About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2011)
KEVAN WILLIAMS WHAT'S UP IN NEW DEVELOPMENT Again and again, this town ranks high on lists related to arts and college towns. It's not the parking decks and convention halls that have caused this success, though; indeed, the successes for which Athens is known have all happened in spite of the best efforts of the unified government. While every public build ing, school, bank tower, hotel, parking deck, fire station or doctor's office may take on the same bland character, there are still some quirky elements that occasionally get through in Athens. Economics will do what bad policy couldn't, though, at least in the most visible and urban areas of the county. Gentrification is pricing out the artists and musicians for which Athens is so well known, to be replaced by student-oriented bars. Could downtown Athens one day simply be a rowdier version of Statesboro, Clemson or Auburn? With gentrification limiting opportunities in urban Athens, could small towns and former industrial sites (such as the Wellington Puritan Mill) become the new hubs of the regional arts community? In the meantime, where do artists and musicians go, if they are to retain the prox imity and sense of community necessary to maintain a world-recognized scene? If the arts community and culture from which Athens has derived its primary successes and notoriety are to continue and to thrive, the members of that community have to start thinking of themselves not only as pioneers in an intellec tual sense, but also in the sense of where they choose to locate and cluster. Already, there are many examples, func tioning with varying degrees of success, that could provide starting points to create new models for artistic communities. The Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF) inhabits the campus of a former school in Watkinsville, renting spaces for studios and hosting public classes. The Chase Street Warehouses complex is a slightly more urban and private model, with sections of 6ld cotton warehouses sold off and renovated by various individuals and businesses. The Orange Twin Conservation Community is a planned conservation subdivi sion with plenty of room for planned studios and workshops. There are also more informal congregations in small towns like Bishop, Comer and Union Point. While it's arguable that a creative coloniza tion of some small town is gentrification in its own right, the most successful examples above are those which took vacant and unused buildings and repurposed them, fill ing a ceded void. The reuse of existing infra structure for a fraction of the cost necessary to build new is a primary factor in the most successful local artistic colonies. A second key feature of those more successful communities is the ability to grow organically, reclaiming a storefront here and a cotton shed there, rather than tackling a massive area all at once. Starting from scratch to form a completed, master-planned community is much more difficult. Another factor to consider is how these concentrations of creative spaces relate to the community in a broader sense. Cycling and alternative transportation are much more integral to the local creative class than the general public, and so looking at regional trail projects could provide a good sense of where to establish new creative economic hubs. Fortunately, these places are also where industrial uses were historically clustered, and where features like shoals, once good for hydroelectric power, now translate into good swimming holes. While old mills might make for good sites, they do seem rather over whelming at first glance. If the owners of such properties begin to view these relics not as asym metrical wholes to be turned into condo com plexes, but architectural evolutions and aggrega tions comprised of many independent pieces, more visually unified by the nature of their prior pur poses than by their archi tecture, they might find a way to put them back to use and make a buck as well. Atlanta, Augusta and Columbus are more known for the monolithic mills, while our local ones are much more rambling. Many proposals have been put forward that have tried to apply that Atlanta condo treat ment to our mills, but they've mostly been unsuccessful, with many sitting vacant for decades regardless of the visions of their own ers. However, the salvation for these historic structures, and their new life, might come through the more organic pattern intro duced by communities like the Chase Street Warehouses. Otherwise, it may be another decade before the local real estate market will bear an Atlanta-style condo conversion. As the local food movement picks up and farmers' markets sprout throughout the region, it's also easy to imagine those old townships being more fully revived by entrepreneurial settlers, provided an ample supply of space is available to build a critical mass. Some small towns may just be too small for a suc cessful arts burg to take off, which is why we hear much more about Union Point, Comer or Watkinsville than we do about Carlton, Maxey's or Good Hope. Whether in upland railroad towns or riv erside mills or somewhere else entirely, if Northeast Georgia wants to retain its arts identity, with all the economic vitality that brings, then the importance of community and place can't be underestimated. While down town Athens may be a victim of its own suc cess, pushing out the arts scene with higher and higher rents, the rural draw could provide the perfect alternative, with new creative hubs established nearby on the vacant founda tions of the former cotton industry. Kevan Williams athensrising@flagpole.com ’Broad f Riv e rpD' utpflst.c o m 'pM 70^795.3242 ! Free ■ Showers SlowWater Coolers WhiteWater ^Parking mKM u gtajiSS Canoe & Kayak*Rentals & Camping Wkend/Holiday $20$15 Wkday Iflagpole w > ATHENS MUSIC AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED ON PAGE 16! . / Attend the Awards Show on Thurs. June 23 at the Morton Theatre to find out the winners! 38 v.- Smoothies under 300 Calories! BUY ONE MEDIUM SMOOTHIE, GET A SMOOTHIE FREE! Up lo $4 49. 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