Cultural district would jazz up downtown Atlanta
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

Jazz, modern dance and ethnic art could play an important role in the creation of a culturally themed business and entertainment district in downtown Atlanta. A study scheduled for release this fall will say it would be feasible to create a cultural district to help revitalize downtown Atlanta, said co-author Arthur C. Brooks. Such a district probably would take shape in the historic Fairlie-Poplar area, fanning out from there to Peachtree and Baker streets, Centennial Olympic Park and eventually to Auburn Avenue.

A cultural district would be relatively inexpensive to develop downtown, because there already exists a cultural infrastructure upon which to draw, Brooks said.

Brooks is assistant professor of public administration and economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He is working on the study with Roland Kushner of the Pennsylvania consulting firm Management Advisory Services Inc.

The district likely would be built upon existing performing arts venues, such as The Tabernacle and Rialto Center for the Performing Arts at Georgia State, Brooks said.

Atlanta's cultural district would include supporting components that are compatible with its mission, such as art galleries; small theaters; privately run, alternative performance spaces; retail shops; restaurants; and nightclubs, Brooks said.

Brooks would like to see all of the business and entertainment activities in the area themed around jazz, modern dance and ethnic art - disciplines, he said, that are distinctively tied to Atlanta's background as the cradle of the civil-rights movement.

"The plan is to present programming that reflects the community's and the market's demands," Brooks said. "I want to play to Atlanta's strengths and demographics in a way that will be successful…not a cheap Northern city knock-off."

Atlanta doesn't have the jazz tradition of other cities, such as St. Louis or New Orleans, Brooks said. "But Atlanta is a rich and cultured place, and we could focus on the kind of art and music that traditionally has been produced in places like Harlem and other cities, specifically jazz, modern dance, ethnic modern art."

The Fulton County Arts Council and Central Atlanta Progress have led discussions among business and civic leaders since the summer of 1998 about using arts and culture as a strategy for revitalizing downtown. In September 1998, the Arts Council, in conjunction with CAP, hired Research Atlanta Inc. to conduct a $20,000 cultural district study.

The Arts Council and CAP will be able to use the results of the study to help promote the possibilities and advantages of creating a cultural district. For example, Brooks said his research shows that in other cities where cultural districts have been developed, downtown areas have been used more extensively.

Atlanta's cultural district likely would be largely patterned after Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts. The business and entertainment destination has generated more than $150 million a year in revenue since it was created in 1993, according to the Avenue of the Arts Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates the area.

Brooks said it would require "a few hundred thousand dollars" to finance such a district in Atlanta, compared with costs ranging from $20 million to $100 million in some of the other cities he has studied. This is primarily because the district will be developed using existing structures rather than creating them from scratch, he said.

Financing would be largely private, from independent and corporate foundations, private and corporate sponsorships, and local government support. It would be raised by a nonprofit group formed specifically to develop and manage a cultural district, Brooks said.

"The total annual budget of about $120,000 for starting the nonprofit, plus signs, streetscaping and getting existing arts venues on board, is very cheap in the first year," he said.

Decisions on the types of business and entertainment options have not been made, but the study should shed some light, said George Geeslin, an Atlanta attorney and former Arts Council chairman. Geeslin is co-chair, with CAP's Paul Kelman, of the informal, year-old cultural district discussion group.

"I don't know, at this point, what form it will take," Geeslin said.

Development of the cultural district could begin as soon as next spring or summer, Brooks said.

RELATED RESEARCH: "Do Public Subsidies Leverage Private Philanthropy for the Arts? Empirical Evidence of Symphony Orchestras," in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly; "The One-Man Band by the Quick Lunch Stand: Modeling Audience Response to Street Performance," with co-author Roland Kushner, forthcoming in the Journal of Cultural Economics; "The Use and Misuse of Adjusted Performance Measures," forthcoming in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; "Is There a Dark Side to Government Support for Nonprofits?" forthcoming in Public Administration Review; and "The 'Income Gap' and the Health of Arts Nonprofits: Arguments, Evidence, and Strategies," forthcoming in Nonprofit Management & Leadership.

This article originally appeared in the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 1999, issue. The story was written by Chronicle staff writer Wendy Bowman-Littler.

Photo above: DOWNTOWN REVAMP? Arthur Brooks, assistant professor of public administration and economics, is advocating the creation of a "cultural district" in Atlanta's historic Fairlie-Poplar area and adjacent neighborhoods, anchored by performing arts venues such as Georgia State's Rialto Center for the Performing Arts.