OUR
TOWN–
TUCSON
A STUDY
OF ONE
NATURALLY
OCCURRING
CULTURAL
DISTRICT
FINAL REPORT
ABOUT THE TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL
The Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that serves as the designated
arts agency for Tucson and Pima County. The mission of TPAC is to foster artistic expression, civic
participation and the economic growth of our diverse community by supporting, promoting, and
advocating for arts and culture.
TPAC efforts include:
• Supporting those arts organizations that enrich our lives and communities with quality public
programs and arts learning opportunities;
• Overseeing the Percent for Art Program, whose community-participation process has led to the
majority of public art installations in our region;
• Fostering arts initiatives that promote civic engagement;
• Hosting capacity-building workshops for artists and arts organizations;
• Working with government and community partners to advocate for the arts and to promote awareness
of the arts’ positive impact on our economy and quality of life.
Learn more about how TPAC serves to strengthen the arts in Southern Arizona by visiting
TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org
CONTENTS
SECTION 1 | OVERVIEW
Preface
Introduction
Purpose of the Report
Intended Audiences
Our Town–Tucson Project: Overview
Project Goals
Project Activities
Project Team
Background: The Cultural District and PLACE
Brief History: Historic Warehouse Arts District and
the Warehouse Arts Triangle
Brief History: The PLACE Initiative
How Our Town-Tucson Connects the Two
SECTION 2 | CREATIVE ASSETS
Profile of the Warehouse Arts District
The Creatives
The Art Spaces
The Audience: Engagement and Participation
The Surrounding Neighborhoods
SECTION 3 | CASE STUDIES
Community Connections
Why Understanding Networks is Important
A Closer Look at Three Hubs and Their Networks
Citizens Artist Collective
Raices Taller 222 Gallery and Workshop
Solar Culture Gallery and Studios
SECTION 4 | FINDINGS
3
FIGURE 15
13
FIGURE 16
FIGURE 17
FIGURE 18
FIGURE 19
22
FIGURE 20
FIGURE 21
FIGURE 22
FIGURE 23
FIGURE 24
27
30
Nurturing Tucson’s Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts
Localizing the Definition of Creative Place and Creative Placemaking
Developing Tucson-specific Indicators of Creative Placemaking
Cultivating and Supporting Keystone Artists and Arts Organizations
Strengthening Connections among Networks
Ensuring Affordable, Permanent Space
Replicating Process in Other NOCDs Along the Streetcar Line
Facilitating Partnerships for Programming
Using GIS Products and Data to Support Development and Policymaking
Working to Enact Incentives for Arts-related Development
CONCLUSION37
REFERENCES & WORKS CITED
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 11
FIGURE 12
FIGURE 13
FIGURE 14
Survey Limitations and Key Findings
The Warehouse Arts District is Stable and Artists are Surviving
Audiences Come to the District from All Over the City
Surrounding Neighborhoods are Changing, Which May Be Accelerated
by Changes in the District
There are Hundreds of Artists Connected to the District – But Not
Necessarily to Each Other
Each Arts Organization Has Many Ties to Organizations Outside
of the District
SECTION 5 | STRATEGIES
LIST OF FIGURES
39
FIGURE 25
FIGURE 26
INTERACTIVE WEB MAP
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN SIGN
WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT MAP
ARTIST CIVIC/ COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
GENERAL LOCATIONS AND PRIMARY DISCIPLINES OF
ARTIST SURVEY RESPONDENTS
LENGTH OF TIME IN CURRENT STUDIO SPACE
LENGTH OF TIME IN WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT
STUDIO SPACE SIZE AND COST
COMPARISON OF DISTRICT ARTSPACES/ ARTS USES
2004 & 2012
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY AGE
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY GENDER
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY EDUCATION
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY ZIP CODE
AUDIENCE INCOME LEVEL COMPARED TO AVERAGE
BY ZIP CODE
BA/BS (MINIMUM) AIDOENCE COMPARED TO
POPULATION BY ZIP CODE
AVERAGE AMOUNT SPENT ON ARTS PARTICIPATION
IN THE DISTRICT
NEIGHBORHOOD WALKABILITY (SOURCE:
WALKSCORE.COM)
TRANSPORTATION USAGE BY NEIGHBORHOOD
(SOURCE: US CENSUS BUREAU, 2010)
SOCIAL NETWORK MAP: CONNECTIONS AMONG
ARTISTS AND HUBS, 2012
SOCIAL NETWORK MAP, HUB CONNECTIONS TO
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, 2012
NORTH AMERICAN EXHIBITION AND PUBLIC
ARTWORKS, SELECTED CITIZENS ARTIST COLLECTIVE
MEMBERS, 2003-2013
LOCATIONS OF RAICES TALLER COLLABORATING
ORGANIZATIONS, 2009-2013
LOCATIONS OF RAICES TALLER COLLABORATING
ORGANIZATIONS, 2009-2013
CITY OF ORIGIN, PERFORMERS PLAYING AT SOLAR
CULTURE, 2009-2013
CITY OF ORIGIN, PERFORMERS PLAYING AT SOLAR
CULTURE, NORTH AMERICAN LOCATIONS, 20092013
NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICTS
ALONG MODERN STREETCAR ROUTE
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 1
TABLE 2
TABLE 3
TABLE 4
TABLE 5
TABLE 6
TABLE 7
TABLE 8
ARTISTIC DISCIPLINES OF ARTIST SURVEY
RESPONDENTS
WORK SHOWN AND SUPPORTED
SUMMARIZED RESPONSES TO “WHAT WOULD HELP
GROW YOUR ARTISTIC OR CREATIVE BUSINESS?”
ARTSPACES 2004 AND 2012
2004 ARTIST SURVEY RESPONSES
MOST KNOWN AND MOST VISITED ARTSPACES
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND MEDIAN HOME
VALUE
NATIONAL CREATIVE PLACEMAKING INDICATORS
1
SECTION
OVERVIEW
PREFACE
DEAR READER,
The poet and essayist Alison Hawthorne Deming states, in
writing about Tucson for the Pima Cultural Plan, “The desert
sets the tone for our city and region. The mountains that
surround the city give a feeling of refuge to our hectic lives.”
She goes on to describe the rich and diverse expressive life that
makes Tucson distinctive, saying, “Tucson and Pima County
have grown a cultural and artistic life that brings meaning,
beauty and surprise into the lives of its residents and visitors.”
An important site where one encounters the artistic making of
“meaning, beauty and surprise” is Tucson’s historic Warehouse
Arts District. This Our Town–Tucson document reports on the
efforts to make visible the invisible cultural assets within the
Warehouse Arts District. It builds on the work of the Tucson
Pima Arts Council (TPAC) in the area of community cultural
development and on recommendations made in the Pima
Cultural Plan, specifically, “to preserve and develop the
Warehouse District as an enclave for artists’ studios, galleries
and other cultural businesses that anchors a vibrant mixed-use
area within the City of Tucson’s core.”
To this end, TPAC was successful in receiving a National
Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” grant that allowed it to do
the following: conduct a mapping of the district’s cultural assets
that gathered information about the economic, real estate,
and social impact of arts and cultural activity in this area; and
launch a visibility campaign that is working to improve public
awareness of the district’s cultural assets, as well as strengthen
the district’s identity.
Our Town–Tucson fits within TPAC efforts to support
placemaking activities in our region. In the national discussion,
the conversation and actions associated with placemaking
often become caged in an understanding of “place” as the built
environment. It is that but to understand placemaking solely
in terms of the built environment misses the complete picture.
We assert that before you have places of belonging you must
feel you belong—to a community, a locale or a place, like the
Warehouse Arts District.
In my readings about cities and urbanism, the phrase
“place desert” has come to characterize the kinds of urban
environments that Fred Kent, President of Project for Public
Spaces, aptly describes: “There are far too many neighborhoods
(and even whole cities) these days that have no places for
people to go to meet, socialize, and enjoy each other’s company.
Without these spaces, actual communities cannot form.” This
is not the case with the Warehouse Arts District. Within the
District, through art practices and social activities, one engages
with personal memories, cultural histories, imagination and
feelings that enliven a sense of belonging to this hive of creative
movements.
In this report, you will gain a deeper understanding of the
vibrancy within the district where artists and creatives work,
play, innovate and form community—where the social practice
of being together feeds the aesthetics and ethics of an urban
commons and shapes the civic life of a livable city.
– Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director
6 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
(This page) Artists at work on
panels on Toole Avenue, the
main artwalk in the Warehouse
Arts District. These panels were
the first of a rotating outdoor art
exhibition along Toole Avenue,
curated by district artists. (Photo
by Patrick McArdle.)
Performance during Toole Avenue
Artwalk. (Photo by Patrick Cobb.)
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild cuts
the ribbon at Xerocraft maker
space, in the Steinfeld Warehouse
Community Arts Center. (Photo by
Jeremy Briddle.)
(Opposite page) A patron at
BICAS holds the Warehouse Arts
District sign that will mark the
Citizens Warehouse. (Photo by
Sally Krommes.)
INTRODUCTION
This report documents one grant project. It tells the story of
one small area of one medium-sized city at one point in time.
The research described isn’t groundbreaking—and yet this
document is worth a read, because the story told is one that is
relevant to many communities.
Under the umbrella of creative placemaking, cities of all sizes
are searching for ways to use arts and culture to do a variety
of things: make their communities more livable, enhance the
quality of life, create a distinct sense of place, animate public
and private spaces, rejuvenate neighborhoods, and revitalize
downtowns and local economies.
According to experts, “In creative placemaking, partners from
public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically
shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood,
town, tribe, city, or region around arts and cultural activities”
(Markusen and Gadwa, 2010, emphasis added).
However, in one small area of one medium-sized city,
artists have occupied derelict warehouses informally and
extemporaneously—and in the process have made their
community more livable, enhanced the quality of life,
animated public and private spaces, and helped to revitalize
downtown. This, too, is creative placemaking, of the type
that happens in many neighborhoods and communities—not
strategic but naturally occurring.
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
This report describes the results of the Our Town–Tucson
project, conducted from July 2011 to December 2013 by the
Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) with community partners. It
describes the conditions under which one naturally occurring
cultural district­—the Warehouse Arts District— emerged in
Tucson, its current state, its prospect for the future, and the
lessons it can provide in how to best support such districts.
The report is divided into five sections:
Section 1, Overview, provides background information
on the project. Our Town–Tucson Project: Overview is a
synopsis of the project goals, the three processes that
were used to gather information and the three artifacts—
beyond this report—that were produced as a result.
Background: The Cultural District and PLACE, gives
contextual information for the project. It begins with a look
at the history of the geographic area that is the focus of the
project, delves into the knotty problem of naming an area
that is mutable, and ends with a consideration of how the
project connects to and furthers a central initiative of the
Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC).
Section 2, Creative Assets, presents a profile of the
Warehouse Arts District. It describes the results of artist
and audience surveys and the spatial data collected on
the district and its surrounding neighborhoods. These data
provide a snapshot of the health and vitality of the district,
as well as some insight into the challenges faced by artists,
arts organizations, and creative businesses as they work to
sustain and grow this slice of Tucson.
major artistic hubs within the district to examine how the
district functions as a social system. Although the case
studies are qualitative in nature, network analysis concepts
of centrality, mutuality, and structural holes are considered,
as a foundation for considering ways arts service
organizations can best support districts.
In the fourth section, Findings, attention is turned to what
the data may mean. The fifth and final section, Strategies,
gives recommendations on the best ways to use the work
done in this preliminary study.
INTENDED AUDIENCES
This report is for placemakers, both formal and informal.
Cultural district leaders (artists, staff of arts organizations,
owners of creative enterprises): Cultural district leaders
are the persons who work to help a district thrive. These
individuals and groups form the core of a healthy district.
These findings present ideas about ways to honor and
preserve organic growth while increasing capacity for
creativity, innovation, and sustainability.
Neighborhood activists and community developers: Most
cultural districts lie within or adjacent to neighborhoods
and therefore impact residents’ quality of life. This report
provides ideas for how working with artists might help to
meet neighborhood goals and ways to track neighborhood
changes.
Elected officials and public agency directors (planning,
economic development, community development): As the
concept of creative placemaking has spread, elected officials
are often called upon to lead community efforts, and public
agency directors are called upon to make it happen. This
document provides a look at an alternative to a top-down,
engineered arts and cultural district.
Foundation program officers and trustees: Foundations
fund formal creative placemaking. This report provides food
for thought on how and why funders might support informal
processes as well.
(Oppostie page) A participants at BICAS, in the
Citizens Warehouse, shows of one ot the signs used to
mark historic warehouses—and increase the visibility
of the district.
The third section, Case Studies, describes the community
connections, relationships and networks of three of the
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 7
OUR TOWN–TUCSON:OVERVIEW
PROJECT GOALS
A collaboration of TPAC, the Warehouse Arts Management
Organization, and the University of Arizona, the Our Town–
Tucson project was primarily a qualitative study of the cultural
vitality and economic health of the Historic Warehouse
Arts District, the Warehouse Arts Triangle, and surrounding
neighborhoods. The goals were to: (1) describe the district
and (2) develop a framework to illuminate the impact of the
arts within it. The project built upon TPAC’s work with the
University of Pennsylvania Social Impact of the Arts Project
in which strategies for documenting civic engagement were
developed.
