Urban arts for creative placemaking
 ‘ArtPlace America’ believes that ‘Art’, culture and creativity
expressed powerfully through ‘Place’ can create vibrant communities,
thus increasing the desire and the economic opportunity for people to
thrive in ‘Place’. It is all about the ‘local’.
ArtPlace America is a collaboration of top national foundations, the
National Endowment for the Arts and various federal agencies to
accelerate Creative Placemaking across the United States. “Our idea is
that we will invest in art and culture as part of a portfolio of
strategies meant to transform communities,” says ArtPlace president
Carol Coletta.
In Creative Placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit,
and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social
character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and
cultural activities. Creative Placemaking animates public and private
spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business
viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to
celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.
Though the term ‘placemaking’ came into use from the 1970s, it was a
concept which would have been familiar to our ancient architects and
engineers, as they were aware of the dynamics of nature and culture when
they designed parks and waterfronts, temple grounds and hospitals. That
is how the new term ‘Urban Room’ has come into use to describe a public
space created to make the public feel it is a room in one’s own house.
This is achieved by ‘Public Art’ made to happen in public places.
 Luis Ubiñas, president of the Ford Foundation, wrote, “Art is not a
luxury; art is a precondition to success in a world increasingly driven
by creativity and innovation ... Investing in arts and cultural
institutions ... can be the economic equivalent of bringing a
manufacturing plant to a neighborhood and — from a cultural and
quality-of-life standpoint — more than surpass it.”
Man, nurtured by nature, has been the biggest destroyer of nature in
his ambition and greed for more and more wealth and power. He has been
destroying nature in the name of culture and civilization, replacing the
natural landscape with concrete, steel, asphalt and plastic. Even though
it may be too late to reverse the process of destruction, we have to
consider Creative Placemking as one huge step forward in the attempt to
restore the natural habitats and give back to Mother Earth an
opportunity to reclaim what truly belongs to her and all living things
dependent on her.
Nature is Creative Placemaking in real life. We are only making a
poor attempt to imitate, while destroying nature’s own placemaking all
the time.
One such ambitious venture is the ‘Lands for Free’ project by ‘Orange
Edge’, for the Cultural Capital Program 2010 of the Ruhr area. It deals
with vacant land on the Zweistromland between Emscher and Rhein Herne
Kanal that will be given to local and international settlers for free,
if they will use it in an entrepreneurial way. It is envisaged to be a
Utopia of a new city, “ developed as the implementation of individual
dreams of a lifetime, making it possible .....for an unintended city...
It connects economic, cultural and utopian potentials of a new city with
self-willed history and with urbanistic and scenic characteristics of
the Ruhr area.”
Stefanie Bremer and Henrik Sander are working “with artists like
Marcus and Andrea from stadtraum.org as well as with planning
departments and traffic planners to create a connection between
theoretical work and real life.”
It is wonderful to see Urban Art and Creative Placement at work in
Colombo, Sri Jayawardenapura and even Nuwara Eliya today making them
Greener Cities, taking us back to the past glory of ancient
Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. If we accept the version in our
ancient chronicles and even Paranavitane’s view, the garden complex at
Sigiriya may not have been for the pleasure of the public. If we accept
Raja de Silva’s view, that it was a monastery complex, then the gardens
would have been created for the eyes and minds of the many thousand
bhikkhus and the visitors.
It is time for the private sector to get involved, and make their own
contributions for Creative Placement in Sri Lanka. It is time for our
universities to get in to the act, and professionals from the fields of
economics, engineering, architecture, archaeology and ecology to pool
their knowledge and resources to make Creative Placemaking a reality on
a wider front.
To get anywhere near nature’s own creativity we have to rethink on
urbanization. We have to reverse urban migration, that a Big city cannot
bring back nature’s glory, however much we try. We have to think of
small settlements, but with all facilities for education and sharing
knowledge. Then healthcare and economy would not require special
attention or investment. Man will once again be part of nature and man’s
creativity will be a part of nature’s own creativity. We have to begin
with the vision that small is always beautiful, peaceful and healthy for
the mind and body. We have to accept that big is always ugly, evil and
unhealthy for mind and body.
We have to change our mindset that Art is for Art’s sake, that all
Art forms, painting, music, literature, drama and sculpture is only to
release the creative talents of the artistes and for the entertainment
of a few. Let the Arts come out now to be a greater service to the
community. It is time for Reformation or a Revolution towards a truly
eco-friendly world.
[email protected]
|
