Most times
it's next to impossible to identify solid promise in a 6-month-old.
But if Oil
City's downtown arts revitalization movement keeps trucking along the way
it has, it's going to buck that trend.
Pittsburgh
native, artist and longtime Oil City resident Joanne Wheeler has sat -
armed with a shoestring budget, some creative marketing know-how and a lot
of meeting time - at the helm of the effort for six months. It's been her
mission, with the help of an all-volunteer committee, to identify downtown
live-and-work space for artists, package incentives for artists so they
might think about giving Oil City a try and arranging some attractive
financing options to sweeten the pot.
Half a year
later and the payoff is evident, Wheeler told members of the city's
Kiwanis Club on Tuesday.
"I was
encouraged to take this position because Oil City already has an active
arts council," Wheeler said, claiming that all the pieces for a successful
artist relocation program have existed in Oil City for a long time. It's
just a matter of getting things properly aligned.
She cited Oil
City's affordable real estate, a low-interest loan package, the
availability of an established art center with the National Transit-based
Oil Valley Center for the Arts, a flourishing art gallery and plenty of
available space in downtown buildings - particularly in the non-profit
National Transit annex on Seneca Street.
"We're hoping
that a critical mass of artists downtown will make Oil City a
destination," Wheeler said. "We see this as a place where people will want
to look and shop. It's a market we've never tapped before. ... And it's
something we can do with the least amount of money."
Credit goes
to the Oil City Arts Council for having established most of the arts-based
programs that give Wheeler and the arts program needed leverage.
Oil City Arts
Council Chairwoman Libby Williams outlined the council's 14-year list of
groundwork and growing projects that have set Oil City up as a viable
player in the arts world.
"Because the
arts council has developed a well-rounded program in its existence ... it
seemed sensible to slot the arts revitalization program into the arts
council," Williams said.
VISITORS
TAKING UP RESIDENCE
Wheeler's
main mechanism for getting the Oil City word out is through a Web site
link from her personal site (www.artsoilcity.com/html) and from the Oil
City Arts Council site (www.ocartscouncil.com). So far, 12
relocation-minded artists have visited Oil City from states including West
Virginia, Louisiana, Virginia, Ohio, New York, Alabama and North Carolina.
Five have moved to the city and another is in the process of moving.
"Most are not
visible in the community yet because we're still getting the program
going," Wheeler said. "But these people are buying homes here. ...
Already, I think this program has been a positive influence on the
community."
Oil City's
mark as an artist relocation destination is not a new concept, she said.
Similar movements are springing up across the country including several
communities in New England and one as close as Johnstown.
"Some have
come here after going to other communities and they're making the decision
to stay here. I think it's because of the friendly people here," Wheeler
said.
COMPLEMENTARY
ARTS PROJECTS LINING UP
Wheeler also
updated the gathering on a handful of established and in-progress
arts-based projects that have gained footing with little-to-no financial
underwriting.
Last summer's
Wednesday afternoon concert series in Pipeline Alley behind the National
Transit complex drew between 70 and 100 people for each performance and
proved itself an economic boon to some downtown restaurants.
"That program
has an economic impact on the community," Wheeler said. "We're getting
some foot traffic that might not be here otherwise."
Word of an
upstart quilter's guild in Oil City drew the interest of 40 women earlier
this month at the group's organizational meeting. The guild will work
under the guidelines of the National Quilting Association Inc.
"Who knew
these people were out there?" Wheeler said, citing the program's local
interest.
The
association as a whole is 4,500 members strong and most guilds host yearly
events that have huge drawing power, Wheeler said.
"We're going
to be bringing very affluent people into this community," she said.
OIL CITY ON
FILM
A city-based
digital film festival also is gearing up for its 2007 debut.
Wheeler said
the nationally advertised competition will award a top prize of having a
10-minute film shot on location in Oil City.
"People will
be coming in and they will staying in our hotels and eating at our
restaurants," Wheeler said.
The finished
film will play at the Great Lakes Independent Film Festival in Erie - with
the film's images of Oil City playing before the eyes of hundreds of
people.
"We want to
see a broader representation of Oil City," Wheeler said. "A lot of this is
about how we can use the arts to turn the community around."
Besides local
residents who can soak in the arts council's year-round spate of events,
Wheeler and Williams said out-of-town residents, visitors and shoppers are
the other critical demographic that arts programs in Oil City bank on
attracting.
Visitors,
they said, are more apt to spend a little or a lot of money whether it's
in the Transit Fine Arts Gallery or at local stores.
"Visitors go
to the gallery and think nothing of spending $500 for a painting,"
Williams said.
The city's
list of arts programs and the arts revitalization project's mounting
progress drew praise from Tuesday's small gathering - particularly from
one local businessman.
"I think we
need this in the community to make this a rounded community," said Dwight
McCarty, a co-owner of Double Play Sports Bar on Seneca Street. "If we
want to bring people into our area, that's part of what you need to do."
The Derrick 1-24-07