Data were collected and analyzed to: (a) gain a better sense
of the economic and social realities of artists and creatives in
the district; (b) document the links among artists, creatives,
and the entities with which they collaborate; (c) assess
changes in the district over time; and (d) begin to evaluate
the social and economic value of the district as a whole.
This project is the initial phase of a broader study that will
take place along a four-mile-long modern streetcar line that is
under construction.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
PROCESSES & PRODUCTS
Three interrelated data collection and analysis processes
were completed to support the development of a rudimentary
system for examining social impact:
1. Cultural asset mapping/inventory
• Listing of artspaces, arts organizations, and
creative businesses, and count of artists;
• Survey of artists, arts organizations, and creative
businesses in the district;
• Survey of audience participation.
2. Gathering and analyzing spatial data
• Changes in building usage since the 2004
Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District Master
Plan;
• Economic and demographic profiles of
surrounding neighborhoods.
3. Mapping and analyzing social networks of three
organizations’ connections to others in the district, to the
wider community, and beyond Tucson.
Three corollary products were developed: (1) a
comprehensive geodatabase of creative industries in the
Warehouse Arts District; (2) an interactive web map; and
(3) a Warehouse Arts District awareness/identity/branding
campaign. A description of each follows the process outline
below.
PROCESS 1: CULTURAL ASSET MAPPING/INVENTORY
The primary motivation for the Our Town–Tucson project was
to catalog all of the activity going on in the Warehouse Arts
District and develop a baseline level of understanding of the
economic and cultural impacts it has on the community.
Cultural asset mapping has become a popular tool in
urban planning and development, highlighting key cultural
resources that aid in regional development and the ways
interactions between creative industries, local governments,
neighborhoods, and businesses shape communities. The
questions this project addressed through cultural asset
mapping include:
•
•
•
Who is making art? Where is it being made?
Who is engaging with art and artists in the Warehouse
Arts District?
Are there measurable indicators that provide insight into
the economic and social impacts of artistic and cultural
activity?
PROCESS 2: GATHERING AND ANALYZING SPATIAL DATA
A critical aspect of this project was the use of spatial data to
understand changes that have occurred in the district over
the past decade as the area has become more integrated
and connected with metropolitan Tucson. The spatial data
collected for this project builds on earlier studies that have
guided development in the Warehouse Arts District, including
the Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District Plan (2004), the
Downtown Infrastructure Study (2008), Downtown Urban
Design Plan (2008), and the Downtown Links Land Use and
Urban Design Plan (2010).
Spatial and demographic data on neighborhoods adjoining
the Warehouse Arts District were also collected. Demographic
data were compiled from the US Census Bureau (2000,
2010, as well as 2012 updates) and the 2007–2011
American Community Survey. ESRI Business Analyst was
very helpful in extracting statistics about neighborhoods and
Zip Code areas, based on polygons provided by the City of
Tucson’s GIS database.
PROCESS 3: MAPPING AND ANALYZING SOCIAL
NETWORKS
To delve a little deeper into whether and how the people
making art were working together, the project team selected
three organizations to do more in-depth case studies of
connections. These case studies involved creating an
elementary picture of connections—that is, with whom each
organization had ties, and, as importantly, with whom they
did not. Visualizing patterns of how individuals and groups
affiliate, communicate, and connect aids in the discovery of
how naturally occurring networks interact as collective units
and as parts of a greater whole.
PRODUCT 1: GEODATABASE
The geospatial data storage framework for the project
contains spatial data of the metropolitan Tucson area. It
was designed as a central repository for project-spatial data
storage and management.
The spatial data for the geodatabase was processed and
organized in steps. The first step was to build a base map
of central Tucson. The map data sets primarily consisted of
physical features of the area, including roads, parcel data,
and parks and green spaces. Other necessary layers included
zoning, land ownership, and aerial imagery. Most of the initial
8 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
base map data was obtained from
GIS layers owned and maintained
by the City of Tucson and/or Pima
County. Aerial imagery was supplied
by ESRI Global Imagery. Once the
project completed the process of
cultural asset mapping, data layers
were created to represent the
creative industries in the Warehouse
Arts District. This was accomplished
by using historic maps of the
region, aerial imagery, and physical
inventories/ground-truthing for
spatial accuracy.
FIGURE 1. INTERACTIVE WEB MAP
PRODUCT 2: INTERACTIVE
WEB MAP
Currently in its final construction
phase, the interactive web-based
map highlights the public art
and artistic/cultural attractions
in central Tucson and along the
Modern Streetcar line. The primary
objectives for the development
of this tool included making
information and locations about
public art pieces in central Tucson more available, increasing
public awareness about art and cultural attractions, and
creating a template for additional sites along the Tucson
Modern Streetcar route.
Several cities with arts districts around the US have online
maps to highlight art and cultural activity. Using examples
from such cities as Seattle, Portland, and Boston, the design
team collected spatial data from the TPAC database, the City
of Tucson, and on-site data collection. Several platforms were
looked at to create the web-based map. The team ultimately
decided on ESRI ArcGIS Online because it offered: (a)
existing base maps of the Tucson region; (b) design flexibility
and straightforward management of data and accessibility;
and (c) ease of data maintenance.
As the screen shot in Figure 1 indicates, map users can
examine Tucson’s attractions from either a regional or
categorical approach. For example, visitors to the “South
of Congress” area can easily zoom in on that area on the
map and see the public art and attractions available, while
other viewers wishing only to see a specific type of attraction
can turn layers on and off as required. The map is built at
different scales so that viewers will see more attractions as
they zoom in, and each item is “clickable,” in that, once
clicked, detailed information about the attraction along with a
current photo appears on the screen. Created by University of
Arizona School of Geography graduate students, this webbased map is currently hosted on the TPAC website. Plans
are currently in the works to make this map into a mobilefriendly application that will allow viewers to access this
information from smart phones and tablets.
PRODUCT 3: WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Because the Warehouse Arts District is naturally occurring,
the artists within the district know it is there, but many
outside the area are not aware of the connectivity. No “there”
FIGURE 2. AWARENESS CAMPAIGN SIGN
existed—that is, a distinct
sense of place was lacking.
A campaign was designed to
increase visibility of the spaces
where artists are and arts industry is
taking place. Signs were installed that
are visible to people driving, biking, and
walking through the community.
Process of Development. Meeting with district
property owners, an inventory of the properties
was completed, and signage for increasing identity/
branding was developed by artists Bill Mackey, Rand
Carlson, and Randy Harris.
The awareness campaign has two features: one is a unique
website, warehouseartsdistrict.com, that serves as a guide
for tourists or visitors from other parts of the city. Each
participating creative space will have its own web page.
The web page features the current use of the creative
space with an exterior photo, a brief narrative and a link to
the activities within the space. The signs have a QR code to
link visitors with smart phones to the web pages.
Close to 60 signs were installed within the Warehouse
Arts District. The design concept for the signs (Figure
2) was reviewed and approved by the Plans Review
Subcommittee of the Tucson-Pima County Historical
Commission. The signs are offered free, and no permit is
required for installation. The project received approval in
April 2013 from the Historic Preservation Office and the
City of Tucson, and sign installation and the website were
launched in June 2013.
As part of the project activities, TPAC sponsored an
inaugural event, the Toole Avenue Art Walk (TAART),
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 9
that was organized by the Warehouse Arts Management
Organization. TAART was a self-guided tour along the avenue
that is the southern boundary—and the backbone—of the
Warehouse Arts District. The event brought hundreds of
art lovers to the area where the new signs were unveiled.
Interactions with the visitors dropping by the event booth
revealed a positive response to the signs by many who
had not considered the area as a complete district before.
Placemaking activities included mural painting and tile
making activities, sculptural installations, video installations,
music performances, and open studios along the avenue.
TPAC’s support addressed needs identified by artists in
the artist survey, including more organized arts events and
advertising and promotion. It also put into practice three
of the strategies discussed in the Strategies section (page
30): cultivating and supporting keystone artists and arts
organizations, strengthening connections among networks,
and facilitating partnerships for programming.
TOOLE AVENUE: BACKBONE OF THE DISTRICT
The TAART Walk took place along the avenue that is the
southern boundary—and the backbone—of the Warehouse
Arts District. On its eastern end is a framework in which 4 x
6 foot panels with artwork can be placed, providing a space
for the temporary exhibition of art.
(Clockwise from top) Artist paints new panel, next to a work by
visiting artist Faviana Rodriguez. Susan Gamble, of Santa Therea
Tileworks, helping participants paint tiles that will be used on
planters along Toole Avenue. Alfred Quiroz at work on the community
mural. Cirque Roots performers outside YAYBIG Gallery. (Photos by
Patrick Cobb and Sally Krommes).
For the TAART Walk, TPAC donated a special mural to the
site, created by California artist Favianna Rodriquez during
a visit to Tucson for a CultureStr/ke. The mural image of a
butterfly was created to honor the 2006 nationwide rallies
supporting immigrant rights that included hundreds of
thousands of immigrants and their allies. The demands
of these mobilizations included legalization, an end to the
deportations, and dignity for the millions of undocumented
workers presently in the United States.
TPAC also supported a participatory art project. Alfred and
Marcia Quiroz designed and led a mural making activity,
inviting passers-by to help to paint one of the panels on the
art walk. Mr. Quiroz is a nationally recognized visual artist
and educator.
10 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
PROJECT TEAM
Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director, Tucson Pima Arts
Council. Mr. Bedoya has served as the Executive Director
of the Tucson Pima Arts Council since November 2006.
He is also a writer and arts consultant who works in the
area of support systems for artists. As an arts consultant he
has worked on projects for the Creative Capital Foundation
and the Arizona Commission on the Arts (Creative Capital’s
State Research Project); The Ford Foundation (Mapping
Native American Cultural Policy); The Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations (Creative Practice in the 21st Century); and The
Urban Institute (Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support
Structure for US Artists and the Arts and Culture Indicators in
Community Building Project).
He is the author of US Cultural Policy: Its Politics of
Participation, Its Creative Potential; The Color Line; and
US Cultural Policy: An Essay with Dialogue and Creative
Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-belonging.
As a public speaker he has given presentations on the topics
of Creative Placemaking and Cultural Equity at NetFest,
New Orleans; Arizona State University’s The Pave Program
in Arts Entrepreneurship, Phoenix; the Washington State
Arts Alliance Cultural Congress, Seattle; Station North Arts
& Entertainment District’s The Artists and Neighborhood
Change Conference, Baltimore; and Creative Time’s Creative
Summit 2013, NYC.
He is on the Executive Committee of the Americans for the
Arts’ United States Urban Arts Federation and is a board
member of the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture.
Mr. Bedoya has been a Rockefeller Fellow at New York
University and a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research
Institute in Los Angeles.
Rex Gulbranson, Our Town Project Manager, Tucson Pima
Arts Council. Overall coordination of Our Town–Tucson
was managed by Mr. Gulbranson, an arts consultant from
Phoenix. He formerly held positions administering arts and
cultural programs for the cities of Glendale and Tempe,
Arizona, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the state
arts agency. He currently serves as a board member of the
Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission and as an advisory
board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Tucson.
Elizabeth Burden, Artist and Past President, Warehouse
Arts Management Organization. The artist and audience
surveys and the case studies were coordinated by Ms.
Burden. For 25 years, Ms. Burden has worked with
community-based organizations as a staff person and as a
consultant; she has worked with and in a diverse range of
organizations, in the arts, media, and health and human
services, doing program planning and evaluation. She is also
a visual and media artist with a studio in the Tucson Historic
Warehouse Arts District. She received a BFA in studio art
from the University of Arizona and a BA in journalism from
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Caroline Patrick-Birdwell, Lead Spatial Analysis Intern
and Geodatabase Developer. A recent graduate of the
University of Arizona’s Geographic Information Systems
Technology master’s program, Ms. Patrick-Birdwell oversaw
the data collection process and the production of maps
and graphics for the cultural asset mapping analysis. Ms.
Patrick-Birdwell has worked in the fields of higher education
and with local nonprofit organizations in the environmental/
conservation sector and currently consults on GIS and urban
environmental projects through her company, Happy Desert.
Erik Glenn. Mr. Glenn developed the web-based map tool
of public art and cultural attractions in central Tucson. He
is a Senior GIS Analyst with the Pima County Information
Technology Department, Special Projects Division. In this
position, he provides geospatial analysis, mapping, and data
support services for a variety of Pima County departments.
He holds an MS in Geographic Information Systems
Technology and an MA in geography, both from the University
of Arizona.
Bill Mackey, Architect/Artist. Mr. Mackey served as lead
consultant for the district awareness campaign. He is a
principal of Worker, Inc., a firm specializing in art and
architecture. The “work” explores human connections
to the built environments and bridges the theory and
practice of social sciences, planning, architecture, and art.
Engagement simultaneously includes public, academic,
and professional fields. Prior to Worker, Inc., he was the
Architect-in-Residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Tucson and practiced architecture with BWS Architects,
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, and Rob Paulus Architects.
He has received grants from the Graham Foundation for
Advanced Studies in Fine Arts, the Kresge Foundation, and
the Tucson Pima Arts Council. His architectural design work
has received local and regional design awards.
Mr. Mackey has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of
Architecture, the Honors College, and the Department of
Geography and Regional Development at the University of
Arizona (UA) since 2006.
