A New York Art Project Celebrates Records by Candace Jackson, WSJ

In its heyday, Tower Records in Manhattan’s East Village teemed with music-loving shoppers. But in 2006, with buyers rushing to online music stores and big box retailers, the store closed. Starting this weekend, the place will fill up again—this time with performances, panel discussions and conceptual art installations, some lamenting the demise of music stores.

The project, called “Never Can Say Goodbye,” is from No Longer Empty, a New York nonprofit that places public art projects in vacant retail spaces. (The group’s first such exhibit was at an empty fishing-tackle store.)
Ted Riederer

‘Never Records’ is a mock shop set up at a former store in New York.

It’s the latest in a wave of art galleries and theaters popping up in empty retail spaces around the country amid the recession. At a partly-vacant mall in suburban St. Louis, a program called ArtSpace has brought in theaters, art galleries and dance studios to occupy what were once beauty salons and chain stores like Abercrombie & Fitch. In the Los Angeles area, Phantom Galleries LA has placed temporary art installations in vacant shops and storefront windows.

The artists and curators behind the Tower Records project in New York say it’s partly meant as a look at what the art world can learn from the music world’s troubles. To passersby, the site will look a lot like a lively music store, with racks of records, a cash register and promotional posters hung overhead. (Window-sized “For Lease” signs remain, however.)

Ted Riederer and 40 other artists have created the mock “shop,” which will include record albums that have their covers blacked out except for a few words. Visitors flip through the stack to read a poem. It’s a piece that Mr. Riederer calls a “love letter” to the dying concept of a record store. “My goal is … to have them in the store for 30 minutes until they realize it’s not a store,” he says. Tower Records opened in Sacramento, Calif., in 1960, and by 2006 had 89 stores across the U.S.—all gone now, though a Web site still takes orders.

Opening night of the New York exhibition will include an appearance by a Vanilla Ice impersonator. Also participating is Paul Villinski, who says he used to spend Saturday nights in the store picking out $7 New Wave albums. His work is made from his own record collection, sculpted to look like birds.

Write to Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com

Now it is time to keep the energy high and look at the next level of arts for our community. That is where Artspace enters into the picture. Artspace is a national not for profit organization with a mission to create, foster, and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations. Too many times artists have jump started a run down civic area only to find that after their success of making the area a lively, fun and desirable “place to be”, the rents rocket up and live/work spaces are no longer affordable. Artspace works to remedy this situation and has established a number of live/work spaces for artists across the country including two properties in Seattle and a new property in Everett. Artspace is a natural progression for our local arts and cultural resources.

This initiative to have an Artspace property in Olympia has passed an initial proof of concept stage. In the fall of 2009, an evaluation team from Artspace came to our community to assess all the components needed to be considered for a successful project. In summary we passed the test by showing among other criteria a solid show of support from the community to start working on this project.

The project itself can take 5 to 8 years of fund raising, planning, land acquisition, design, construction, etc. Artspace is able to assist the community raise the funds through a broad array of resources including local, state and federal grants and private contributions. As a start to make this happen, a local group of citizens is in the process of forming a not for profit foundation to take the lead on this initiative and once completed implement the property management program.

AADO has taken the position that this initiative is good for the downtown area economic, social and cultural environment and should be pursued. Generally speaking, Artspace indicates that their formula calls for local government provide about 10% of the funding. For illustration purposes that could mean $1 million for a $10 million total project (our research and planning will determine actual scope and cost of the project). It is known that local governments are facing very difficult budget issues and funding for such a project may not be currently available. However, our position is that if we take this project in manageable phases over a reasonable time frame we can bring a very valuable resource to the downtown core. It means having a definitive plan in place and being ready to move quickly to the next phase when opportunities present themselves. (Note that when an opportunity for funding a regional attraction became available to Olympia several years ago, it seemed the city was caught flat footed and had to scramble to come up with an idea because there was no definitive plan or vision for a city regional attraction).

Currently there does not seem to be any other program in the local vision like Artspace whereby a public/private partnership can establish affordable live/work space at such a cost/benefit ratio. And yes, there are detractors to such an initiative as in why is the live/work space only for artists. There are a number of housing programs, subsidies, grants and tax rebates available to much of the general public. This one focuses on the arts and it is a common fact that when artists move into downtrodden urban areas these areas witness a rebirth and a very positive improvement to the area follows.

For these reasons, AADO strongly supports the Artspace initiative and will be assisting the leadership group in this worthy endeavor.

For more information on Artspace, please visit the national web site: www.artspace.org

# Congress should ensure that health care legislation includes subsidies to help nonprofit employers provide health insurance for their employees. Tax credits for small employers that provide health insurance for employees won’t help tax-exempt organizations.
# Together, nonprofits employ nearly 14 million individuals — almost 10 percent of the U.S. workforce — who are integral to the vital services these organizations provide to communities throughout the nation.
# Individually, the vast majority of nonprofits are small businesses, employing 50 or fewer workers, and like our for-profit counterparts, we generally don’t have access to the range of health insurance choices available to larger businesses.
# Nonprofits are facing rising demands for our services with fewer private contributions and government resources to help meet that demand. Without assistance, most small nonprofits will be forced to cut staff, cut benefits, and cut programs.

Olympia is home to a historic and acclaimed cultural treasure of a number of live performance not-for-profit theatres. These theatres bring to life diverse ideas that entertain, challenge, enlighten and educate. The retention and longevity of these theatres and their respective production companies is a tribute to the greater Olympia community who, through continued attendance (over 182,000 patrons in downtown Olympia in 2008) and solid financial support, have created a meaningful cultural resource.

Recognizing that live theater is a cherished art form within this community; one deserving continued public and private financial and moral support and with the city council and mayor wishing to promote public awareness of and apprecation for Olympia’s live performing theatres have declared the third week of October to be known and celebrated as Live Theatre Week.

The Arts Alliance of Downtown Olympia (”AADO”) thanks the city for its continued support. AADO focuses on marketing and branding of the downtown Olympia theatre district which is comprised of the State Theatre (Harlequin) , Capital Playhouse, Capitol Theatre (Olympia Film Society) and the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Through collaboration with such groups as the Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater Visitor and Convention Bureau and the Olympia City Parks and Recreation, AADO provides a collective effort to heighten awarenes of the downtown theatre district (such as this proclamation initiative).

AADO appreciates your continued interest and support for the performing arts.