Post by davesmith on Jul 1, 2007 22:02:02 GMT -5
Hello,
Hope this is in the right place. Sorry if this is not so.
I have a project you might want to look into. If you wish, more details can be found at:
groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtVillage/
or you can contact me for answers. david_s_14850@yahoo.com
And before we continue – remember that’s my real e-mail address down there. Ever see spam with a valid return address? No? Didn’t think so. But this isn’t spam.
Basically I need help in locating a town with the right ‘surplus’ building, that wants to see the building put to use. I’m trying to get the requirements all in one place, but it’s not that easy. And it has a very real tie in to Second Life.
Why would this be of interest to you? Because you may wish to support this project, if for no other reason than the community benefits it can provide. It does not have a large startup requirement.
It’s a blueprint for a ‘do-it-yourself’ local art colony, along with a built in ‘small business incubator, and a ‘help the community’ function as well. With lots of nice side benefits, plus generous benefits to the community as well. And no, you don’t have to be an artist to join in.
“An art colony?” Well, not exactly, it’s not just for artists, but I had to call it something. ‘Art Village’ won the coin toss with being the name with the greatest possible tourist draw. But there are other functions to the Art Village.
“Small business incubator?”
A person that starts a small business often faces a growth problem. The business gets way too large for the basement, but not big enough for it’s own building. And there are probably no ‘half buildings’ for rent locally. Enter the Art Village with a wide range of capabilities. And in a way, this is still true - an artist is a small business, in a way.
The Art Village does not have to be located in any one place. As a matter of fact, there is a strong suggestion in the long run a single location might somewhat work against the full function of the Art Village.
Why does the Art Village eventually need to be in several places? It doesn’t have to, of course. In part this is due to the nature of the artists themselves, and their requirements. The spectrum of ‘Artist’ ranges from ‘artist as hermit’, wanting a studio location out back of beyond, and no visitors, please. To the other extreme, the performance artist, who not only wants an easy to reach central location studio, they want it (or the stage) in a central, well traveled location. They are almost ready to kidnap people off the street for a ‘on demand’ audience. There are too extremes here, and there may be others, depends how you call things. Clearly one building can’t serve these two extremes, to say nothing of the artists in between the extremes.
But wait! There is no law requiring all ‘Art Village’ functions to be housed in one place. Yes, you might expect that would be needed, but recent developments (i.e., Second Life, the Net and other developments) have changed that.
How can the Art Village be in several places? The short, noncomplex answer is by doing any linking needed over the Internet, the more involved answer is found in the support programs created, or in place. The hardware and software to do the linking already exist in several forms, all off the shelf and purchasable by the artists themselves, if that’s called for. But many of them already have the computer hardware need to hook up.
Bottom line for the project? The whole Art Village Project is a very flexible way to create a concern, a shop, or studio that builds itself, modeled on local needs - and in the later stages might even pay while it’s doing so.
Just about anything goes, and because it's a local project, local needs will be a priority - a local voice is going to be heard strongly in the chapter.
Somewhat interested now?
But there’s more. It will really help the (local) community as well, in several useful ways. Some I have outlined, some are just possible projections.
Is it real? The Art Village has a virtual aspect that will be of use to any artist or craftsman anywhere - more on this later. But there is a place for a limited mobility person here as well. And thanks to the web, an artist or budding small business don’t have to be local to join in. One of our idea contributors is in India, for example. - that certainly is not ‘local‘ to the US.
The groups uses the Net to maintain contact between users or chapters in a kind of loose 'federation'. Depending on the decisions of local chapters, non-members will have some access to local chapter files.
Yes, with a bit of luck . . . Well, ok, make that a large amount of luck
- an Art Village might well be appearing near you!
The statement of the Art Village theme might be; "To create an supportive environment for artists." “Supportive environment” also includes a few small businesses to help pay the bills and fill up the school rooms.
What with the baby boomers reaching retirement age, a lot of schools are on the block already. And remember, the Art Village DOESN’T have to be in a school. Sure, schools are nice - but not a requirement. Any reasonably large building - or collection of buildings - will work. Some better than others, but they will work just fine.