Rand Carlson, Artist and President, Warehouse Arts
Management Organization. Mr. Carlson served as a
consultant for the district awareness campaign. A UA
graduate in philosophy, he is a multimedia artist in the
Citizens Warehouse and a Warehouse Arts Management
Organization board member. He also serves on the Pima
County Public Art Review Committee. For over 25 years he
has been a political cartoonist for the Tucson Weekly.
Alec Laughlin, Artist and Past President, Warehouse
Arts Management Organization. Mr. Laughlin served on
the awareness campaign team, developing the website
warehouseartsdistrict.com. He is a painter, photographer,
designer, and educator. His studio is in the Citizens
Warehouse, which he moved into in January 2011. In 2012,
he was elected President of the Citizens Artist Collective and
of the Warehouse Arts Management Organization.
Sally Krommes, Artist and TPAC Public Art Coordinator. Ms.
Krommes assisted with a variety of components throughout
the project, including research for mapping the cultural
resources and developing the survey tools, management
support to the awareness campaign team and wrap-up of
the final documents. She facilitates TPAC’s Percent for Art
Program for Pima County and Tucson. She has a master’s
degree in urban planning and serves on the WAMO Board.
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 11
BACKGROUND: THE CULTURAL
DISTRICT AND PLACE
BRIEF HISTORY:
THE HISTORIC
WAREHOUSE ARTS
DISTRICT AND THE
WAREHOUSE ARTS
TRIANGLE
The Tucson Historic
Warehouse Arts District and
the Warehouse Arts Triangle
are two somewhat fictive
places; they do not yet exist
on any official map. The
Warehouse Arts District is
a phrase that defines the
spirit and the sense of a
place as much as it does
a geographical area. The
Warehouse Arts Triangle is
a designation that seeks to
carve out a cohesive area for
arts-centered development
among competing visions for
transit-oriented development
along a new modern
streetcar line. The genesis
of both phrases—and the
history of the area that they
describe—are presented
below.
FIGURE 3. WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT MAP
The Tucson Historic Warehouse District (without the word
arts) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1999. The Warehouse District was once the hub of Tucson’s
commercial life:
The warehouse district, as it developed between the
turn of the century and the 1940s, has its own distinct
character that sets it apart from the surrounding retail,
office, and residential areas. During the first half of
this century, the warehouse district was the primary
distribution center of goods for not only Tucson but for
southern Arizona, as well. Thus the district contained
core railroad buildings and structures, warehouses
for wholesalers and freight companies, light industrial
facilities for manufacturing and food processing, and
early automotive showrooms and garages – all focused
on the railroad, which in that era was the prime mover
of goods in and out of the region. Architecturally, the
district is visually coherent because the buildings that
housed these various functions share, for the most part,
common forms and a common scale (National Register
of Historic Places Registration Form, 1999).
Its neglect followed the decline of commerce and industry in
downtown Tucson:
Threaded along the Southern Pacific (now Union
Pacific) railroad tracks that slice diagonally across the
city’s downtown, the warehouses tell a story of the
Tucson that once was. There were food depots, lumber
yards, icehouses, a bottling plant, and big commercial
dry cleaners. By the 1970s, though, times had changed.
Businesses followed their customers to the edges of the
exploding city. Others burned. The neighborhood started
a downward slide (Reagan, 1999).
That decline brought opportunity for artists to occupy, as
in many other urban areas, inexpensive, derelict spaces.
Beginning in the late 1980s, artists began building a
community of performers and presenters in the Warehouse
District – and an arts district began to emerge, organically.
The early “pioneer” artists and arts organizations were among
the most culturally defining for Tucson, producing artworks,
happenings, and events that are synonymous with Tucson.
According to the Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District
Master Plan:
[There was an] incremental transformation of a
downtown railroad warehouse district into a thriving
production arts district. Artists first became interested in
this area in the late 1980s after the Arizona Department
of Transportation acquired many warehouse properties
for demolition to build a railroad-aligned state highway.
The highway was never built, but the state temporarily
made the properties available to artists at very low lease
rates. In these historic but neglected buildings, artists
found an inexpensive and functional place to work, and
the district grew… (Poster, 2004).
12 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
The Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District Master Plan
was the product of an intensive community planning effort
in downtown Tucson in 2003 and 2004. The plan grew
out of the existing community of artists, arts organizations,
and public officials who were interested in preserving the
warehouses and sustaining the artists. The plan’s goal was
to develop the district as a center for incubation, production,
and exhibition of the arts, with artists at its heart. The plan
sub-goals included: mixed-use, diversity, realistic economics,
sustainability, neighborliness, historic preservation, safety,
conversion of surface parking lots to compatible arts-related
uses, pedestrian and bicycle-friendliness, reduced passthrough automobile traffic, public parking, and resolution of
environmental problems (Poster, 2004).
It is important to note that the 2004 plan did not set district
boundaries; rather, it indicated a general area of arts
production located within and near the federally recognized
Tucson Historic Warehouse District. The plan named and
thus gave birth to the arts district, which to that point had
been a liminal space in which artistic production had thrived
on the fringe/edge. The plan captured on paper a possible,
logical outcome to the years of “homesteading” that artists
had done in the warehouses and validated the notion that
both the historic buildings and the artistic production going
on within them were worth preserving.
would take down only a handful of buildings (Reagan,
1999).
The DLUCS study became Downtown Links, a “modest,
four-lane roadway north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks
that will connect Barraza-Aviation Parkway to 22nd Street
and I-10, offering an alternate access to downtown, plus
new underpass with the Union Pacific railroad” (City of
Tucson). By 2010, plans for the roadway were finalized, the
Arizona Department of Transportation began auctioning the
warehouses that were no longer needed for the right-of-way,
and a new threat to the arts district arose – gentrification.
Within the context of downtown revitalization this blighted
district has begun to emerge as an important piece of a larger
downtown development puzzle.
That leads us to the Warehouse Arts Triangle, a wishful
renaming of the Warehouse Triangle, which does exist on
some official documents. The Warehouse Triangle (sans arts)
is one sub-district within the Downtown Links District (DLD),
which is a new optional zoning district that is planned to
implement the recommendations of the Downtown Links Land
Use and Urban Design Plan, a companion document to the
above-mentioned Downtown Links roadway project. The DLD
sets up four sub-districts that give property owners alternative
zoning choices in order to:
Over the years, artists and arts organization have moved in
and out of the district. Occasionally a new space on the edge
of the district would be activated temporarily or permanently
enter into arts space resulting in fluctuating boundaries. What
has remained constant is that creative people have come
together in a concentrated area to produce art and provide
opportunities for the public to experience art, learn about
art, and make art, with nationally and internationally known
artists.
•
Over the past three decades, artistic production in the district
has been sustained through a variety of community-based
and grassroots efforts, against some very long odds. The
initial threats came, ironically, from the entity that created the
opening for artists to use the warehouses in the first place:
the State of Arizona.
•
•
•
carry forward the revitalization goals and objectives
of downtown, the adjacent neighborhoods, the
adjacent districts, and the various property owners and
stakeholders;
encourage sustainable infill development that supports
the creation of pedestrian- and transit-oriented urban
neighborhoods;
address barriers to infill development, such as
incompatible development standards and associated
development issues; and,
offer development incentives permitting a modification of
development regulations (Poster Frost Mirto, 2012).
The State of Arizona had planned to level much of it [the
warehouse district] for a six-lane elevated highway and
bury a large component of Tucson’s architectural and
industrial history.
The Warehouse Triangle overlay district is an area defined
by exclusion—that is, as a zoning area, by design it does not
overlap or include areas that are already covered by other
types of plans. It includes most of the National Register
Historic Warehouse District (except for the southern boundary
of Toole Avenue). Because of all of these intersections, some
local planners call the area the Warehouse Arts Triangle and
Historic District.
The Aviation Downtown Mile, as it was called, would
have demolished more than 30 buildings, including three
historic houses in El Presidio, one of the city’s oldest
neighborhoods. The Steinfeld Warehouse, a rambling
red-brick building famously used as art studios and
workshops for the last decade, would have been among
the victims. The highway would have created fast access
between the city’s shopping district and the Interstate,
entirely bypassing old downtown.
Although the names “Warehouse Arts District,” “Warehouse
Arts Triangle,” and “Warehouse Arts Triangle and Historic
District” are useful in terms of defining a roughly 13-block
area, they are also limiting. Like many naturally occurring
cultural districts, the one that is the focus of the Our Town–
Tucson project is as much a state of mind as it is a place;
its boundaries are often changing as incoming artists, arts
organizations, and creative businesses occupy spaces at the
outer edges, attracted by the center of activity.
There was strong opposition to the Downtown Mile.
By 1989, because of community protest, lawsuits and
escalating costs, the state ceded authority for the road.
The city, this time with a Citizens’ Advisory Committee,
got to work on a much less invasive plan, based on the
Downtown Land Use and Circulation Study (DLUCS) that
For this report, the area will be referred to as the Warehouse
Arts District; the study included artists and creative
businesses in the historic district in its entirety, all of the
Warehouse Triangle, and those in blocks adjacent to those
areas.
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 13
BRIEF HISTORY: THE PLACE INITIATIVE
PLACE is an acronym for People, Land, Arts, Culture, and
Engagement. This initiative of the Tucson Pima Arts Council
is designed to leverage resources and talent to plan and
implement community cultural development strategies. These
strategies could take the form of community arts practices
that incorporate placemaking, public art, cultural celebrations
and festivals, community events that include opportunities
for community engagement, civic dialogue, programs that
engage youth, traditional arts apprenticeships, heritage
practices, and other manifestations of “informal” arts.
The intention of the PLACE Initiative is also to expand, enrich,
and better understand the many forms that communitybased cultural practice can take. Established as a robust
re-granting and regional professional development program,
the initiative builds a platform for civic engagement in the
arts and supports projects that re-imagine cultural place and
practice through collaboration with organizations, artists,
and residents of the Sonoran desert region. PLACE focuses
especially on activities that involve partnerships addressing
systemic problems over an extended period of time. PLACE is
based upon the principle that arts and cultural activities are
essential to meaningful placemaking and the transformation
of shared spaces into vibrant and nurturing communities.
The PLACE Initiative and TPAC’s other community cultural
development activities further advance the identity and
distinctiveness of the region. The community cultural
development program is an outgrowth of the Pima Cultural
Plan (2008) for the region. The planning process engaged
hundreds of artists, arts organizations, and civic, political, and
business leaders. The ensuing iterative community dialogue
resulted in the plan’s focus on identity and distinctiveness.
One key recommendation was for TPAC to implement
the PLACE Initiative as a way to underscore the strong
regional ethos associated with cultural, civic, and ecological
stewardship.
PLACE funds are available to both individuals and groups,
including local artists, youth development organizations,
schools, historians, neighborhood and homeowner
organizations, community development agencies, social
service organizations, and arts and cultural organizations.
Grants range from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on the
scope of the proposed project. Interested individuals and
organizations submit a grant application that is reviewed by
a panel of community members and national experts in the
field of civic engagement practices; the most promising and
well-articulated projects are given funding priority. To date,
TPAC has made 53 PLACE grant awards, totaling nearly
$353,000.
HOW OUR TOWN–TUCSON
CONNECTS THE TWO
The Our Town–Tucson project focuses on a naturally
occurring cultural district in Tucson, Arizona, and documents
formal and informal, artist-led, community-based cultural
programming— both nonprofit and for-profit—that is
sustaining the district.
A naturally occurring cultural district (NOCD) can be
defined as a geographically and structurally cohesive hub of
creativity, cultivated by a diverse range of participants and
audiences over time (NOCD-NY, 2013). Such districts can
be distinguished from “those that result from large-scale,
planned investments—developments in which large-scale
private, and/or public flagship projects are focused on major
cultural institutions or entertainment facilities” (Borrup,
2011).
By their nature, such districts are self-organizing and
“fuse culture and community building with placemaking
and economic development” (Borrup, 2011). TPAC’s
Community Cultural Development programming cultivates
the distinctiveness and identity of the region by leveraging
local and national investment in civic engagement. Our
Town–Tucson complements the PLACE Initiative by providing
greater insight into and support for the interrelationship and
interdependency of cultural elements and their relationship to
urban planning, economic development and livability.
PLACE GRANTEES AND THE WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT
The Warehouse Arts District has provided incubation space
for unique placemaking organizations. Four of the 53 PLACE
grantees had spaces in the district at their beginning or early
in the life of the organization; BICAS still has space there,
in the Citizens Warehouse. The PLACE grantees that have a
history of connection with the district:
ALL SOULS PROCESSION, an independently produced,
hyper-inclusive, non-motorized, participant-based procession
and ceremony to honor those who have passed, presented by
the nonprofit organization Many Mouths One Stomach.
BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Art & Salvage) engaged in
Bridging Generations: Connecting Armory Park Seniors and
Youth through Art, a photography and oral history project
connecting seniors and youth in an exploration of history and
memory in the Armory Park Neighborhood.
