Rust Belt to Artist Belt Reflection

So last week I attended the Rust Belt to Artist Belt Conference in Detroit. What a great experience! Just hearing people talk about what I'm trying to do was inspirational. Sometimes it can be frustrating being in a program where no one else does exactly what you do, at the same time I learn so much from my peers. This process of learning has made me think of the arts in a totally different way. 

So anywho, the discussions at this conference revolved around the role that artists and other creative practitioners have in revitalizing post industrial cities, specifically in Detroit since this was the setting of the conference. An interesting and important theme came up in several of the panel discussions that I went to: Detroit (or any other community) as a blank slate or frontier. This worries me. Through my research I have read a lot about outside artists coming into Detroit and other "shrinking" cities and doing artwork in communities without consulting anyone who lived nearby. This has generated both good and bad reactions from residents. Whether an artist's practice is solitary or participatory, in an urban or rural area, I think it is VERY important to remember that there are people already there. Those people may have lived there for 5 years or 40 years. They may be teenagers or elders. They have knowledge. They have skills. THEY ARE ASSETS. They probably care very much about where they live. Talk to them- we have much to learn from them. Ask them what is important to them. What they love or dislike about their community. Let them help if they want. Through this type of dialogue with a community, I think artists can empower people to think differently about the neighborhoods that they reside in and together come up with creative ideas to make them great places to live.