No one else outside the local area will benefiting from the skills brought to the group except by sharing computer files. We will help with advise, yes. But each "Art Village" will be locally run, locally controlled.
Of course, as we get bigger, there might be some other Art Villages formed, and there might be new artists, or small businesses wanting to move into the new place. But that’s later.
As of 2007, I only have the broad details. I want people like you to fill in the everyday details. That’s why I’m asking for help. I’m collecting all the files needed to find the buildings, and start an Art Village. Sooner or later it will happen, and then, with access to those files, the next one will be easier.
Possible Art Village functions
One possible way to do this is to have some of the mundane things often needed by artists, purchased in bulk and held for later use. This function will generally be known as ‘stores’. The member artists are not required to buy from the Art Village ‘stores’ section, but the lower price, location, and ‘fresh nature’ of the materials should encourage this.
Fresh Plaster of Paris – best when used fresh. Or kiln wash, an essential consumable item for ceramics work. A product with no limit to shelf life, and other uses as well. One pound costs $1.95, but at 25 pounds the price drops to a dollar a pound. At a 50% price drop and wide usage, with no penalty for overstocking (an overstock does not “spoil“), this is a good possibility for savings by bulk purchase.
There are other possible benefits to working in bulk. For ceramics artists a large capacity ‘pug mill’ means the artist can spend less time making clay and more time creating.
Of course, there are other support functions the Art Village provides. A loading dock is seldom needed by a single artist, perhaps only once a month, but that projects to a full use schedule when there are 20 artists on site. In other words, a single artist may need the loading dock only once a month, but the requirements of 20 to 30 artists (or small firms) means near daily use for this feature. The existence of a loading dock might be of use to local community as well.
So I project the function of the 'Art Village' be combined with the function of a small business ‘incubator’ as well - to provide the largest number of renters possible, and to make the venue as useful and complete as possible.
Another possible empowerment is to have a collection of artists with activities that naturally support each other. I plan to offer more than just the rental of space, as I have encountered a number of ways the blending of the different needs of artists is a good thing.
In short, I hope to ‘encourage’ artists that have overlapping needs or functions – then help those overlapping needs get filled. The report assumes, but does not require, the project being started in a rural area. The project might be located in a surplus school or similar building – at this point a ‘surplus’ school is probably the best starting point.
To date I have not been able to find a term that will help me find the location of such buildings that clearly do exist in other places as well. Other people may have better luck on this.
A school building is often owned outright or long term leased by the town. While circumstances vary, (sometimes much more than you might expect) this usually seems to be the normal state of affairs.
In the beginning, size is probably more important than type, but all details need to be considered. To paraphrase a famous quote, “If you have a building, they will come.” Well, if we have a building located, it’s a downhill shot to a functioning Art Village.
With the abilities of the Internet it doesn’t have to be a single building anymore. Why not combine the Art Village, and a few other things like the small business incubator and other functions, at a surplus / retired public school? While an area may not be able to produce enough artists to fill every one of the school rooms available, a mix of artists and businesses should be able to fill the rooms, and provide a safe mix in case the economy makes a change against a single Village.
Conditions that might affect one group should not hit the other as hard, and what one needs the other may supply. After all, in a way an artist is a small business, and as such, need support as much as any other small business. If you have only a few artist tenants, by itself that would be a problem. But with a number of different possible renters (artistes, small businesses, and whatever) the problem may well become a shortage of available space, not a shortage of renters.
Really, I feel this is not a problem. Most features attractive to one group will also be of interest to the other. And the hermit artists are probably looking to move further out anyway.
An everyday example would be a loading dock. No stone working artist is going to hand carry off a 10 ton block of stone, for example. So, expect a move to have a shipping dock on site, if there is not one there already.
In turn, such an item suggests a need for some kind of shipping firm, and temporary holding area - in effect a warehouse in function. From there, it’s a short step to possibly forming a shipping company, if needed.