KORE PRESS completed two projects, the Coming in Hot
Civil Discourse Project and The Listening Project, engaging
the public through performance and storytelling to help
raise awareness about women in the US military and bridge
cultural and generational gaps. (Steinfeld Warehouse)
PAN LEFT PRODUCTIONS, a nonprofit media arts collective,
had three PLACE projects: Community Media Project,
involving neighborhood associations and organizations to
provide media literacy and production courses for youth,
homeless people, and those living in poverty; Community
Media Education Project, creating youth-oriented courses in
media literacy and production focusing on under-represented
community voices; and Homeless Youth Project, a media arts
project using the voices of homeless youth and film to ignite
the people of Tucson to take action on the systemic causes of
children raising themselves on the streets of Tucson.
14 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
2
SECTION
CREATIVE
ASSETS
PROFILE OF THE
WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT
Although creatives have been working in the Warehouse Arts District for
decades, there have been few attemps to develop a formal, comprehensive
description of the artists, the spaces they occupy, or the audiences/arts
participants with whom they engage. Historical data and baseline data,
supplemented by observation and key informant interviews, were collected
and analyzed to complete a culture asset map/inventory and a spatial analysis
of the district.
TABLE 1. ARTISTIC DISCIPLINES
Discipline
THE CREATIVES
To answer the question of who is making art and where, the project team
first developed a list of all the art spaces, arts organizations, and creative
businesses in the Warehouse Arts District, using a variety of sources. Next,
the team created an extensive survey instrument; to aid the design process,
the Our Town–Tucson project team researched similar projects around the
United States, reviewed questions and outcomes from those project surveys,
and also partnered with the University of Arizona’s School of Geography
and Development. The survey questions fell into three basic categories: (1)
engagement in creative activities; (2) community engagement; and (3) creative
space location and use.
16
Theater
5
11
Media Arts
10
22
Literature
7
16
Visual Arts
26
58
Design
15
33
Folklife
7
16
11
14
Number
% of
Total
8
28
5
18
Museum or gallery exhibition
22
76
Work shown in an artspace
20
71
Work shown in pop-up gallery
or temporary artspace1
8
31
Artist in residence at a
school1
3
12
Workshop/class instruction at
community locations1
1
4
TPAC award/grant recipient2
9
17
Arizona Commission on the
Arts award/grant recipient2
3
23
NEA award/grant recipient2
3
23
Private foundation award/
grant recipient2
11
44
Public Art Commission1
Temporary public artwork
1
1
1
62% are members
of at least one
nonprofit group
16 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
7
Activity
The respondents worked in a diverse range of artistic disciplines. The majority
of respondents indicated they had a visual artist practice. Design was the
second largest discipline indicated. A summary is provided in Table 1.
61% give cash
contributions or
works of art for
charitable causes
Music
TABLE 2. WORK SHOWN & SUPPORTED
The survey asked “What is your creative discipline/art form?” and offered nine
categories in which to respond: (1) performing arts–dance; (2) performing
arts–music; (3)performing arts–theater; (4) media arts; (5) literature; (6) visual
arts; (7) design arts; (8) folklife/traditional arts; and (9) humanities. Each
category listed the major practices for the discipline (e.g., under performing
arts–dance, respondents could select from ballet, ethnics, jazz, modern, or
other); respondents were allowed to select as many disciplines and practices
as they felt were reflected in their own work.
41% volunteer
in the community
13
Equals more than 100 percent; respondents were
able to select more than one discipline
ARTISTIC DISCIPLINES
32% serve as
board members
to local nonprofit
organizations
6
1
The data snapshots in the tables and figures on the following pages
correspond to specific questions posed to Warehouse Arts District artists and
highlight the survey findings.
59% regularly
attend public
meetings
% of Total
Responses1
Dance
Humanities
Initially, the project team considered using respondent-driven sampling;
however, it was determined that the population to be surveyed—artists with
studio, work, or business space in the Warehouse Arts District —was not
hidden and could be mapped. Survey participants were recruited through
targeted emails and follow-up phone calls. The survey was administered via
the online survey tool LimeSurvey. At the onset of the project, the survey team
estimated a statistical universe of approximately 120 artists in the Warehouse
Arts District. Seventy-five individuals began the survey (62% of universe), and
45 (37.5% of universe) completed the survey.
FIGURE 4. ARTIST CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Number
In past 12 months
74% know
their neighbors
in the district
68% patronize
businesses in the
vicinity of the district
1
2
Ever received
ENGAGEMENT IN CREATIVE ACTIVITIES
This section of the survey examined the different ways artists
from the Warehouse Arts District engage with the communityat-large. The survey included questions about types of
exhibitions, collaborations with schools and community
organizations, and projects funded through local and national
grants and awards; results are summarized in Table 2. For
deeper analysis on this aspect of engagement, the Our Town–
Tucson project staff conducted a series of interviews with
three distinct arts organizations, the Citizens Artist Collective,
Raices Taller 222 Gallery and Workshop, and Solar Culture
Gallery and Studios. The results of these interviews are
discussed in the Case Studies section of the report.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Survey questions in this section asked each respondent about
ways they are involved in the community that fall outside
of their specific creative industry. Figure 4 summarizes the
responses from this section and indicates a highly engaged
group of individuals working in the Warehouse Arts District.
To use volunteer levels to exemplify this point, 41% of the
survey respondents indicated they regularly volunteer in the
community. The national average for volunteerism is 26.5%
(US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012).
NEEDED SUPPORT
In response to the question “What would help grow your
artistic or creative business in the district?”, artists indicated
several areas for support. These are summarized in Table 3.
KEY FINDING: THE WAREHOUSE ARTS
DISTRICT IS STABLE AND ARTISTS
ARE SURVIVING
TABLE 3. SUMMARIZED RESPONSES TO “WHAT WOULD HELP GROW YOUR ARTISTIC OR CREATIVE BUSINESS?”
Category
Responses
General
• A more unified and cohesive thriving arts district.
• More ways for artists to connect and support one another within the district.
• More interaction with other artists and surrounding businesses
Organized arts
events
• More events. Art walks and other things to bring people in. The art studio tour was good, many people go to other areas of town now
• More group activities like the block party
• A warehouse district arts walk of some kind with a host of artists and galleries open on the same day/evening.
• Organized events
• More community engagement
Street
improvements/
amenities
• Better street lighting, creating foot traffic
• Better infrastructure (esp. streetlights) to make people feel more welcome
• An open park/art area inspired by adobe, including trees, a sculpture garden and water harvesting, a true “zocalo”
• An attractive arts area, with ample parking, and lower rents
• All efforts to make people feel safe, invited and interested to come downtown
• Free, ample parking
• Facade revitalization
• Stylish outdoor signage
Advertising and
promotion
• Free advertising, a more public approach to bring the people in to the Arts District,
• Reaching a broader, more diverse audience.
• Better/more/public exposure
• Maybe some profiles of artists on PBS or KUAT
• Public media/awareness of the arts district
• More outreach to create awareness in community & southern AZ
• More reviews on artist and their studios, more activities focused on particular artists
• More awareness of the arts district from people outside of the downtown area
• Affordable group advertising.
Work/ studio space
• Having a permanent studio with no rent increases
• More space! Lower overhead costs and improved capacity to offer more programs
• Affordable studio space
• The district already has a good start with affordable studio space.
• Availability of high speed Internet
• Stopping rich business men from owning the buildings in the warehouse arts district unless they are promoting art/artists in general
Customers
• More students!
• More art sales & classes (with some help)
• Money & clientele
• More galleries and artists on my street who have “hours”
• A storefront
Artist Support
• Funding for our programing, projects
• Tax breaks, innovation grants
• Honest fair system - end all the insider trading that’s been going on the last 25 years
• Art jobs in the district, a la WPA
• More information on running an arts based business
• Participate in workshops for artists
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 17
THE ART SPACES
FIGURE 5. GENERAL LOCATIONS AND PRIMARY
DISCIPLINES OF ARTIST SURVEY RESPONDENTS
The artist survey was a useful tool in
verifying current activities and space usage
in the Warehouse Arts District. The map
in Figure 5 shows the general locations
of survey respondents and indicates their
primary creative medium.
SPACE USAGE AND
DISTRICT STABILITY
From the data gathered on space usage
and length of time in the Warehouse
Arts District, some interesting inferences
can be made about the area’s stability
as an arts district. First, the majority of
survey respondents have worked in the
Warehouse Arts District for three to seven
years, and an almost equal number
have had the same studio space for the
same time duration (Figures 6 and 7).
This information, in combination with the
fact that 62% of the survey respondents
are full-time artists (making their living
exclusively from their art), illustrates a
stable and thriving arts district.
FIGURE 7. ARTIST LENGTH OF TIME IN CURRENT SPACE
The survey also collected data on space ownership, size and cost: 93% of the
survey respondents rent their studio space. The average rental cost among
respondents was $404/month, and studio space size averaged 668 square feet
(Figure 8).
To gain additional insight, a spatial inventory was completed to determine current
space usage on a building-by-building basis. This inventory was then compared
to one prepared for the 2004 Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District Master
Plan. As Figure 9 indicates, although space usage has shifted somewhat, the
district has remained a stable location for creative industries.
FIGURE 6. ARTIST LENGTH OF
TIME IN DISTRICT
NA
3%
More than
10 years
24%
NA
3%
More than 10
years
16%
8-10 years
5%
Less than
1 year
21%
Long
Term
6-7 years
18%
Short
Term
Less than
1 year
10%
Short
Term
1-2 years
13%
Medium
Term
3-5 years
24%
1-2 years
13%
1500
SQ FT
FIGURE 8.
STUDIO SPACE
SIZE AND COST
Long
Term
COST PER MONTH
SPACE SIZE
$1025
Medium
Term
8-10 years
13%
668
SQ FT
3-5 years
24%
$404
6-7 years
13%
$86
18 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
150
SQ FT
LOW
HIGH
AVERAGE
FIGURE 9. COMPARISON OF DISTRICT ARTSPACES/ ARTS USES, 2004 AND 2012
PRIMARY SPACE USE
ARCHITECTURE OR
DESIGN
ARTS CREATION
ARTS PRESENTATION
ARTS-RELATED RETAIL
For Our Town–Tucson, an artspace is
defined as a physical space that is
used for arts/creative industry purposes
and that has more than one artist, arts
organization, or creative enterprise within
it.
2004
The space inventory indicates that the
number of buildings (and commensurate
square footage) in arts uses remained
relatively stable between 2004 and 2012,
and were consistent with the visions that
artists and other stakeholders expressed
in 2004 (summarized in Table 5).
TABLE 5. ARTISTS VISIONS FOR DISTRICT, 2004
2012
TABLE 4. ARTSPACES 2004 AND 2012
Address
2004
2012
119 E Toole Avenue
--
Dinnerware
174 E Toole Avenue
MOCA Concept
Pleasure World
439 N 6th Avenue
--
6th + 6th
529 N 7th Avenue
--
7th Avenue Arts District Studios
17 E Toole Avenue
Asto Fab
--
44 W 6th Street
Citizens Warehouse
Citizens Warehouse
520 N 9th Avenue
Lucky Street Studios/ Citizens Annex
Lucky Street Studios/ Citizens Annex
283 N Stone Avenue
--
Maker House
403 N 6th Avenue
--
Old Market Inn
218 E 6th Street
Wheat Scharf
Santa Theresa + Wheat Scharf
640 N Stone Avenue
--
Sculpture Resource Center
191 E Toole Avenue
MOCA
Skrappy’s
31 E Toole Avenue
Solar Culture
Solar Culture + The Arches
101 W 6th Street
Steinfeld Warehouse
Steinfeld Warehouse Community Arts
Center
197 E Toole Avenue
MOCA Toole Shed
Toole Shed Studios
516 N 5th Avenue
Muse
--
Item
N/ 57
%
Have mix of arts and non
arts businesses
33
58
Maintain incubation and
productioin
52
91
Create affordable live-work 57
spaces
100
Designate a “downtown”
and/or Warehouse Historic
Arts District
47
82
Reprogram underutilized
buildings into around-theclock usage
30
53
Futre infill on vacant
properties should be artsrelated use only
28
49
Source: Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts
District Master Plan, 2004
The space inventory included artspaces
that are in the neighborhoods
surrounding the district. There has
been a slight increase in arts uses both
north and south of the 2004 study area
boundaries. This reinforces the notion
that set boundaries for Warehouse Arts
District may not be practical—arts uses
within the district begets arts uses in
adjacent areas which, for all intents and
purposes, becomes a part of the district.
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 19
THE AUDIENCE: ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION
To address the question of who is interacting with the artists and creative
industries in the Warehouse Arts District, the Our Town–Tucson project
team designed an audience survey instrument for in-person data collection.
Volunteers from the Warehouse Arts Management Organization (WAMO)
solicited responses to the survey at several district events, including studio
tours, arts workshops, and the semi-annual Fourth Avenue Street Fair. A total of
225 surveys were collected and analyzed.
The audience survey accomplished two important tasks: it collected useful
demographic information on who patronizes the district and participates in
arts events, and it exposed some of the economic and cultural benefits of
supporting a thriving arts community. It also highlighted the need to develop
easy tools for organizations to collect audience data—such as website or
smart phone app—that can then be aggregated for the district by a central
organization.
FIGURE 10. AUDIENCE AGE
65+ <18
3% 3%
18–24
11%
55–64
24%
25–34
15%
35–39
10%
50–54
18%
45–49
5%
40–44
11%
DEMOGRAPHICS
Demographics for survey respondents are presented in Figures 10-12. The
results indicate that respondents were diverse in terms of age, gender, and
educational level.
