|
What new thing is happening in Charlotte that you are most excited about?
Growth in young professionals--people who are coming here without families. Because, personally, I occupy a weird space here in Charlotte. You always hear that Charlotte is a great place to raise family. I came here with a two-year-old, had another child, and indeed Charlotte has been just that. But I also am very supportive and involved in the arts. So I’ve also had a glimpse of how Charlotte might not be a great place if you didn’t have a family. My husband and I have put a lot of mileage on the car driving into city center even though we live in southeast Charlotte and people look at us strangely because we are driving in to go to a gallery crawl. So it’s exciting that people from different walks of life are coming to Charlotte. People either not in a stage that they want to commit themselves to suburban life, or just not willing to give up an urban lifestyle.
What are your thoughts around light rail to the suburbs vs. an Uptown/ring neighborhoods streetcar?
It would be wonderful to have the ability to move freely in Uptown and the surrounding urban areas. I think the other issue is tourism. Being able to get around to enjoy all the different neighborhoods have to offer is a huge incentive for tourism.
Looking forward to peanuts and Cracker Jacks? What is the future of a baseball park in Charlotte?
I love baseball! I was the only girl playing little league where I grew up in Virginia Beach. That’s the thing, I don’t know about prioritizing because Charlotte needs a rich mix. It shouldn’t be either/or; a city needs it all. It’s like a good stew. You can’t leave out the carrots, the beef or the potatoes. You gotta put everything in or you’ll mess up the stew! I don’t prioritize a big fine-arts museum over an upstart theater; I want both. I want to see the big Monet and be able to see artists who are emerging and see what they have to say. Plus, I want to see a baseball game! This range builds a strong community that can discuss about diverse issues, a wide range of ideas, and wants to experience other people’s viewpoints.
There's lots of talk about attracting diversity to Charlotte. What role do the arts play in this?
Light Factory agrees wholeheartedly. Photos and film provide a way to speak with pictures, a universal language. We have an ESL program in 5 high schools. We teach photography for 20 hours, then writing for 20 hours. Each student gets a camera to shoot scenes of their everyday lives and then use the pictures to write their stories. There’s an expression I love: “thinking in pictures.” Also, at the Light Factory, we present a diverse range of artists to constantly engage various audiences. Right now we have Luis Gonzalez Palma, a major South American artist. Later this summer we have an exhibit that will feature very significant diversity, including photographers from Japan and Eastern Europe. Even our choice of film events is designed to introduce conversations about diversity. On April 28th we are showing ‘The Spirit of Sacagawea’ and encourage participation and discussion.
Charlotte considers itself forward-thinking on many urban development issues. It seems the larger a U.S. city gets, the more it needs an expanded social services network to handle needs of a burgeoning population, but can never keep up. What can arts programming in Charlotte do to be preemptive in this area? Can we plan ahead to offer programs that effectively promote productive living? How do we avoid the pitfalls of the “build more shelters” or “reactive spending” mentality rather than provide proactive assistance for independent living?
As far as the Light Factory is concerned, we believe in the importance of what we do through outreach education. We want to build an engaged audience and media literacy. I hate if kid is watching TV and sees a commercial saying, “buy this beauty product you’ll be a better person.” Then, that child sees all these images of a type of “beauty” that’s not at all real. So teaching kids to critically assess the images, strengthening media literacy, is critical in creating an informed population that has the tools to be critical thinkers. I like to tell a story about the time my daughter sat down at the computer to create a book report and I’m expecting a couple of paragraphs in a Word document. Well she comes out with this unbelievable power point presentation! It hit me that she’s gone to a well-endowed school with resources and a strong P.T.A. She’s had the benefits of camps and having a computer in the home. This will all translate very well for her when she goes into the workplace. But it’s essential we reach out to kids who don’t have this type of access because they need to have command of all this visual software and technology. It’s important that all kids have these skills to enter the workforce. So the work we do [at the Light Factory] is critical for creating workforce for future.
When one visits memorable cities, what often stand out are waterfront/riverfront areas, immense parks and green spaces. Right now, Charlotte has nice fountains and large parks in the suburbs. What is the city/county doing to preserve green space and develop it for pedestrian use?
It’s a necessity. I’m excited that with baseball is coming a big park. I’m very supportive of the dense zoning in the ring neighborhoods around Charlotte and think it is critical to save the tree canopy around Charlotte. If you drive through the older neighborhoods it’s incredible the way we’ve been able to preserve the canopies and that’s got to continue to happen! One of my dreams for the Light Factory is to have outdoor movie night. It would also be really neat to have just a couple of soccer and baseball fields. Not enough for the whole tournament, but to be able host some games of huge tournaments, so that all the parents coming from all around could experience Uptown Charlotte. Plus, they’d be open to the public so people could get outside and kick a ball around right in Uptown Charlotte!
What are the biggest issues facing your organization? What will need to happen for you to be successful?
Photographs and film are the most widely seen art in our culture. We need to continue to build the base of people who want to come here, see it, talk about it. The difference in our organization is that we don’t want passive observers, we want participants. The biggest thing facing our future is we are about to embark on a whole process of creating our permanent facilities. We’ve been planning for over a year. We need to make sure we have a physical space that can accommodate the both the technology we know about and all that no one knows about yet!
What role do the arts play in a vibrant city?
Art really opens opportunities for thought and conversation.
~ Celina Mincey
|
