By MICHAEL
MOLITORIS
Staff writer
Local and
regional residents interested in seeing Oil City thrive as an
arts-friendly community will have a chance Saturday morning to make sure
that happens.
The city’s
arts revitalization committee has planned a working breakfast meeting from
9 a.m. to noon in the National Transit Building’s Great Room.
“Any artists
or anybody interested in the arts is invited to attend,” said Joann
Wheeler, who has worked since July as the city’s arts champion. “We want
to get as many people there as possible because the heart of this is going
to be what makes this place a good place to do art and also look at what’s
missing. We want to find what we can do to make this an attractive
community to artists.”
Wheeler said
word of the meeting has been sent to more than 300 artists — most of whom
live in Venango County.
The morning
affair will include updates on the progress of several arts-related
projects and time for brainstorming and project-mapping for a series of
initiatives.
“I hope to
come out of this with some action plans,” Wheeler said. “I also want to
feel out the interest that people have in getting involved for action
plans.”
Getting a
thorough once-over will be the idea of partnering artists and businesses,
arranging an instructional partnership with Venango Campus, establishing a
local filmmaking competition and further developing and expanding the
Pipeline Alley concert series, among several other initiatives.
“We’d like to
find out how we can partner with the business community in a way that
makes sense for artists and businesses,” Wheeler said of the first idea.
The
partnership could include matching artists with businesses for a year in a
“mutually helpful way,” allowing each party to offer something to the
other. She offered the example of a visual artist pairing off with a bank
and using the establishment for exhibit space. In return, perhaps — and
depending on the artist’s discipline — the bank could call on the artist
for graphic or visual design work.
Wheeler said
Venango Campus is interested in entering into an instructional partnership
with the Oil City arts initiative.
“The
continuing education department would like to offer courses in fine arts
and use space in the National Transit Building because they’re running out
of room (at the West End campus),” Wheeler said. “Many artists already
teach, and this would give them opportunities to teach, earn an extra
income stream and it’s a way of getting their name out in the community.”
For now, the
continuing education program mainly is interested in sparking classes in
basic visual arts such as drawing and painting.
Another
project already in the works is a budding digital filmmaking competition
and festival that’s planned for next September.
With
direction from former Franklin resident and filmmaking enthusiast Scott
Wohlstein, the project would involve a nationwide screenplay competition.
“The prize is
that the winner gets to come here and film,” Wheeler said. “The film would
be screened here and be eligible for a prize. It also would get a
screening at the Great Lakes Independent Film Festival.”
“We are going
to need as many hands as are interested to get this going,” she added.
And the
successful Music in the Transit Garden series that ran each Wednesday in
August behind the National Transit Building complex probably will
encompass the entire summer next year.
“We want to
expand it to the whole summer every Wednesday,” Wheeler said. “But next
year, we’d like to see homegrown talent try their wings there and go out
and perform.”
This year’s
performers included Rockmere music veteran Rex Mitchell and his daughter,
Karen Wilson, violinist Nancy Simpson, keyboardists Stephen Winslow and
Andy Mitchell, as well as Ken Hall and friends.
“We had a
whole series of really skilled performers who’ve been performing for a
really long time,” Wheeler said. “Next year, we’d like to see other people
get out there and see what they have, too.”
The arts
revitalization committee is discussing holding June and August’s concerts
in the Victorian garden at the Transit complex, and holding July’s
concerts in the Central Avenue Plaza adjacent to the Oil City Library.
“That way we
involve both sides of town. … And another thing, this project is really
good for nearby restaurants,” Wheeler said.
Reservations
for Saturday’s session should be made to Wheeler by Thursday either by
calling 676-5303 or by e-mailing to jwheeler@csonline.net.
Growing
outside interest
Though she
said she cannot take credit for some of the progress, Wheeler and other
committee members continue to spread the word about Oil City’s fledgling
artist community and show potential transplants around the city’s turf.
Wheeler has
been the city’s arts project champion since early July, and she knows of
two artists since then who have moved to the city — both jewelers.
“I think what
it points to is that this is a good area to move to, … and people can’t
get over the affordable real estate here,” Wheeler said.
The main
thrust behind the city’s arts movement was to package the city as an
artist-friendly environment, encouraging artists to relocate and offering
affordable live, work and gallery space for their disciplines.
Wheeler is
hosting another artist this week from Ohio who specializes in murals and
is “talking about relocation” to Oil City.
Another is
talking about opening a for-profit imported goods gallery, and Wheeler
said she hosted a couple people in July who visited from Louisiana.
That visit
stemmed from a trip that she, Oil City Arts Council Chairwoman Libby
Williams and city Councilwoman Sonja Hawkins made to a festival in State
College.
“We went
booth-to-booth and handed people our information,” Wheeler said. “There’s
been quite a bit of interest.”
Though a link
through her Web site, www.artsoilcity.com/html and word of mouth are
her primary means of marketing the local arts effort, Wheeler said she
continues to speak before local groups and attend area festivals and
conferences.
She also is
working to develop an e-mail listing of artists interested in working with
the downtown arts revitalization movement. She has mail contact
information for some of the 300-plus artists already on her listing, but
not e-mail addresses in most cases. Those interested in submitting e-mail
addresses may contact Wheeler through her Web site.
“I really
want to get some faster contact information for people and find out what
people want to be contacted about and what they want to be left alone
about,” she said.
The Derrick 10-17-2006