FIGURE 11. AUDIENCE GENDER
PARTICIPATION BY ZIP CODE
To establish the home locations (in a general way) of the people who come to
the district, the survey asked respondents to list their Zip Code. Of the total
survey respondents, 87% live in the greater Tucson area. Once the local Zip
Codes had been isolated, this data was plotted spatially to see which areas of
town were most represented in the survey results (Figure 13).
MALE
44%
FEMALE
56%
Once the top five Zip Codes were established, income levels and educational
attainment were used to compare the survey respondents with averages from
the entire Zip Code regions. These comparisons, shown in Figures 14 and 15,
indicate that activities such as studio tours and street fairs attract the top ranges
of economic and educational backgrounds from Tucson to the district and (as
Figure 16 indicates) generate revenue from gifts, concessions, and lodging.
MOST KNOWN IN THE DISTRICT
Fourteen creative spaces were listed specifically in the survey to gauge name
recognition of the Warehouse Arts District studios and creative industries. As
Table 6 indicates, while Skrappy’s was the most recognized by name, Solar
Culture had the most visitors, according to the survey responses.
FIGURE 12. AUDIENCE EDUCATION
NA
5%
TABLE 6. MOST KNOWN AND MOST VISITED IN THE DISTRICT
Artspace/ Arts Organization
Heard of (%)
Visited (%)
BICAS
40
32
Chax Press
14
9
Citizens Warehouse
25
26
Conrad Wilde Gallery
28
27
Contreras Gallery
27
23
Davis Dominguez Gallery
27
27
Mat Bevel Institute
29
14
Raices Taller 222 Gallery & Workshop
26
23
Santa Theresa Tile Works
40
30
Sculpture Resource Center
27
23
Skrappy’s
43
4
Small Planet Bakery
39
3
Solar Culture
38
37
7th Avenue Studios
23
17
20 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
HIGH SCHOOL
27%
GRADUATE
DEGREE
32%
4-YEAR COLLEGE
36%
KEY FINDING:
AUDIENCES COME TO
THE DISTRICT FROM ALL
OVER THE CITY
FIGURE 13. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BY ZIP CODE
AUDIENCE SURVEY RESPONDENTS
OVERALL POPULATION
FIGURE 14. AUDIENCE INCOME LEVEL COMPARED TO
AVERAGE BY ZIP CODE
85745
85719
$54,750
$20,248
85716
$59,700
$20,525
FIGURE 15. BA/BS (MINIMUM) AUDIENCE COMPARED
TO POPULATION BY ZIP CODE
85745
21.5%
85719
21.0%
85716
85701
ARTWORK/GIFTS/
SOUVENIRS
$46
$43,850
$15,615
85701
OVERNIGHT
ACCOMMODATIONS
$62
$54,500
$22,023
85705
85705
$59,600
$26,130
FIGURE 16. AVERAGE AMOUNT SPENT
ON ARTS PARTICIPATION
AUDIENCE SURVEY RESPONDENTS
OVERALL POPULATION
CLOTHING
$24
93.0%
60.0%
100.0%
21.6%
LOCAL
TRANSPORTATION
$7
FOOD/
BEVERAGES
$18
75.0%
9.8%
41.7%
90.0%
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 21
THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS
The neighborhoods surrounding the Warehouse Arts District
are each unique in history and character, and provide
context and understanding when discussing the vibrancy of
the district and its sustainability in the future. Because the
Warehouse Arts District has almost no residential population
of its own, examining these neighborhoods allows collection
of baseline data and analysis of current vibrancy indicators,
including median income, home prices, population trends,
and other gauges of livability, so that in future years,
researchers can look at how changes in the arts district have
impacted them—positively or negatively.
BRIEF HISTORY: THE FIVE NEIGHBORHOODS
Moving clockwise around the
WEST UNIVERSITY
district, the West University
POPULATION: 4,526
neighborhood is situated to the
PERCENT HISPANIC: 16 %
north/northeast. It is the largest
HOUSEHOLDS (SINCE 2000): -0.35%
neighborhood in the study area
POPULATION (SINCE 2000): +3.57%
and started out as Tucson’s first
suburb when the university area
was considered outside of central Tucson. It is an obvious
living choice for students and professionals affiliated with
the university. With growing student population, this has
become home to large-scale student housing projects.
Also, the streetcar line, when completed, will connect this
neighborhood to downtown and to areas north and east of
campus.
East of the Warehouse Arts
PIE ALLEN
District and south of West
POPULATION: 687
University Blvd. sits the Pie
HISPANIC: 16%
Allen neighborhood, which was HOUSEHOLDS: -1.42%
historically home to railroad
POPULATION: +4.92%
workers, but over time has
become a blend of small houses
and student apartment complexes.
The Iron Horse neighborhood is
located off the southeast corner IRON HORSE
POPULATION: 587
of the Warehouse Arts District.
HISPANIC: 18%
This small area also started out
HOUSEHOLDS: +0.43%
as a railroad neighborhood in
POPULATION: +1.66%
the 1890s and traditionally has
been a mix of small houses and
rentals. It is also a neighborhood with a growing student
population, with one large-scale student housing project
under construction.
West of the District sits El Presidio, Tucson’s oldest
neighborhood. Historic value
EL PRESIDIO
and proximity to downtown
POPULATION: 654
have made this neighborhood
HISPANIC: 59%
somewhat of a centerpiece of
HOUSEHOLDS: +0.55%
recent urban renovation efforts.
POPULATION: -0.17%
Many of the area’s homes have
been remodeled and repurposed
as offices, and the neighborhood as a whole has an Old
World, walkable feel to it.
The Dunbar Spring
neighborhood, located to the
northwest of the Warehouse
Arts District, was first platted
in 1904 as an extension of
downtown. It was the site
of Tucson’s first “Colored”
(segregated) school, created by the Tucson Unified School
District in 1909. Three years later, the school moved into
a larger building and became the Paul Lawrence Dunbar
School—the Dunbar in the name of the neighborhood.
Most of the houses in Dunbar Spring were built in the late
teens and early 1920s, and this history is evident today in
the remaining mix of architectural styles including Victorian,
Territorial, and Bungalow.
DUNBAR SPRING
POPULATION: 1,093
HISPANIC: 27%
HOUSEHOLDS: +2.11%
POPULATION: +1.89%
The area continues to be architecturally as well as culturally
diverse. Since the 1980s, the neighborhood has focused
considerable effort on urban improvements. A positive
outcome of these energies is that Dunbar Spring is now
a popular choice for younger professionals focusing on
sustainable living practices, and this growing population
segment has improved properties in the neighborhood with
solar panels, community gardens, and water harvesting.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The baseline demographics of these neighborhoods also
tell an interesting story. Between 2000 and 2010, all of
these neighborhoods experienced growth, depending on
how growth is measured. When looking at annual growth
according to number of households, the Pie Allen and
West University neighborhoods actually shrank in number
but were the fastest growing in terms of actual individual
population numbers (US Census Bureau, 2012).
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
In four of the neighborhoods, home values were lower
than the average for the City of Tucson; the exception was
Dunbar Spring, which was slightly higher (Table 7). In all
neighborhoods, median income was lower than the city’s as
a whole (US Census Bureau, 2012).
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION USE AND WALKABILITY
The public transportation use and neighborhood walkability
also are indicators of community vibrancy. As the map in
Figure 17 highlights, the neighborhoods surrounding the
Warehouse Arts District received “good” to “excellent”
scores from walkscore.com, and designated bicycle routes
help connect these neighborhoods to the Warehouse Arts
District, each other, the university, and downtown. US
Census data indicates that approximately 25% of residents
in the West University and Pie Allen neighborhoods walk
to work (undoubtedly due to the close proximity to the
University of Arizona, Tucson’s largest employer), with
smaller percentages in the other neighborhoods (Figure
18).
22 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
FIGURE 17. NEIGHBORHOOD WALKABILITY (SOURCE: WALKSCORE.COM)
TABLE 7. MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND MEDIAN
HOME VALUE
Neighborhood
Median
Household
income
Median
Home Value
Dunbar Spring
$30,571
$162,956
El Presidio
$25,681
$109,548
Iron Horse
$31,135
$152,128
Pie Allen
$21,366
$161,083
West University
$24,431
$158,270
City of Tucson
$34,705
$162,400
Source: US Census Bureau, 2012
KEY FINDING:
SURROUNDING
NEIGHBORHOODS ARE
CHANGING, WHICH
MAY BE ACCELERATED
BY CHANGES IN THE
DISTRICT
FIGURE 18. TRANSPORTATION USAGE BY NEIGHBORHOOD (SOURCE: US CENSUS BUREAU, 2012)
USE PUBLIC TRANSPORATION
WALK TO WORK
BIKE TO WORK
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
DUNBAR
SPRING
EL PRESIDIO
IRON
HORSE
PIE
ALLEN
WEST
UNIVERSITY
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 23
SECTION
3
CASE
STUDIES
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The results of the Our Town–Tucson artist survey provided an
impression of who was making art where in the Warehouse
Arts District. To dig a little deeper into whether and how the
people making art were working together, the project team
selected three organizations as subjects of more in-depth case
studies of connections. These case studies involved creating
an elementary picture of connections—that is, with whom
each organization had ties—and as importantly, with whom it
did not.
In these case studies, the project team gathered information
from three key centers of creative activity within the district:
(1) Citizens Artist Collective, (2) Raices Taller 222 Gallery &
Workshop, and (3) Solar Culture Gallery and Studios. These
organizations were selected because of their: (a) similar
organizational structure; (b) distinct missions; (c) different
perspectives and approaches to the arts and participation;
and (d) dispersed geographic locations within the district.
commonness; (2) single hub and spoke network, within
which one “network weaver” forms relationships with each
of the clusters; (3) multi-hub network in which there are
several interconnected hubs; and (4) core/periphery network,
in which there is a core of key members with strong ties and
other clusters (which are connected to other networks) with
loose ties to the core.
Within a naturally occurring cultural district, there are
often a large number of artist-driven and informal cultural
groups. As noted by Stern and Seifert in 2009, “Because
these groups do not employ many staff members or possess
complex [formal] organizations, their ability to succeed is
often determined by the networks they develop to work with
other members of the community.” Research has shown this
FIGURE 19. SOCIAL NETWORK MAP: CONNECTIONS AMONG ARTISTS AND HUBS, 2012
The case study process involved gathering information
on each organization’s relationships, partnerships, or
collaborations with individual artists and organizations
for the purpose of making or presenting art. Figure 19
shows the individual artists associated with each and
connections among them; Figure 20 illustrates the
institutional networks.
WHY UNDERSTANDING
NETWORKS IS IMPORTANT
Social network analysis has emerged as a key method in
many fields as a way to research social capital, resources
embedded in social structures, and the impact that these
have on a range of endeavors such as political activity,
economic activity, and civic life. Much research has been
done that describes the qualities of
vibrant networks. Five general patterns FIGURE 20. SOCIAL NETWORK MAP, HUB
CONNECTIONS TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS,
have been observed in all effective
2012
networks (Krebs & Holley, 2006):
1. Individuals and organizations
connect with others based on common
attributes, common goals, or common
governance.
2. Diversity is important. Although
clusters form around commonness,
a diversity of connections is necessary to
maximize innovation in the network.
3. Robust networks have several ties between any
two “nodes” (a node is defined as a single
individual or single organization, depending on
the level of interaction being mapped).
4. Some nodes are more prominent than others and are
critical to network health. More prominent nodes are
defined as: (a) hubs–individuals/organizations with
many direct connections; (b) brokers–individuals that act
as liaisons to connect otherwise disconnected parts of a
cluster; and (c) bridges/boundary spanners–individuals/
organizations connecting two or more clusters.
5. Most people in a cluster are connected by an indirect link
with others.
KEY FINDINGS:
THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF
ARTISTS CONNECTED TO
THE DISTRICT—BUT NOT
NECESSARILY TO EACH
OTHER
EACH ARTS GROUP HAS
MANY TIES OUTSIDE
OF THE DISTRICT THAT
MIGHT BENEFIT THE
DISTRICT AS A WHOLE
Research also indicates that vibrant networks are built in
four phases: (1) scattered, small clusters organized around
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 25
is also increasingly true of formal organizations, giving rise
to the concepts of the networked nonprofit (Wei-Skillern &
Marciano, 2008), the network-centric enterprise (Gurbaxani
& Price, 2004), and the distributed organization.
