Monday, February 28, 2011
Region's diverse arts mix often spurs commercial development
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Most people value Southwest Pennsylvania's performing and visual arts for their entertainment value -- a night out at 'Mary Poppins,' a trip to see Carnegie Museums' dinosaurs or an excursion to the latest exhibit in the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This article truly highlights a lot of the positive aspects of the growth of Pittsburgh and how the arts have played a large role. It also points out that downtown Pittsburgh has the POTENTIAL to being one of its great neighborhoods. The problem it faces now is that it is mostly empty on Sundays, holidays, and after 10:30pm, pretty much anytime there isn't any work, or theatre going on. The arts have laid down the base for a lot of commercial development, the next step is finding the catalyst that really makes the neighborhood shoot up in terms of it being an attractive place to spend more time there in between hours.
It's surprising that I have read this article before, but it was discussing the benefits of the arts in a different city, and yet the United States believes it's the first forefront to do when the economy is down. Look how Broadway turned around NYC once the mayor began to invest in its revitalization. Pittsburgh has clearly seen the benefit of the arts over the years with the rise in their interest in the arts and movies returning to the area. Clearly they see past the amusement tax and ticket sales and focus on their attraction to the community and tourists. I love how they even mention parking tickets. It just goes to show that the arts generated energy in the community that sparks them to be more active than typical of the city every day and that really pays off in the end.
I remember reading an article by Richard Florida regarding a study he conducted with CMU students about a decade or so ago. It was about the factors that make an area economically successful. One of the main factors was a tolerant environment that promotes artistic and social diversity. He credited this as being the most important factor in economic growth, followed by a region's technological capabilities. Pittsburgh, at the time of this study, ranked lower than other major cities because it was not considered as tolerant towards change and therefore less artistic. It's nice to see an article that takes the same sort of means of analysis and looks at Pittsburgh in a different light.
Post a Comment