An Art Village can have an artist support function in other ways. For example, a simple product might be a plaster of Paris block, for pottery use. A wedging board goes for about $100 in a standard pottery catalog, basically it’s a 3$ bock of plaster of Paris. You can get one made if an artist in residence has an excess of plaster - just provide the molds to catch the surplus plaster which would be thrown out anyway as it sets up.
The Art village can provide these items and others* for, say, teachers giving local pottery classes.
(* Pottery wheels have a similar 1:100 price markup. So does other pottery equipment.)
The teacher could get low cost items for setting up his class, the people attending could have an opportunity to buy such low cost items as well. The act of using the Art Village as a base of operations provides several real world benefits - the teacher has a reduced cost in first time setup for his class, the students could buy the items they learned on at low cost.
Another possible support function is a spin off of bulk purchase and processing of raw materials. A real world example would be the mulling of clay. This is best done in large lots, with a large capacity machine and stockpiled in plastic 55 gallon drums for long periods of time (long storage promotes a useful aging process). The need to process a large lot of clay would justify and support the purchase of a high capacity muller. Such machines need the industrial capable wiring an ex- school can provide.
However, the weight of such clay restricts where such a major clay stockpile can be stored (second floor storage is NOT suggested for this, even if you can easily get a barrel upstairs!).
One major feature of any school building would be the classrooms. They are going to be the greatest number of rooms in the school, and will be the largest item in the school. They will also be a natural place to locate offices or studios. Some classrooms can stay classrooms as a place for courses to be given.
There might be another use for the classrooms - for use as climate controlled storage areas, and at least one might be used for a warehouse for the shipping section. There is also the possibility of the community itself needing office space. One school building I know of ended up completely taken over by offices for various community programs.
Interaction between artists -
Some interactions are possible, example, the artists that do woodwork making the wooden molds used by the furnace and glory hole glassblowers.
General purpose shop -
Partly a site support function, partly a building maintainence function, it would also do the odd artist requested job required, like mounting paint brushes on long handles, or other strange jobs.
Mail box center -
The town post office does not mind if a mailbox location is set up locally - indeed, this may free up the pressure for boxes in the local post office. Both a local job and a community support feature. This is partly a public access feature as well - depends on how the community wants to use it.
I do know established companies have used such mailbox firms even though they had a fully functional mailing room at the time.
Employment firm -
And just where would that firm locate? Well, I know of a place, centrally located to the local area, with lots of parking, and office space, and a number of locations and small businesses needing workers right at hand. Humm. . . Might be an effective way to get gas savings.
Bookkeeping -
Having a number of small firms in one place would be of interest to a bookkeeper. An ‘on site‘ bookkeeper could offer a lower cost service to the Art Village firms, all gathered in one place. Again - an effective time and gas savings.
Shared resources -
Both glassblowing and pottery have a need for kilns, but the type of need is not identical. It might be possible to use the kilns for both functions with modern insulating materials and programmable controllers to cut down on problems in building or running them. There could be problems with a particular use, but there are a number of artistic needs for kiln space. Here is a partial list.
Art Clay (misnamed bit, after being fired ‘Art Clay’ is pure gold or silver)
Glass slumping
Glass annealing
Pottery and brisk work
Enameling
Metal casting
Tin plate work
This is also a safety feature - the area can be equipped with several different carbon monoxide sensors for safety.
It may also be possible to use other money saving approaches - for example, with an idea of the volume of work needed, that will indirectly suggest the number of kilns needed. You can now plan ahead for this number of kilns ultimately needed. Knowing you will need, say, 10 kilns, would justify something like building the kilns in a group to save on the heat losses on heat conducted through the walls. Build enough kilns in a circle and the ring will wrap around and ‘close’, giving you in effect a ‘free’ kiln to add to the others. This much raw pottery flow would make it easy to set up a dust control system. A local green ware storage area is also useful.
New developments like the solid state TV cameras open up new uses. For example, Corning glass of New York has such a camera set up to show the inside of a ‘glory hole’ furnace.
If possible, try to collect artists that have overlapping needs or functions. At least, have an idea of the process or functions that do truly overlap, so those needs can be meant as well.
