Creative Class: Yes, it is About the Artists

Located at the southern end of Puget Sound, Tacoma has been trying to step out of Seattle’s shadow since the Gold Rush days, without much success. Whenever a renaissance seemed within its grasp, crime, scandal, or economic forces knocked the city back down.

Lately, however, Tacoma’s lengthy quest for revitalization finally has started to take hold. An economic development strategy that focuses not just on the arts, but also on the artists, has yielded $1 billion in public and private investment downtown in the last five years. 

A Tale of Two Tacomas

Tacoma’s most visible revitalization has occurred in the city’s downtown core, largely by cultural and civic institutions. The showpiece of this “New Tacoma” is the dramatic waterside Museum of Glass, connected to the downtown by a 500-foot sky bridge designed in part by renowned glass artist and Tacoma native Dale Chihuly. The Tacoma Art Museum has expanded into a new facility next to the History Museum and the city courthouse. Martini bars, coffee shops, brew pubs, and other signs of yuppie-dom are springing up—as are parks, housing, a light rail line, a University of Washington branch campus, and a convention center.

Outside this downtown core lies Old Tacoma, where oddities like the Java Jive (a bar and coffee shop shaped like a giant coffee pot) mingle with warehouses, casinos, diners, strip clubs, and single-family neighborhoods still undiscovered in the region’s real estate boom. The real art scene happens here. Young, urban pioneers live much like those in 1950s SoHo or 1980s Williamsburg—reclaiming old loft buildings and turning them into spaces to live and work.

Artists in the region choose Tacoma not only because of the abundance of cheap, vacant buildings but also because of a focused effort from the city. As part of long-range planning efforts, the city recognized that artists play a crucial role in creating a vibrant, 24-hour downtown and began to take steps to facilitate artists living and working there. The city aims to bridge the gap between Old and New Tacoma, encouraging the arts from both bottom-up and top-down.

A Little Florida in Washington

Amy McBride and Benjii Bittle work from within Tacoma’s Culture and Tourism Division to attract and support artists. Tellingly, the Division is housed in the city’s Economic Development Department, and when McBride and Bittle talk of merging art and development, they sound as if they’re reading a page from a Richard Florida textbook.

But Tacoma views the arts as more than just a successful economic development strategy: the city genuinely wants to build a community of artists and further the dialogue between different media, approaches, and aesthetics. Although many of Tacoma’s efforts support Florida’s theories, the city’s programs focus on artists rather than the broader creative class Florida describes.

Both Bittle and McBride feel strongly that focusing directly on artists makes the most sense. McBride sums up the program’s priorities when she says, “The computer people will take care of themselves.” Bittle agrees: “We’re using culture to create an authentic sense of this place, and while it’s great to have [everything else], I think that that comes later.”

Basic funding programs are one component of Tacoma’s strategy. The city’s “Percent for Art” program, in which budgets for public projects include a small percentage for art projects, was reinstated a few years ago after getting cut in the 1980s. The city has also established a grant program for individual artists.

These programs, though small, have had a great impact. Joe Miller, a sculptor, notes that he immediately received a $4,000 individual grant when he moved to Tacoma from Seattle two years ago. His girlfriend, artist Jessica Balsam, received $2,000 when she only applied for $1,000. In the cutthroat world of arts funding, where scarcity is the norm, Tacoma provides a new model by regularly sanctioning emerging artists and projects that might not be possible elsewhere. Just a few blocks from the Museum of Glass, contemporary art installations grace the windows of the old Woolworth’s building, and the small “Tollbooth Gallery” shows video art 24 hours a day out of a formerly defunct downtown kiosk. “That wouldn’t happen in Seattle,” Miller says. 

The city also relies on a whole array of more personal, lower-budget strategies to help artists find live/work space downtown. McBride serves as a point of contact for artists, offering them one-on-one help to find housing opportunities and funding programs. She frequently calls owners of vacant downtown property and encourages them to consider leasing to artists. In addition, last year, to document the market for artist housing in Tacoma, the city surveyed artists throughout the region. Based on the survey results, a private developer will build two new co-op buildings for artists.

Furthermore, as part of a larger downtown rezoning in 2000, the city now allows live/work space anywhere in downtown. Typically, commercial or industrial zoning prohibits residential use. Artists who wish to live in those commercial spaces have to hide domestic items like beds, kitchens, and showers. In Tacoma, as long as basic building codes are met, live/work is legal—a strong draw for artists.

A Victim of its Own Success?

Tacoma’s art scene is now blossoming. Throughout downtown and scattered around the rest of the city are live-work buildings, studios, professional services for artists, and funky art spaces. Even the William Traver Gallery, a well-established Seattle gallery, saw enough promise in Tacoma to open a branch there.

Chris McMullen, a sculptor who has been in Tacoma for fifteen months, thinks that “Tacoma is gonna blow up in a few years.” His words beg the inevitable question of gentrification, and this is where the tension between New and Old Tacoma becomes the most problematic.

Given the long-standing disinvestment in Tacoma, a little gentrification may be a good thing. Most of the artists here, however, seem resigned to a fate of eventual displacement. Although renting live/work space is relatively cheap in the short term, there are few long-term housing opportunities for artists. Hardly any own—or have much hope of owning—their current space, even though most put in large amounts of time, money, and effort in conversions and upgrades. Though cheaper housing exists, it lacks the amenities—concrete floors, high ceilings, and large spaces—that artists often need. Without ownership opportunities, artists may not be able to stay in the community long term.

There is also a proximity issue: part of the reason the Tacoma scene started to snowball is that so many artists have clustered around downtown. Chance encounters and random conversations help build a community of ideas and aesthetics. Dispersing artists throughout the city could disperse Tacoma’s creative energy as well.

Bittle and McBride both acknowledge that tension between gentrification and the arts is a struggle. McBride says, “We recognize that the way we’re using the arts as an economic development tool encourages gentrification—and that’s part of the idea. But artists get priced out of the market that they help to develop.”

It’s possible that the market may top out early, leaving room for artists and everyone else vying for downtown space. It’s also possible Tacoma might be in the very uncomfortable position of having to choose between supporting the artists and supporting downtown redevelopment. So far, the city has implemented its vision in a way that supports a diverse, thriving community and attracts developers. If development pressure continues to build, the city’s holistic, creative approach must be maintained: rather than a means to an end, artists are crucial if the downtown is to continue to thrive.

Instead of relying solely on big-money museums or bemoaning the lack of funding, Tacoma has succeeded with a distinct, spirited strategy. At its core, Tacoma’s idea that you can “make do” with less—and even produce better work that way—is essentially an artist’s approach. McBride and Bittle—both artists themselves—see Tacoma as a dynamic work of art, one that will evolve because of the people there. Sculptor Joe Miller says, “We’re in a great position to really make Tacoma something.” Jared Pappas-Kelly, a video artist who has lived in Tacoma for a decade, adds, “You can do work that really enriches the people who live here—not just through galleries or museums, but out on the street, guerrilla-style. You’re really inventing whatever happens.”

REFERENCES

ArtRod (Jared Pappas-Kelly’s organization, which organizes the Tollbooth Gallery and publishes Toby Room, a Tacoma arts newspaper)

www.artrod.org

Information about the City of Tacoma’s art program can be found at

www.cityoftacoma.org

M-Space (the glass studio)

www.mspaceglassarts.com

Tacoma Contemporary (organization that produced the Woolworth windows)

www.tacomacontemporary.org