One might hypothesize that healthy, naturally occurring
cultural districts, like other healthy systems, comprise at least
a multi-hub network, representing a diverse arts, cultural,
and community ecosystem. Social network analysis has the
potential not only to describe naturally occurring cultural
districts and thus further our understanding of them, but also
to identify strategies for strengthening networks for the benefit
of districts.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THREE HUBS
AND THEIR NETWORKS
CITIZENS ARTIST COLLECTIVE
The Citizens Artist Collective is a relatively new organization
(organized in 2010), composed of diverse professional
artists who have or had studio space in the historic Citizens
Warehouse at 44 W. 6th Street. The collective was founded
in response to a change in management at the Citizens
Warehouse. It has since incorporated and grown into a
cohesive organization with the vision and goal of bringing
FIGURE 21. NORTH AMERICAN EXHIBITION AND PUBLIC ARTWORKS,
SELECTED CITIZENS ARTIST COLLECTIVE MEMBERS, 2003-2013
attention to the historic building in which it is housed and to
its artists, along with protecting the building as development
occurs in downtown Tucson. Its mission is to foster unity
among the professional artists of Citizens Warehouse and
to raise public consciousness about the value of the artists
who occupy the building and their contributions to the City
of Tucson. The collective has 22 members; several have
representation in conventional art galleries, while others
are engaged in community-based arts projects. Members
also participate in self-organized exhibitions and in semiannual Open Studio Tours. They recently published a book
presenting select works from the artists in the building, as
well as stories exploring the history of Citizens Warehouse and
the Historic Warehouse Arts District in Tucson.
Citizens Artist Collective member artists were asked to provide
their artist resumes. Follow-up questions to clarify information
were asked/answered either by phone or email.
Five members (out of 22) provided resumes, from which
were compiled a listing of locations of exhibitions or public
artworks shown over the past 10 years. Figure 21 pinpoints
the locations of the exhibitions or public artworks in North
America; there were also seven locations outside of North
America (Australia, Germany, South Korea, Thailand, United
Kingdom, and two in China). Among the artists, there were
88 different gallery exhibitions and 11 public art installations;
of those, 30 of the spaces were in Tucson, with five in the
Warehouse Arts District.
Additionally, the artistic practice of one of the five is primarily
mural arts; this artist provided the installation locations of
(Clockwise from
top right) Artist
Nick Georgiou’s
open studio at the
Citizens Warehouse.
Barrio Centro
community paint
day, a project lead
by Citizens Artist
Michael B Schwartz
(©2014 Tucson Arts
Brigade/ Michael
B. Schwartz). Artist
Patti McNulty’s open
studio, Citizens
Warehouse.
Citizens Artist Collective
Placemaking Impacts
Collective Empowerment
Civic Engagement
Stewardship of Place
Aesthetic Accomplishment
26 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
his projects (included in Figure 21) and the names of the
organizations with which he worked in completing the
projects (included in institutional social network map, Figure
20).
RAICES TALLER 222 GALLERY & WORKSHOP
Raices Taller 222 Gallery & Workshop is Tucson’s only
Latino-based cooperative contemporary art gallery and
workshop. Founded in 1996, its mission is to sponsor
activities to promote the understanding and appreciation of
art by the public, especially by the traditional and historical
cultures of Tucson, by minorities and others underserved
by the arts; to make art and the creative process available
to those who might not otherwise have access to them
through community outreach to all age groups; to promote
solidarity, synergy, and opportunities for artists’ growth; and
to encourage creative expression from individual member
artists. Its diverse mission leads to diverse programming,
including workshops and juried exhibitions in its gallery
space, residencies in schools and community centers, and
co-sponsorship of music, film, poetry, and other cultural
events.
mission. The nature of the relationship with Raices Taller
was not collected; based on an interview with the founders,
it was determined that the organizations provided were
funders, partners or collaborators in educational workshops,
exhibitions, or other cultural programming. The list showed
that Raices Taller draws collaborators from across the state
and across the nation; the locations of all 97 organizations are
mapped in Figure 22.
Raices Taller 222 Gallery & Workshop founders were
asked to share two datasets: (1) names of artists who had
exhibited at the gallery in the past year and (2) names of
organizations with which Raices had worked in the past
five years. The list of artists was collected to document
the artists who have studio space in the district who have
recently shown at Raices, those who are from the greater
Tucson area, and those who may be from other parts of the
state and the country. The second list of organizations was
collected to examine Raices’ institutional network – that is,
the other organizations with which the gallery maintains a
relationship. Follow-up questions to clarify information were
asked/answered either by phone or email.
Raices Taller
Placemaking Impacts
Individual and/
or Collective
Empowerment
Civic Engagement
Cultural SelfDetermination and
Affirmation
Bridging Difference
Aesthetic
Accomplishment
(Left) Acrylic workshop
at Raices Taller. (Below)
Opening of Freedom
Summer exhibition.
There were 187 individual artists who exhibited work at
the Raices Taller 222 Gallery in the past year; 12 of these
(6.4%) were artists who had studio space in the district or
who were connected with other district art spaces.
Raices Taller worked with 97 unique organizations over
the previous five years. The project team found addresses
for each, geocoded each location, and collected basic
information on the nature of the institution—its sector and
FIGURES 22 AND 23. LOCATIONS OF RAICES TALLER COLLABORATING ORGANIZATIONS, US, AND SOUTHERN ARIONA, 2009-2013
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 27
Solar Culture Gallery
Placemaking Impacts
Individual and/
or Collective
Empowerment
Stewardship of Place
Bridging Difference
Aesthetic
Accomplishment
Community Health
and Well-Being
FIGURE 24. CITY OF ORIGIN OF
PERFORMERS PLAYING AT SOLAR
CULTURE, 2009-2013
Among the Tucson-area organizations with which Raices
Taller worked, nine were located in the Warehouse Arts
District during the study period; an additional 17 were located
in downtown Tucson or downtown historic neighborhoods,
with the balance distributed throughout the greater Tucson
region, as shown in Figure 23.
FIGURE 25. CITY OF ORIGIN, NORTH AMERICA, 2009-2013
SOLAR CULTURE GALLERY AND STUDIOS
Solar Culture Gallery and Studios has been in the Warehouse
Arts District since 1987 as a center for community-based
arts for all, with music and performance in addition to visual
arts. It is group of artists dedicated to bringing art and music
to downtown Tucson. Its goal is to culturally empower the
people of Tucson by inspiring them to make and show their
own art and to have opportunities to see local, national, and
international bands perform in a high-quality professional
setting. Solar Culture sponsors a non-juried, salon-style
exhibition four times per year, as well as several musical and
experimental performances each week. The Solar Culture
space houses low-cost studios, as well.
The founder of Solar Culture was asked to share names of
artists who had exhibited at the gallery in the past year, and
names, city of origin, and genre of groups who had performed
at Solar Culture in the past five years. The list of artists was
collected to document the artists who have studio space in
the district who have recently shown at Solar Culture, those
who are from the greater Tucson area, and those who may
be from other parts of the state and the country. The second
list of bands was collected to examine Solar Culture’s music
network—that is, the groups that the gallery attracts to the
district. Information was gathered through a face-to-face
interview and from the Solar Culture website.
There were 112 artists who had exhibited work at the Solar
Culture Gallery in the past year; nine of these (8.0%) were
artists who had studio space in the district or who had ties
with other district art spaces.
In the past five years, 297 bands or other performing artists
appeared at one of the Solar Culture performance venues.
The data indicate that Solar Culture serves as a major
venue, attracting folk, alternative, and indie music groups to
Tucson. Although many local groups open for the national
and international acts, and stage performances of their own,
the majority of performers (79.8%) were from out of the state
(Figures 24 and 25).
(Photos from top) Bernard Woma and Dancers performed at Solar Culture
Gallery in 2010. The Portland Cello Project appeared at Solar Culture in
2013. (Photos courtesy of Solar Culture.)
28 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
FINDINGS
SECTION
4
SURVEY LIMITATIONS & KEY FINDINGS
The Our Town–Tucson surveys were a preliminary effort to
collect data on cultural participants, artists, artist networks,
and institutional networks in the Warehouse Arts District.
Previously commissioned reports recommended that
TPAC pay particular attention to the role of artists and their
involvement in the informal sector of the creative economy
(Stern & Seifert, 2009). The OurTown–Tucson project was
primarily a qualitative study to provide a baseline that can be
used to: (a) gain a better sense of the economic and social
realities of artists and creatives in the Warehouse Arts District;
(b) document the links among artists, creatives, and the
entities with which they collaborate; (c) assess changes in
the district over time; and (d) begin to evaluate the social and
economic value of the district as a whole.
The surveys had several limitations:
1. The surveys took place over a three-month period of time.
Ideally, the data collection period would have lasted for
several months to correspond with Tucson’s population
changes based on the seasons.
2. At the onset of the project, the survey team
estimated a statistical universe of approximately
120 artists in the Warehouse Arts District.
Seventy–five individuals began the survey
(62% of universe), with 45 (37.5% of universe)
completing the survey. More time, resources,
and individual follow-up might have yielded a
larger pool of respondents.
3. Audience survey was not a random-sample
survey.
4. There was a lack of information about
participants taking classes and workshops in
the Warehouse Arts District. Given more time
and resources, demographic data collection on
a per-creative-space level would have yielded a
more comprehensive portrait of district users.
has been relatively stable across time. It also indicates that
there are keystone organizations for art production and arts
presentation. However, this stability may be tenuous, given
that 93% of respondents rent their space. As district real
estate becomes more in demand because of downtown
redevelopment, artists may find themselves displaced.
(Clockwise from top)
Artist and entrepreneur
Nathan Saxon hanging a
Warehouse Arts District
banner before an event
on Toole Aveue. Muralist
Joe Pagac working on a
sign at the entrance to
the district. Drummers
at a Raices Taller
community celebration.
Artists beautifying the
lightpoles on South 6th
Avenue on the eastern
edge of the district.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the project had
several worthwhile findings, which are described in
this section.
THE WAREHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT
IS STABLE AND ARTISTS ARE
SURVIVING
From the artist survey data gathered on space
usage and length of time in the Warehouse Arts
District, some interesting inferences can be made
about the area’s stability as an arts district. First,
the majority of survey respondents have worked
in the Warehouse Arts District for three to seven
years, and an almost equal number have had the
same studio space for the same time duration. This
information, in combination with the fact that 62% of
the survey respondents are full-time artists (making
a living exclusively from producing their art work)
demonstrates a stable and thriving arts district.
The space inventory and comparison (2004 to 2012)
supports the artist survey finding that the district
30 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
AUDIENCES COME TO THE DISTRICT
FROM ALL OVER THE CITY
The audience survey accomplished two important tasks: it
collected useful demographic information on who comes
to the district, and it exposed some of the economic and
cultural benefits of supporting a thriving arts community.
The audience survey results indicate that respondents
were diverse in age, gender, and educational level. The
data also indicate that most participants were coming from
neighborhoods outside of those adjacent to the district.
This means that district organizations may be successfully
attracting participants from throughout the metro area and
they could place more emphasis on attracting participants
from nearby neighborhoods and from the eastern part of
Tucson.
more than one art space. In the art commerce world, this
would not be a surprise – an artist signs with one gallery to
the exclusion of others. However, these spaces – although
they engage in art sales – are not commercial, but rather
nonprofit artspaces. This begs the question: Why are the
artists, in essence, self-segregating? Is it merely indicative
of the first maxim of networking (birds of a feather flock
together) or the second (those close by form a tie)? Or is it
indicative of something more significant that may be a barrier
to building and sustaining the district?
To facilitate connections among artists and organizations, the
findings point to many steps that could be taken to increase
documentation of social networks, to trace connections
among artists (who knows whom, who organizes shows with
whom) and to get a more complete picture of the Warehouse
Arts District social network. These steps include:
The audience data also indicate that, even among those
who come to the district, name recognition of the key arts
organizations and businesses within the district is low.
Individually and collectively, these creative enterprises need
to build name recognition.
•
SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS
ARE CHANGING, WHICH MAY BE
ACCELERATED BY CHANGES IN THE
DISTRICT
•
Nearly 8,000 residents live in the five adjoining historic
neighborhoods that saw slight population growth in the
first decade of the century. The demographics of the
neighborhoods are changing, in terms of age, ethnicity, and
income. These trends might accelerate with changes in the
district, and with expansion of creative enterprise into the
neighborhoods.
Since creative placemaking is touted as a strategy to
“revitalize neighborhoods and boost local economies,” as
the Warehouse Arts District flourishes, these neighborhoods
might benefit. But they might also bear the brunt, if growth in
the district is done poorly. It is essential that placemaking in
the district engages the neighborhood residents and focuses
on equity as well as vibrancy, and includes strategies to avoid
displacement of long-time residents.
THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF ARTISTS
CONNECTED TO THE DISTRICT – BUT
NOT NECESSARILY TO EACH OTHER
The individual networks of the three case study organizations
are composed primarily of visual artists and musicians. Each
network is separate, with very few ties among them. Although
they are not small, they appear to be, in social network
analysis nomenclature, “scattered clusters organized around
common interests.” This may indicate that the Warehouse
Arts District as a whole is not yet a vibrant multi-hub or coreperiphery network but, rather, it has several networks within
its boundaries that are disconnected from one another.
•
•
•
collecting enough data to discern community structure
and to examine core social network concepts: community
structure, betweenness and closeness centrality, network
reach, homophily, multiplexity, and mutuality/reciprocity;
engaging in a fuller/deeper analysis of relationships
(communication, coordination, cooperation,
collaboration);
completing a choropleth map of the city as a whole
indicating where individual artists have studios/make
their work, since only a small percentage of artists
showing at Raices Taller and Solar Culture make their
work in the district;
asking all artists with space in the district to provide
resumes and to document the organizations with which
they are engaged;
adding other types of entities to the social network
analysis – especially creative businesses and artists
engaging in community-based arts/community cultural
development – to document their networks and
determine where ties with already-mapped networks
exist.
