I was out of money and out of time to participate. It became clear to me that I would get no support for my concept of an international print center incubators and work places.

The scales fell from my eyes when the committee agreed to focus on brand, and a logo, instead of sharing their combined forces to help me with my goal. Partway through the process I was accused of not helping others on the committee.

“When other people raise their ideas, you sort of leave the room,” my critic said.

It was not true. Most often I was silent because I had past experience with whatever it was that was on the table for discussion, but I could not say so lest I come off as a know-it-all, old man and arrogant professor-type. No one likes a smart ass, and old white men are often the worst offenders.

I was even compared with Donald Trump! Slights like these, the decision to give six months or a year to deciding branding and a logo design (provided free by students at Cornish), caused me to give up hope of getting support for a print center in Uptown.

One member on the committee was offended when I said, “Your group reminds me of someone who is more concerned with how they look, their clothing, their fashion, their makeup, than on items of real substance such as a physical center such as I propose.”

There, on the side of a bus, was the logo they worked a year to see made physical and real, and with it the hand of printer (a staged photo-op, probably). Yet were I to go this center – the VERA project, as I do many times of the week, it is empty. The reality is smoke and mirrors, not a full-time activity.

Crack!

Yet, I saw the sign because I was driving to an art supply store to get a set of carving knives and a picture frame for a real, ongoing activity. A woman from Africa is here to see how the creative economy can assist in her development of honey production. Our discussions are divided between business and printmaking.

So, in a way, I have my international print center incubators and work places, although not on the scale I’d hoped for.