BRATTLEBORO — Now that “Brattleboro: An Atlas of Cultural Assets” has been published, what do the town's leading art organizations think of it?
Judging from the reactions at a May 13 meeting convened by the Brattleboro CoreArts project at the Latchis Theatre, the atlas - the first part of an National Endowment for the Arts-funded process - got a thumbs-up for its design and creativity and an emphatic thumbs-down for content.
A team of graduate students from the Conway School of Landscape Design - Willie Gregg, Olivia Loughrey, and Kim Smith - worked with the leaders of the Brattleboro CoreArts project - Kate Anderson, Zon Eastes, and Rod Francis - to create the glossy 58-page book, which can be found in digital form at bit.ly/10hT8jV,
At the May 13 meeting, the most common complaint heard at the 90-minute session was the the atlas overlooked their organization or failed to adequately cover their sector of the arts scene.
Danny Lichtenfeld, director of the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center, said he thought the atlas ignored his institution. “It seemed kind of shocking,” he said.
Natalie Blake of Fulcrum Arts was unhappy that the Cotton Mill - home to many artists and artisans, including her ceramics business - was overlooked. She called the atlas “a missed opportunity” that's “not representative of what's here.”
Arlene Distler, secretary of Write Action, was displeased that the atlas overemphasized the visual arts at the expense of writers.
And nearly all of the 15 people in attendance thought that calling the document an atlas was a misnomer, because of all the omissions.
“There's a real disconnect between what the name 'atlas' implies, versus the reality of the content,” said Lichtenfeld.
It was left to Arts Council of Windham County president Doug Cox and Francis, Eastes, and Anderson to explain what the atlas is, and isn't, and how the document fits in with the CoreArts process.
In June 2012, the Town of Brattleboro was awarded a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” grant to fund the Brattleboro CoreArts Project - an initiative that focuses on arts and place, and how both shape each other.
Eastes said the atlas represents the end of the first track of the CoreArts project and the data that was gathered will inform the next two tracks of the project. Still to come are community discussions to explore the topics and questions around the creation of a cultural district, and a peer-reviewed process to culminate in a public art piece or event.
Difference of opinion
If the consensus of those in attendance was that the atlas was a beautifully presented document that lacked depth, the consensus of Anderson, Eastes, and Francis was that the atlas was never meant to be comprehensive.
Francis said the atlas reflects the experiences and observations of the three graduate students from The Conway School of Design who worked on it. Using an outsider's perspective, they chose examples that were meant to be representative of different art sectors.
“It's their expression of what they found, backed up by sound research,” said Francis. “We lucked out by getting people with visual arts experience.”
Another important factor was that using the Conway School students gave the CoreArts project a professionally researched and prepared document for a quarter of the cost of hiring one consultant.
Francis said that early in the process, it became apparent that a comprehensive report “was beyond our reach,” but that realization also gave CoreArts and the Conway team more freedom to de-emphasize the idea of making a traditional A-to-Z list, and to emphasize other elements of the arts scene.
To Sandy Rouse, director of the Brattleboro Literary Festival, the Conway team “picked the things that piqued their interest, but bypassed the people who do the lion's share of the work in the arts.”
Lichtenfeld agreed: “The major forces at work in the arts in this area are not represented in this report,” he said. “It's disconcerting.”
It wasn't just the arts organizations that felt they got short-changed.
Jerry Goldberg, executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, said his office was never involved in the process and, as a result, a potential marketing opportunity was lost. He called the atlas “a curiosity,” rather than a resource.
Others pointed out a missed opportunity for a linkage between CoreArts and the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy (SeVEDS) group.
Cox said SeVEDS planned a focus group in June on the arts for specially invited guests.
But for all the complaints about who was in and who was out, there was considerable praise for the atlas as a work of art in its own right.
Becky Graber, founder and conductor of the Brattleboro Women's Chorus, said Brattleboro's art scene was like “a tangled-up bunch of yarn in a knitting basket” and that the Conway team “did a fantastic job pulling the threads” of the various arts sectors.
Litchenfeld said that, despite the omissions, “what's in here is well-presented. It's a fantastic read that's beautifully put together.”
Cox also pointed out that a companion document to the atlas has just been published by the Arts Council of Windham County and the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee.
The “Brattleboro Arts Compendium” lists all the arts organizations in town, and contact information for each of them. It will be updated regularly, and continuously updated at www.acwc.us and www.brattleboro.org.
The Arts Council also plans a potluck at the Elliot Street Café on Sunday, June 2, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., to discuss the atlas further. For more information, contact Cox at dcox@sover.net or 802-257-1024.