| Becoming
a Town or City Would Benefit Arts |
|
To the editor:
|
| This past Saturday I was invited to speak at a meeting of
the Reston nCitizens Association (RCA) in support of the concept
of Reston incorporating as a town. I was privileged to speak
at the RCA meeting held at the Reston Association because
I very much support the concept of Reston becoming a town
or city. |
| As an independent artist, art curator, professional arts
consultant and board member of a local arts organization,
The League of Reston Artists (LRA), it is my personal opinion
that the arts community should strongly rally behind the goal
of Reston incorporating. |
| Reston needs a strong unified voice that speaks with a clear
message on the value and meaning of the arts in the community
and for its citizens. Robert E. Simon made it so clear in
his vision for the master plan of Reston that the arts should
figure prominently in the development of Reston. |
| Indeed, Mr. Simon is a visionary artist in the sense that
he created something extraordinary through his dream for Reston.
A mayor who supports the arts and advocates for the arts could
provide the very voice that the arts community in Reston needs
to effectively grow its diverse audience and sustain its future
operations. |
| Reston is truly an artistic community. The League of Reston
Artists, for example, has seen its membership grow to just
over 300 members in this past year alone. The LRA currently
produce 14 exhibitions a year at four major venues in Reston.
|
| By way of example of how the LRA's programming has grown,
let me share this: We currently have on exhibition at the
Jo Ann Rose Gallery 80 photographs by 40 photographers at
our League of Reston Artists/Reston Photographic Society Annual
Judged Photography Exhibition. This year we had to restrict
each photographer to two photographs because the participation
in our exhibitions has grown to the point where we have simply
run out of room to display all the work that artists want
to exhibit at Reston's current largest exhibition gallery
space. |
| But as successful as the LRA is, we can only do so much
as an all-volunteer organization. I say this because I honestly
believe the lack of status as a town or city presided over
by a mayor, city council and Reston-based arts council holds
back the further enhancement and development of the arts in
Reston. |
| At the RCA meeting I shared my personal experiences as former
director of development and project manager for the Ohr-O'Keefe
Museum of Art in Biloxi, Miss. In 1994, this tiny museum crowded
into three rooms on the second floor of the Biloxi Public
Library dedicated to the legendary Mississippi art potter,
George E. "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" Ohr, in a sleepy little
Mississippi Gulf Coast city, began to dream an impossible
dream: a new museum that would showcase the life and talents
of Biloxi's most famous native son. |
| At first our dream was modest: we hoped to renovate a downtown
warehouse at the cost of $500,000 to $750,000. Then a group
of supporters of the project suggested they knew an architect
who might be interested in designing a new museum dedicated
to George Ohr. |
| We went to the mayor and City Council of Biloxi and asked
them to write personal letters and make a few phone calls
in support of an invitation for this architect from the West
Coast to visit the City of Biloxi. He sat down with us, reviewed
our modest and small scale plans and said this: "If you wanted
to, you could put Biloxi on the international art map. Would
you be interested in doing that? If you would be interested,
would your mayor and city council support the efforts to make
it happen?" |
| This architect's name is Frank O. Gehry. This happened in
1994, four years before Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao,
Spain, opened and Gehry became an international architectural
super star. In the spring of 2005, the first phase of the
Frank O. Gehry-designed new Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art will
open on a beautiful tract of four and a half acres of beachfront
property in Biloxi. First year visitation to this museum is
estimated at 125,000 with a total economic impact of $13 million
for the City of Biloxi. |
| It is inconceivable to me that a place called Biloxi, Miss.,
could have ever realized this dream without being a city.
The enormous efforts that were required from the mayor and
the City Council of the City of Biloxi to advocate at every
level for this project, and the dedicated energy they focused
on speaking out for this project at every step, from the board
of county supervisors, to the governor of the state of Mississippi,
to the Congress of the United States, and to every arts grant
making authority, both private and corporate, made this dream
possible. |
| Just like Mr. Simon, I too have a dream for Reston. It is
my dream for Reston that it might one day develop the infrastructure
for and support a true artist colony. An artist colony that
nurtures, encourages, supports and inspires painters, sculptors,
photographers, print-makers, ceramicists, actors, singers,
musicians, film makers and crafts people of all artistic practices.
|
| An artist colony where performing and visual artists from
across the country and around the world come to learn, teach,
share and create. |
| I believe that for this one dream on mine to become a reality
that Reston must pursue its next logical step toward maturity:
becoming the Town or City of Reston. |
| James W. Bailey |
| Reston |
