Panel: Arts are key to reviving city

More than twice as many people could be drawn into the city, a YSU dean says.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Anyone who thinks arts and entertainment aren't big business in Youngstown and a vital component in the city's revitalization should talk to George McCloud.
Collectively, venues such as Edward E. Powers Auditorium, The Butler Institute of American Art, Ballet Western Reserve, Youngstown State University and the Oakland Center for the Performing Arts draw some 800,000 patrons into the downtown area each year, said McCloud, dean of YSU's College of Fine and Performing Arts.
There have been times, he added, when several venues have had sold-out performances on the same nights.
McCloud was one of six panelists representing a sampling of the city's arts organizations during an hourlong forum to discuss the role arts and entertainment will play in Youngstown 2010, a redevelopment plan for the city.
Capitalizing on venues
By capitalizing on the strengths of the city's art and entertainment venues, and encouraging cooperative efforts among them, more than twice as many people could be drawn into the city, McCloud said.
That could spur development of complementary businesses -- restaurants, galleries and boutiques -- which would draw even more people, concurred another panelist, Jeffery Kurz, an attorney working to help develop the downtown entertainment district as part of the Youngstown 2010 plan.
More businesses and more people would mean more money would stay in the city, Kurz explained.
Other panelists
Panelists also included Louis Zona, executive director of The Butler; Patricia Syak, executive director of the Youngstown Symphony Society; Brenda Williams of the Oakland Center for the Arts; and Hunter Morrison, director of YSU's Center for Urban and Regional Studies. All agreed that cooperative efforts among arts organizations benefit each organization as well as the community.
The value of a successful arts and entertainment district is not only the direct economic impact of the jobs created, but also the boost it provides for the quality of life, Morrison said; people choose to live in a community because of the quality of life.
A growing arts and entertainment district could also spur residential development, Williams suggested. The upper floors of vacant downtown buildings could be transformed into living spaces as the street-level storefronts open for business.
Panelists also discussed ongoing cooperative efforts, such as a joint project planned between the Symphony Center and YSU to hold performances of the Dana School of Music in a 600-seat recital hall to be built next to Powers Auditorium.
kubik@vindy.com
XThe forum was broadcast live on PBS 45 and 49 and WYSU 88.5 FM and will be rebroadcast on WYSU FM at 3 p.m. Sunday.