As a typical example this report assumes (but does not require) an Art Village renter who might be building a glassblowing studio.
A woodworking artist might be used to make some of the traditional glassblowing tools, for example, which are wood.
Day care center -
A day care function is a natural add on to the Art Village, and given the conditions today there is a real need for it. I feel this is a feature sure to be given a positive vote. If this is was K to grade school originally the playground directed toward younger children should be a bonus to the Art Village. Adding a day care function would insure the items already in place are put to full use. Plus the kids would love it.
A Montessori school -
In many parts of the world, anyone who wishes to can open a school and call it a ”Montessori school” with no knowledge or training of how an authentic program is organized or run. This is sometimes embarrassing for those who understand all too well the difference. Most of these schools fail, but often not before they harm the general image of other Montessori schools in their community.
Caterer support -
Of special interest to a local catering firm would be the full function, up to code commercial kitchen. A bonus is the day to day steady customers the site would provide for that service.
The daily customers are the artists that want to eat on site, plus the parents who want to spend quality time with their children in the day care center.
Notes on glass
A "hot shop" is the most difficult of any glass craft ventue, conversely it would provide the greater returns. Example: a huge amount of heat is generated in the winter months by a hot shop. Lesser glassblowing function shops would provide almost as many benefits as well, including the steady need for oxygen. The complex with a glass making furnace at it’s core has a number of features that could be shared with other artists, or small businesses. These features include heat output of a furnace also be used to other, somewhat more mundane uses, like some of the heat output going to a lumber drying kiln.
However, activities of a lampworking shop (an intermediate step to a full ‘hot shop’) has many of those features as well. For example, a hot shop or lampworking shop might take a step forward and go directly to a tank of cryogenic oxygen to run the glassblowing torches. As a low use tank normally vents ‘excess’ (not drawn off for use) oxygen, this same cryogenic oxygen tank could run one, or a number of torches at about the same cost. In short, a cryogenic tank would support a number of torches without shortening the ‘lifetime’ use of the tank. This could include a oxy-acetylene cutting torch, as well. Such torches as those are useful in any shop.
For that matter, any artistic function that involves ‘directed heat’ would benefit from access to glass blowing torches themselves. Because of the nature of glass, glass blowing torches have to be a superior design and function. They will work very well for any effort that needs directed heat.
Along the way to making the plans for the Art Village I saw the possibility of other features. The existence of these features depends in part on the building size, the local grounds, and the building features.
Phone Answering service -
The school has the office space and the phone lines already in place* to support this function. There will also be a inter classroom intercom system there as well.
* (standard widespread phone company policy is to run *all* local phone lines into such a building - there are several technical reasons for this)
A local Museum
Not all locations will have a need for this, but this is a possible function of the Village. Depends on the town, of course.
A local library -
The Library area of the school will probably be ‘book free’ when things get started - I expect the book were removed when the school stopped functioning, but the building should still have the bookshelves in place. I would suggest against the library being broken up, as there are probably better, more positive uses for it for the original function. With the room basically unchanged there are at least two functions it can provide. One such use would be to hold art books donated to the Art Village. The other can be supporting a full local library.
Local townspeople could donate books to provide books needed for the library. Such a location will be slowly restocked with donated books in one form or another. I have been involved with this project so I have firsthand knowledge of the project. The library could also provide a place for a retired couple to start a paperback business store.
The shop classes area -
Of course, again the tools were removed when the school stopped functioning. However, things like industrial wiring and industrial lighting were left behind, perhaps even some of the larger items like compressed air systems, workbenches, and dust collection systems were not removed.
Auto shop area -
This is a natural for reuse as an auto repair shop. Conversion to a real garage would happen very quickly.
Related Art village support items -
Other community support functions include things like a community fax machine, community copier, and other items like a public access computer. Depending on demand and building features, this might be an Internet café, in the cafeteria, or possibly the library. As there will be office space on site, there is the possibility of use by a number of local firms.
