The August 27 finale to the month-long downtown Phantom Gallery exhibits was a great success, as Mayor Hickman noted at the 5:00 PM reception: “I have never seen so many people on downtown Angola streets, at least not for a very long time on a Saturday Morning." The mayor then read the full text of his official proclamation that "Angola is an Art Town."
It is important to understand what really happened here, and what is required for this train to move forward. This post outlines a complex chain of reasons for what we must do. We all need your help to push this thinking deeper throughout the Arts and Civic communities.
1. The August 2011 first-flush success provided some momentum – we cannot disappoint the people who will subsequently be referred here by these first-time viewers and visit downtown Angola at unpredictable times, hence we must keep the Phantom Galleries running year-round. Otherwise the momentum dissipates rather than builds.
2. The first-flush success is unrepeatable – it was due to the novelty of the downtown transformation. We can’t keep the Miracle Transformation drumbeat up, it will get old. Art, word of mouth referrals, and advertising must carry the load.
3. Special-Saturday success [like Aug 27 Easels on West Maumee] will require expensive advertising unless civic clout yields free advertising.
4. Civic clout requires the community be engaged, not just the downtown. The downtown is too small to for most people to care that much.
5. The best ‘reach’ into community is through its children and their parents. Schools build arenas and stadiums for this reason! We MUST have school exhibits in Phantom Galleries.
6. This requires Phantom Exhibits be free.
7. They also must be free so artists can exhibit art that won’t sell here, but which adds to the draw from others outside the “Art for Lakers” marketing segment. Otherwise these people will be disappointed and won’t return or refer friends, including friends who do buy Art for Lakers. Driving to downtown Angola is a social event, so you have to provide something for the spectrum typically found within friend networks.
8. More importantly, art that won’t sell still adds interest and PIZZAZZ that will keep EVERYONE more interested in coming more often.
9. But if these PIZZAZZ artists can’t sell and have to pay for exhibit space, they won’t, and everyone else will lose.
10. You need all the above to succeed in a really significant way in the long run.
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Stephen Rowe currently serves as the Angola Regional Artists’ Guild publicity chairman and writes two additional blogs:
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