Combining Arts & Culture and Heritage to Spur Renaissance
We would be misled to look to our past with nostalgia. Ask those who can remember what life was like 80 or 90 years ago and they will likely tell you about unsanitary conditions, difficulty traveling between different places and transporting goods, insular attitudes and small-mindedness of villagers, but above all else, scarce and limited resources.
Throughout the 20th century, cities in America and throughout the world sought to overcome these conditions and to create a new and “modern” way of life. Now, people alive today are in the position asking if we’ve gone too far. An increasing scarcity of resources and jobs haunts us, as does an older housing stock built primarily for immigrant workers and the nagging question of what to do with former manufacturing centers like Wyandotte to make them competitive in a global economy.
An answer can be found, at least partially, in identifying what Wyandotte has that no other place does. There is a concentration of arts and cultural institutions here, especially in our downtown. Entrepreneurs have opened galleries, cafes, restaurants, bars, a tea room, and a bakery that make Wyandotte an attractive place to live and visit. Though there is a pervasive sense that something is missing that could help this city take-off.
Richard Florida in Rise of the Creative Class claims that a concentration of creative people drives economic activity. And to make places attractive for the 38 million members of the creative class, requires three things: talent, technology, and tolerance.
We have TALENT in arts and cultural institutions and in a core group of entrepreneurs.
We have TECHNOLOGY though could use more. Making Internet access ubiquitous, especially in our downtown, and attracting technology-related businesses by creating a place for these businesses to locate, would help as well.
TOLERANCE is the area we need to work on most. As we become an increasingly popular center for arts and culture, it is important to be a place where people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, different ages, and different life experiences feel welcome and can make their contribution to Wyandotte’s renaissance.
Arts and culture and creative people might drive economic development, but what is it that distinguishes Wyandotte from any other place? Our heritage. The first people to occupy this land established the Maquaqua village here, Major John Biddle set up his plantation house and estate on the same spot in 1818, later the first commercial application of the Bessemer steel process occurred here, and Wyandotte became a notorious center for rum-running and this illicit trade of distilled spirits during Prohibition. This is our story, though efforts need to be made to interpret, package, and present it better to the public.
Now, knowing Wyandotte’s strengths, what is required to make these a foundation for a renaissance? Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect describes the “intersection” where different ideas meet and innovation occurs. If it is accepted that Wyandotte’s strengths are arts and culture and our heritage, then finding ways to combine these two themes would help.
And, how might this appear? Both arts and culture and our heritage would be visible on banners on street poles downtown and along major boulevards, strategically placed interpretive markers could emphasize our rich heritage, and a regularly scheduled tour program could connect resident and visitor’s alike to Wyandotte’s past. Then murals, sculpture, and public art, incorporating themes of our heritage (perhaps at the Yack Arena whose renovation is now being planned), would both support local artists and reinforce our identity as an emerging center for arts and culture.
As published in the Downriver Review