Once these steps are complete, it may be useful to take a
longitudinal look at changes in the networks across time.
EACH ARTS ORGANIZATION HAS MANY
TIES TO ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE OF
THE DISTRICT
In regard to institutional networks, each of the three case
study organizations has unique types and levels of ties
outside of the district and few apparent ties within the
district. Again, they appear to be scattered clusters, although
they are not small. Again, several questions arise from this
rudimentary social network analysis:
•
•
•
Are the right connections in place? Are any key
connections missing?
What are the interconnections between the key
organizations? Are creative/collaborative alliances
forming? Should those be strengthened?
How can the external ties of individual organizations be
leveraged to attract resources for sustaining the district
as a whole?
Of the more than 300 visual artists who were identified as
part of the social networks, only six had connections with
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 31
SECTION
5
STRATEGIES
NURTURING TUCSON’S
NATURALLY OCCURRING
CULTURAL DISTRICTS
Naturally occurring cultural districts (NOCDs) in Tucson
have the potential to create “win-win” situations in terms
of cultural, community, and economic development: Artists
can earn a living with their artistic practices, neighbors/
neighborhoods can have social and economic stability, and
the city can have effective (re-)development that attracts
resources to other areas. Such development is based on
seven premises:
1. Diverse levels of creation and cultural activity contribute
to and add value to the cohesion and economy of a
specific neighborhood.
2. Healthy systems are composed of diverse,
interdependent parts.
3. True urban renewal emanates from within, not without.
4. Good governance/policymaking is inclusive and
participatory as well as responsive and accountable to
communities.
5. The purpose of economy is to provide for the social
welfare of all residents/progress for all.
6. Investments in social and neighborhood networks
(social capital) are as important as (financial) capital
investments.
7. Sufficient (not maximum) economic return is enough
(sufficiency economy; Sathirathai & Piboolsravut, 2004).
When these premises are applied to the activity in the
Warehouse Arts District, it reveals strengths and challenges.
Following are recommendations for nurturing a win-win
situation in the Warehouse Arts District and other NOCDs in
Tucson, based on the premises and the Our Town-Tucson
project findings.
LOCALIZING THE DEFINITION OF
CREATIVE PLACE AND CREATIVE
PLACEMAKING
Creative placemaking can be defined broadly as those
cultural activities that shape the physical and social
characteristics of a place through variety of methods—from
city planning to art practices—with a goal of advancing
humanity (Bedoya, 2012).
The national dialogue (and sometimes debate) regarding
creative placemaking indicates that the practice is full of both
possibilities and pitfalls. Although this dialogue is of interest
and should inform work on the local level, Tucson artists have
their own definitions of the act of placemaking embedded
in their work; these definitions need to guide local efforts.
The challenge is to help artists articulate the intent of their
artmaking, and, by extension, their definition of placemaking
(and theory of community change). Simple frameworks can
be used to facilitate such a dialogue.
DEVELOPING TUCSON-SPECIFIC
INDICATORS OF CREATIVE PLACEMAKING
An indicator is an observation of a particular time and
place that reveals something about the characteristics of a
community and informs perceptions of community change;
it may be a quantitative or qualitative observation (Shewfelt,
2012). Indicators are needed for several reasons, including
testing assumptions about the value and impacts of creative
placemaking. However:
Identifying measurable outcomes produced by naturally
occurring cultural districts has not been easy. While
they seek to improve the livability of neighborhoods,
build social capital, and revitalize neglected real estate,
naturally occurring cultural districts have few tools
or metrics to assess their progress. Established and
commonly used measures and data sources do not
adequately capture the cultural, civic, and social impacts
of naturally occurring cultural districts. Formal economic
measures are rarely nuanced enough to analyze the
impacts of artists, creative industries, and cultural
districts at a local, neighborhood level (Borrup, 2011).
The two national creative placemaking initiatives have begun
to develop indicators; the Urban Institute’s Art and Culture
Indicators Project offers a third model. These are summarized
in Table 8.
All of the national indicator frameworks have value: They
provide a starting point for thinking about indicators and
may provide a menu of options from which to choose or
a model to adapt. For example, given the Tucson climate
and the prevalence of bicycles as a mode of transportation,
“bikeability” may be a more salient indicator than walkability.
Why National Indicators Don’t Fit
Any adaptations, however, are localizations – and localization
makes sense. If there is a localized definition of creative
placemaking, then there is a context-specific theory of action/
theory of change. By extension, this means the indicators
must be localized, too, because they must match the specific
goals for how community change will occur, when and where,
among whom. Indicators for creative placemaking strategies
that are rooted in place may be different from those that
focus on transformation of urban space.
PLACE Initiative Indicators
The Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) has begun developing
a framework for documenting, describing, and evaluating on
the ground impacts of its PLACE Initiative grantees, which
present projects that are “rooted in place.” The framework
identifies seven areas:
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 33
TABLE 8. NATIONAL CREATIVE PLACEMAKING INDICATORS
NEA Our Town Livability Indicators
Four impact hypotheses:
1.
Creative placemaking will have a positive effect on artists and the surrounding arts community.
2.
Residents’ attachment to communities will be increased by creative placemaking.
3.
Creative placemaking will improve the quality of life for neighborhood residents.
4.
Local economic conditions, from household incomes to business and property values, will be positively affected by creative placemaking.
(Shewfelt, 2012)
Impact on Artists and Arts Communities
•
•
•
Median earnings of those employed in arts and entertainment industries
Number of employees of arts organizations
Payroll at arts organizations
Attachment to Community
•
•
•
Length of residence
Percent owner-occupied
Percent occupied
Quality of Life: Access to Jobs and
Amenities
•
•
Mean commute time to work
Retail businesses
Quality of Life: Neighborhood Conditions
•Crime
•
Addresses not collecting mail
•
Anchor institutions
Economic Conditions
•
•
•
•
Loan amounts for housing property sales
Median income
Total number of jobs
Number of in-service business addresses
ArtPlace America Vibrancy Indicators
Arts-related activity plays a key role in contributing to the quality of place that attracts and retains talented people and enables people to put all of their talent to work.
These kinds of flourishing places generate additional innovation and economic activity, which broadly benefits the entire community (ArtPlace America).
People Indicators
•
•
•
Population density
Employment rate
Percentage of workers in creative occupations
Activity Indicators
•
Number of indicator businesses (destinations of choice)
•
Number of jobs in community
•Walkability
•
Number of mixed-use blocks
•
Cell phone activity
•
Percentage of independent businesses
•
Number of creative industry jobs
Measures of Neighborhood Change
•
•
•
Changes in rental and ownership values related to neighborhood change
Racial and ethnic diversity index
Mixed-income, middle-income index
Urban Institute ACIP Aspects of Cultural Vitality
How does one measure cultural vitality? Since the mid-1990s, researchers at the Urban Institute have been seeking the answer through the Arts and Culture Indicator
Project. [ACIP] has created national cultural-vitality measures and has recommended adding locally generated data for more granular understanding (Jackson,
Kabwasa-Green, & Herranz, 2006).
Presence of Opportunities for Cultural
Participation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nonprofit, commercial, and public sector arts-related organizations
Retail arts venues
Art schools
Non-arts venues with arts and cultural programming
Festivals, parades, arts and crafts marketplaces
Formal and informal cultural districts
Web-based opportunities for cultural engagement
Participation in Arts and Cultural Activity
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Amateur art making
Collective and community art making
K-12 arts education
After-school arts programs
Purchases of artistic goods
Discourse about arts and culture in print, electronic and digital media
Membership in professional arts associations or unions
Support for Arts and Cultural Activity
•
•
•
•
•
•
Public expenditures in support of arts and cultural activities in the nonprofit, commercial, and public sectors
Explicit public policies about arts and culture
Foundation expenditures in support of arts and culture in all sectors
Volunteering and personal support of arts and cultural activity
Integration of arts and culture into other policy areas
Working artists
34 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
1. Empowerment: individual empowerment and collective
empowerment projects where the participant acquires
a new skill set and has a voice where he or she did not
before.
2. Civic engagement: addressing a civic issue, providing
a platform for civic engagement as it directly relates to
project strategy, goals, and outlines, as opposed to the
public presentation of work or an outcome of the project.
3. Stewardship of place: making a distinct relationship
to the physical space of the Sonoran Desert; including
methods of practice or aesthetic development that
include taking responsibility for such resources.
4. Cultural self-determination and affirmation: advancing
or affirming specific identities.
5. Bridging difference: having goals such as building
tolerance, pluralism or civil society bridging projects
including strong partnerships.
6. Aesthetic accomplishments: enduring physical
developments and aesthetic, art as a product fixed in a
space, something the public at large could access easily
or return to in a physical form.
7. Community health and wellbeing (expansion of
opportunity): providing health and well-being with
projects whose outcome is to contribute to a healthy
community or to increase the well-being of a particular
group, community, or method for addressing an issue
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013).
These areas will provide a stable basis for identifying,
documenting, and reporting on local indicators.
CULTIVATING AND SUPPORTING
KEYSTONE ARTISTS AND ARTS
ORGANIZATIONS
Theories of community and economic development have
long recognized anchor institutions (CEOs for Cities, 2010) or
anchor tenants.
Newer research has heralded the value of a backbone
organization (Turner, Merchant, Kania, & Martin, 2012) .
In an NOCD, these concepts may be useful for adapting to
the size and scale of the district in order to increase social
capital, attract resources, and help the district to thrive. Such
artists and organizations would be (and are) the foundation of
a healthy, prosperous district.
Keystone artists can be defined as those who engage in
their artistic practice within the district and actively make
connections across social networks and boundaries. Some
of these connections relate to their artistic production—
that is, they seek partners and collaborators to inform and
energize their work. Other connections relate to commercial
enterprise—they partner to exhibit art or perform or attract
clients, and to make money.
Based on the social network analysis, there may be a handful
of keystone artists in the Warehouse Arts District who have
a mature practice, longevity in the district, and connections
within and outside the district. These artists need to be
cultivated and supported so they feel confident in becoming
leaders. The first step is to help them stabilize their livelihood.
They need health care, continuing education, affordable
workspace, employment transition, and retirement (Borrup,
2011). The second step is to offer opportunities to learn and
apply their skills in the context of community facilitation and
problem solving. (Perhaps a fellowship in which the idea
of a “genius” grant meets the best practices in leadership
development.)
The Our Town–Tucson artist survey asked respondents,
“What would help grow your artistic or creative business
in the district?” Six distinct areas emerged: (1) organized
arts events; (2) street improvements/amenities; (3) media,
advertising, and promotion; (4) affordable, permanent work/
studio space; (5) direct artist support; and (6) a customer
base. These are the things that artists and creatives
themselves identified as needs and, with the right support,
resources, and incentives, that keystone artists could bring
about.
Keystone arts organizations or creative enterprises can be
defined as groups that care about the community’s narrative;
convene, connect, and engage others (especially across
divide lines); use community- and asset-based strategies; and
help to spark change, all as an extension of their core arts
mission. Like keystone artists, they can help a district grow if
given strategic support, resources, and incentives.
And as with keystone artists, cultivation and support of a
keystone organization starts with basic support and incentives
for the organization itself, appropriate to its mission, structure,
and stage of development. Add resources for strategically
enhancing the work the organization is already doing (e.g.,
funding for an exhibition highlighting every artist in the
district; sponsorship of a start-up street festival), and the
keystone organization is positioned to help the district as a
whole.
STRENGTHENING CONNECTIONS AMONG
NETWORKS WITHIN THE WAREHOUSE
ARTS DISTRICT
Krebs and Holley assert that “transformation that leads to
healthy communities is the result of many collaborations
among network members” (2006). It follows that, for the
Warehouse Arts District to be healthy, collaboration among
hubs within the district needs to be strengthened. The best
way to do so: influence a small number of well-connected
nodes through “network weaving” – building relationships
across traditional divides and facilitating collaborations for
mutual benefit (Krebs & Holley, 2006). That is a key role that
keystone artists and keystone organizations can play, but
it is also something that can be done by any active person
with the vision, drive, and social skills to connect diverse
individuals and groups. If several network weavers are willing
to collaborate, progress can be made quickly.
In an NOCD, there are many reasons to weave: sharing
information, learning together about best practices, getting
peer support, and, of course, making and presenting art
together. Artists and creatives who have been attracted to an
NOCD seek this type of interaction:
When I was doing interviews…around artist support
systems in nine cities across the country, what really
struck me was how often artists spoke about the
importance of being in places where they can share and
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 35
be challenged by other artists and audiences—this was
often as important as monetary support. They not only
stimulated each other’s creativity, they supported one
another in many different ways ranging from bartering to
social networks to hiring one another (Urban Omnibus,
2011).
•
This was also a finding in the Our Town–Tucson artist survey:
73% of respondents answered “yes” to the question, “Is
it important for you to live and/or work near other creative
people?” The key to strengthening connections within
the Warehouse Arts District is to promote networking
throughout the district, providing opportunities for people
who might never connect or who may be a less obvious but
perfect partner/collaborator. Creative ideas to facilitate such
interactions: (a) speed conversations (à la “speed dating”) to
share project ideas; (b) TED-like events where artists get five
minutes to talk about their work; (c) studio/location “crawl”
(like a pub crawl for artists, going to studios rather than bars).