The auditorium is something that should not be broken up. It is quite possibly the largest single room for miles, and looking at the room as just cubic footage would be a mistake. There are a number of functions possible in the space that would work best with the room in it’s original form. There are other possible low cost upgrades to the auditorium. Based on personal experience, obtaining a full size theater quality movie screen is possible, for example.
Even the original design of the school can be an aid to the day to day operation of the Art Village. A school design now has only one normal access point to the building. The Art Village starts off with offering access to a number of firms, but only through a receptionist - a gatekeeper in effect - that can be a contact point even though the person is not present at the time.
Emergency functions and community support -
Local support of the community would include functions like providing a ‘stand by’ church for use in case the original becomes damaged. Community support can also come from providing a location for the Red Cross, or for groups providing community support.
* (The Red cross states one of the needs for disaster center is a large building, of course, but other items like storage space and available communications is also given as a needed item.)
As support for the Art Village, I have collected a large and diverse amount of facts and information I plan to make available as a special data base. This information, plus the other information provided by other artists, presented as an Internet data base, could provide support to artists worldwide. In effect this would create a virtual ‘Art Village’ almost overnight.
Having a good showroom is another one possibility for the Art Village, and having a number of artists showing their wares in one place will tend to justify trips from patrons, encouraging extended visits by patrons, providing local benefits somewhat like having an upscale shopping mall in the area.
Other functions -
Depending on the building and grounds - another possible function is the display of unusual artwork and community projects, both inside and out. This might include local functions that were using the building grounds before the Art Village was established.
There is a possibility of some creative reworking of items around the building - for example, with some yellow paint a propane tank can become the ‘Yellow Submarine in dry-dock‘. Eyesore becomes art.
As a ‘business anchor’ for some functions that are a bit hard to describe. For example;
Retirement homes have a number of people joining them, many with a number of still valuable items they might wish to donate. Frequently they might have life experiences, tools, musical interments or similar items for donation to the Village. In some cases the Village can be a clearing house doing nothing more than bringing such people together.
While I’m not excessively ‘Green’ (ecologically supportive) I do feel ecological solutions to problems should be encouraged where possible. Whenever possible these solutions will be added to the general operation of the Art Village.
Yours,
David Smith
david_s_14850@yahoo.com
Hope this is in the right place. Sorry if this is not so.
I have a project you might want to look into. If you wish, more details can be found at:
groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtVillage/
or you can contact me for answers. david_s_14850@yahoo.com
And before we continue – remember that’s my real e-mail address down there. Ever see spam with a valid return address? No? Didn’t think so. But this isn’t spam.
Basically I need help in locating a town with the right ‘surplus’ building, that wants to see the building put to use. I’m trying to get the requirements all in one place, but it’s not that easy. And it has a very real tie in to Second Life.
Why would this be of interest to you? Because you may wish to support this project, if for no other reason than the community benefits it can provide. It does not have a large startup requirement.
It’s a blueprint for a ‘do-it-yourself’ local art colony, along with a built in ‘small business incubator, and a ‘help the community’ function as well. With lots of nice side benefits, plus generous benefits to the community as well. And no, you don’t have to be an artist to join in.
“An art colony?” Well, not exactly, it’s not just for artists, but I had to call it something. ‘Art Village’ won the coin toss with being the name with the greatest possible tourist draw. But there are other functions to the Art Village.
“Small business incubator?”
A person that starts a small business often faces a growth problem. The business gets way too large for the basement, but not big enough for it’s own building. And there are probably no ‘half buildings’ for rent locally. Enter the Art Village with a wide range of capabilities. And in a way, this is still true - an artist is a small business, in a way.
The Art Village does not have to be located in any one place. As a matter of fact, there is a strong suggestion in the long run a single location might somewhat work against the full function of the Art Village.
Why does the Art Village eventually need to be in several places? It doesn’t have to, of course. In part this is due to the nature of the artists themselves, and their requirements. The spectrum of ‘Artist’ ranges from ‘artist as hermit’, wanting a studio location out back of beyond, and no visitors, please. To the other extreme, the performance artist, who not only wants an easy to reach central location studio, they want it (or the stage) in a central, well traveled location. They are almost ready to kidnap people off the street for a ‘on demand’ audience. There are too extremes here, and there may be others, depends how you call things. Clearly one building can’t serve these two extremes, to say nothing of the artists in between the extremes.