•
ENSURING AFFORDABLE,
PERMANENT SPACE
Because of the dearth of capital, strategies need to be
developed for working with the local banking community and/
or foundations to establish a loan fund for creative businesses
currently located in or considering relocation to the cultural
district.
As noted previously, at the time of the survey, tenancy in the
Warehouse Arts District Triangle was relatively stable, with
75% of respondents in the district three years or longer.
Although only 11% of respondents identified affordable,
accessible, permanent space as a key need, the pace of
downtown redevelopment and development emerging along
the Modern Streetcar (now in operation as Sun Link) route
may change things quickly and drastically, as only 2% of
respondents owned their space.
If artists, cultural groups, and local businesses do not
own the land or buildings from which they are operating,
development driven from outside and/or increasing
real estate prices can force them out …. The potential
role of artists in gentrification – both as catalysts and as
displaced parties – is a concern (Borrup, 2011).
It is also interesting to note that none of the three case
study organizations owns its own building. The Citizens
Artist Collective is housed in a building owned by the State
of Arizona and managed by the nonprofit Warehouse Arts
Management Organization; Raices Taller is located in a
building owned by two creative businesses that operate
in the district; and Solar Culture is located in a building
that is now owned by a local private developer with several
properties in the district, in downtown, and in the adjacent
historic neighborhood. As is true for individual artists, these
organizations may find themselves displaced as district real
estate becomes more in demand because of downtown
redevelopment. What is different is that each has extensive
external ties that could be marshaled to protect against or
address displacement.
The 2004 Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District
Master Plan provides a set of principles that should guide
development in the district. Policies to mitigate potential
displacement are sorely needed; the goal would be for space
in arts uses not to drop below what was in place in the
baseline year of 2004. Strategies that have been effective in
other NOCDs include:
•
•
community-driven planning, blending community
identity, neighborhood revitalization, and creative industry
development;
regulatory and incentive-based tools, such as commercial
rent control, tax-credit or other incentives to develop
low- and moderate-income housing; artist relocation
programs; and creative enterprise zones;
incentives for preservation and redevelopment of historic
assets and other community treasures by nonprofit arts
organizations in collaboration with for-profit developers,
into adaptive arts re-uses as anchor, mixed-use sites;
dedicated loan funds providing artist-friendly financing
for the purchase of buildings.
An annual inventory of creative space locations and uses
and survey of rents should be completed and reported.
Additionally, a ratio of total square footage of buildings in the
district, compared to the total square footage available for
arts/creative uses, should be calculated to develop a quick
measure of changes.
REPLICATING PROCESS IN OTHER NOCDS
ALONG THE STREETCAR LINE
As described in the Creative Assets: Profile of the Warehouse
Arts District section, the process for cultural asset mapping
and baseline data collection for the Warehouse Arts District
included surveying the people working in the district and
people who use the district and researching demographic
data on the district and surrounding neighborhoods to
develop a comprehensive portrait of the district and its
neighbors. The longer-term vision of this methodology is to
refine it and apply it to other naturally occurring arts districts
in the Tucson area.
The Modern Streetcar route is the logical next place to
proceed. Once operational, it will likely add to the popularity
and use of these locations as both creative spaces and
venues for cultural attractions.
Areas along Congress Street, 4th Avenue, University
Boulevard, and the streetcar route have developed unique
characteristics as well as relationships with different
demographic sectors. Seeing these as a series of natural
cultural districts, now aligned along the route with no
designated boundaries, is the best fit for downtown Tucson,
because this approach will help preserve and strengthen the
area’s character as a regional cultural destination for visitors
and residents.
As with all tasks involving research, the project team found
some techniques more helpful than others during the spatial
data collection phase. The investigation into the Warehouse
Arts District and subsequent analysis served as an excellent
teaching tool for continued research, and data collection in
other naturally occurring districts will include the following
modifications and refinements:
36 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
ART ALONG TUCSON’S STREETCAR LINE
Sun Link, Tucson’s Modern Streetcar, is scheduled to begin operation in 2014. According to the City of Tucson,
more than 100,000 people live or work within a block of the Tucson Streetcar line. The 3.9-mile route extends from
the Mercado District on the west side of Interstate 10 to the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center; it runs on
Fourth Avenue, two blocks from the eastern edge of the Warehouse Arts District, through three of the five surrounding
neighborhoods, and through five other naturally occuring cultural districts. Stops will be located every 1/4 mile.
It has been said that the streetcar will be a “game changer” for Tucson. The key question is how will the game be
changed and for whom.
New public art being produced for streetcar stops, existing public art, and cultural attractions were mapped as a
part of the Our Town–Tucson project. Further study in these areas is needed to learn more about the artists and arts
organizations in each area, spaces being used for arts-related uses, neighborhood demographics, and other measures
like those collected in the Warehouse Arts District. These data will allow for future study of changes to the areas as the
streetcar begins operation, and will help to tell the story of what kind of game changer the streetcar is for NOCDs.
TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL | 37
1. Encourage organizations to track information on
participants, including audience members, students,
and other artists. Many organizations already do this,
but some will require lead time and incentive to pull the
information into a cohesive dataset.
2. Continue to use surveys of both the creatives and the
audiences, but, if possible, ask for more precise spatial
data. For the audience survey, respondents were asked
for their Zip Code. Gaining cross-street information
(or better yet, addresses) would allow this data to be
integrated with census data at the census block scale
and would yield much more refined results.
3. House the data centrally and manage it regularly. The
Our Town–Tucson project created a portrait of the
Warehouse Arts District at a specific (and static) time.
Buildings, activities, and relationships are in a constant
state of flux, and understanding and mapping these
changes are critical to the success of these districts.
The data this project collected highlight in a spatial way the
fact that art and cultural districts naturally attract people
from specific locations who (a) have disposable income, (b)
value the arts in the community, and (c) give time and money
in support of the arts and social causes. Adding additional
layers of data may also show decreases in crime in areas
where there are concentrations of cultural assets, higher
levels of civic participation, and increased efforts in urban
renewal projects. In addition, this information can be used
to inform policy makers on the “in-kind” contributions arts
organizations make in their communities, and this no small
amount of money.
FACILITATING PARTNERSHIPS FOR
PROGRAMMING
Arts organizations provide invaluable services to public
schools, youth at risk, and countless other underserved
populations in parts of the community that the city and
county do not have resources to serve efficiently. Additional
layers of data may also be able to show the concentration,
level, and range of those services.
Partnerships are essential for the nurturance of NOCDs.
These collaborations can be for a variety of activities:
co-producing programming; re-granting funding for arts
and culture; or creating and maintaining public artworks,
monument, and public spaces within a cultural district.
Examples of two existing Arizona partnerships that would
work well for a naturally occurring cultural district:
•
•
The City BBB (Bed, Board and Beverage) tax funds
support community arts, science, and cultural programs
throughout the Flagstaff area. Flagstaff Cultural Partners
serves as the re-granting organization for the City of
Flagstaff Art and Science Fund. They awarded $284,550
for 2013-14 in grants to local art, science, and culture
nonprofit organizations. The city’s wise investment in
and support of the arts is part of what makes Flagstaff so
special as a place to live, and to visit.
The Scottsdale Cultural Council presents Native Trails,
a free series of 16 outdoor special events held at the
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday
and Saturday afternoons. The Cultural Council’s partners
for co-producing Native Trails are the Fort McDowell
Yavapai Nation and the Scottsdale Convention and
Visitors Bureau. In addition, the Cultural Council
produces another outdoor series of 10 special events,
supported by corporate funding, held on Sunday
afternoons at the same location.
USING GIS PRODUCTS AND DATA
TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT AND
POLICYMAKING IN NOCDS
Maps and spatial analysis have the ability to tell a compelling
story of an area visually. Now that a substantial amount of
baseline data has been collected for the Warehouse Arts
District, the next step is to combine this information with
other data layers to further exemplify how arts districts (and
specifically the Warehouse Arts District) benefit the Tucson
community.
In general, naturally occurring cultural districts play a
critical role in revitalizing a sense of community spirit and
connections among diverse stakeholders. They improve
blighted and abandoned neighborhoods or town centers,
repurpose historic buildings, and bring economic activity
into neglected areas (Borrup, 2011).
WORKING TO ENACT INCENTIVES FOR
ARTS-RELATED DEVELOPMENT
According to Utilizing Tax Incentives to Cultivate Cultural
Industries and Spur Arts-related Development, the states of
Louisiana, Rhode Island and Maryland provide numerous
tax incentives to consider for a designated cultural district.
Louisiana developed the most comprehensive package
of incentives (Mt. Auburn Associates, 2007). The report
discussed three strategies: (1) artist-based tax incentives
for the sale of work created; (2) place-based tax incentives
for living and/or working in a designated district; and (3)
industry-based tax incentives for designated industries, such
as film, television, and sound recording.
Rhode Island has been very proactive in arts-related
economic development, luring artists and creative businesses
from Boston, New York, and beyond through a variety of
economic development incentives. Beginning in 1998, the
Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation to provide
tax incentives for artists to live and work in designated “arts
districts” in nine Rhode Island communities. The legislation
provides three different kinds of incentives: (1) for artists
who live and work within a specified district, any sale of work
created within the district is exempt from state sales tax; (2)
for artists who live and work within a specified district, any
income they receive from the sale of work they have created
within the district is exempt from state personal income
tax; (3) for gallery spaces located within the boundaries of a
specified district, the sale of original, one-of-a-kind works of
art are exempt from state sales tax, whether or not they were
created within the boundaries of the arts district.
These strategies could help to support keystone artists, arts
organization, and creative businesses in NOCDs.
38 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
CONCLUSION
This report described the results of the Our Town–Tucson project, a qualitative study designed to:
(a) gain a better sense of the economic and social realities of artists and creatives in the Warehouse
Arts District; (b) document the links among artists, creatives, and the entities with which they
collaborate; (c) assess changes in the district over time; and (d) begin to evaluate the social and
economic value of the district as a whole.
The study found that: (1) the Warehouse Arts District is stable and artists are surviving; (2)
audiences come to the district from all over the city; (3) the surrounding neighborhoods are
changing, which may be accelerated by changes in the district; (4) hundreds of artists are
connected to the district, but not necessarily to one another; and (5) each arts group within the
district has many ties to organizations outside the district, which may at some point be leveraged to
attract resources for sustaining the district as a whole.
In many ways, the Warehouse Arts District creatives have been effective stewards of the district
under challenging circumstances. They have helped to bring to fruition many of the aspirations
voiced in the 2004 Tucson Warehouse Arts District Master Plan including: having a mix of arts
and non-arts businesses; maintaining incubation and production space for artists/artisans; and
increasing use of underutilized buildings. And they have engaged in placemaking in all senses of
the word, seeing the potential in unused local community assets and, using both inspiration and
perspiration, creating distinctive public and private spaces that contribute to Tucson’s vibrancy and
wellbeing.
The Warehouse Arts District is but one naturally occurring arts district in Tucson. In many ways it is
unique, and yet the key questions facing it mirror those of other districts:
•
•
•
•
•
What is the best way to honor and preserve organic growth in an environment of hyperdevelopment and potential gentrification?
What support is needed to maintain community stability and to help to grow creative businesses
and needed amenities?
How can individual artists, informal grassroots organizations, and small creative enterprises
attract municipal cooperation? What is the right kind of cooperation from city and county
governments, and from non-arts private enterprise?
What are ways to improve access to financing tools and strategies for individual artists, informal
grassroots organizations, and small creative enterprises in order to increase their viability?
And finally, what is the best way to identify and document the social and economic impact of
individual artists, informal grassroots organizations, small creative enterprises, and the district
as a whole?
Creative placemaking can occur organically; in such situations, public, private, nonprofit, and
community partners, rather than strategically shaping (engineering) the physical and social
character of an area, can best support its emergence and growth by using strategies that build the
capacity of local creative and their networks:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
localizing the definition of creative place and creative placemaking,
developing site-specific indicators of success,
cultivating and supporting keystone artists and arts organizations,
strengthening connections among networks within a district,
ensuring affordable, permanent space,
facilitating partnerships, and
working to enact appropriate incentives for arts-related development.
This will help NOCDs to remain authentic, and become more viable and sustainable.
40 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
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42 | OUR TOWN–TUCSON: A STUDY OF ONE NATURALLY OCCURRING CULTURAL DISTRICT
PROJECT TEAM
This project was a true team effort. Thank you to everyone that contributed its success.
Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director, Tucson Pima Arts Council
Rex Gulbranson, Our Town – Tucson Project Manager, Tucson Pima Arts Council.
Elizabeth Burden, Artist, Warehouse Arts Management Organization board member
Caroline Patrick-Birdwell, Lead Spatial Analysis Intern and Geodatabase Developer
Erik Glenn, GIS Analyst
Bill Mackey, Architect/Artist
Rand Carlson, Artist, Warehouse Arts Management Organization board member
Alec Laughlin, Artist, Warehouse Arts Management Organization board member
Sally Krommes, Artist, TPAC Public Art Coordinator
TPAC Board of Directors and staff
Front cover and section page photos courtesy of Solar Culture Gallery.
Tucson Pima Arts Council
The Pioneer Building
100 N. Stone Avenue, Suite 303
Tucson, AZ 85701
Phone: (520) 624-0595
Fax: (520) 624-3001
TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org