But wait! There is no law requiring all ‘Art Village’ functions to be housed in one place. Yes, you might expect that would be needed, but recent developments (i.e., Second Life, the Net and other developments) have changed that.
How can the Art Village be in several places? The short, noncomplex answer is by doing any linking needed over the Internet, the more involved answer is found in the support programs created, or in place. The hardware and software to do the linking already exist in several forms, all off the shelf and purchasable by the artists themselves, if that’s called for. But many of them already have the computer hardware need to hook up.
Bottom line for the project? The whole Art Village Project is a very flexible way to create a concern, a shop, or studio that builds itself, modeled on local needs - and in the later stages might even pay while it’s doing so.
Just about anything goes, and because it's a local project, local needs will be a priority - a local voice is going to be heard strongly in the chapter.
Somewhat interested now?
But there’s more. It will really help the (local) community as well, in several useful ways. Some I have outlined, some are just possible projections.
Is it real? The Art Village has a virtual aspect that will be of use to any artist or craftsman anywhere - more on this later. But there is a place for a limited mobility person here as well. And thanks to the web, an artist or budding small business don’t have to be local to join in. One of our idea contributors is in India, for example. - that certainly is not ‘local‘ to the US.
The groups uses the Net to maintain contact between users or chapters in a kind of loose 'federation'. Depending on the decisions of local chapters, non-members will have some access to local chapter files.
Yes, with a bit of luck . . . Well, ok, make that a large amount of luck
- an Art Village might well be appearing near you!The statement of the Art Village theme might be; "To create an supportive environment for artists." “Supportive environment” also includes a few small businesses to help pay the bills and fill up the school rooms.
What with the baby boomers reaching retirement age, a lot of schools are on the block already. And remember, the Art Village DOESN’T have to be in a school. Sure, schools are nice - but not a requirement. Any reasonably large building - or collection of buildings - will work. Some better than others, but they will work just fine.
No one else outside the local area will benefiting from the skills brought to the group except by sharing computer files. We will help with advise, yes. But each "Art Village" will be locally run, locally controlled.
Of course, as we get bigger, there might be some other Art Villages formed, and there might be new artists, or small businesses wanting to move into the new place. But that’s later.
As of 2007, I only have the broad details. I want people like you to fill in the everyday details. That’s why I’m asking for help. I’m collecting all the files needed to find the buildings, and start an Art Village. Sooner or later it will happen, and then, with access to those files, the next one will be easier.
Possible Art Village functions
One possible way to do this is to have some of the mundane things often needed by artists, purchased in bulk and held for later use. This function will generally be known as ‘stores’. The member artists are not required to buy from the Art Village ‘stores’ section, but the lower price, location, and ‘fresh nature’ of the materials should encourage this.
Fresh Plaster of Paris – best when used fresh. Or kiln wash, an essential consumable item for ceramics work. A product with no limit to shelf life, and other uses as well. One pound costs $1.95, but at 25 pounds the price drops to a dollar a pound. At a 50% price drop and wide usage, with no penalty for overstocking (an overstock does not “spoil“), this is a good possibility for savings by bulk purchase.
There are other possible benefits to working in bulk. For ceramics artists a large capacity ‘pug mill’ means the artist can spend less time making clay and more time creating.
Of course, there are other support functions the Art Village provides. A loading dock is seldom needed by a single artist, perhaps only once a month, but that projects to a full use schedule when there are 20 artists on site. In other words, a single artist may need the loading dock only once a month, but the requirements of 20 to 30 artists (or small firms) means near daily use for this feature. The existence of a loading dock might be of use to local community as well.
So I project the function of the 'Art Village' be combined with the function of a small business ‘incubator’ as well - to provide the largest number of renters possible, and to make the venue as useful and complete as possible.
Another possible empowerment is to have a collection of artists with activities that naturally support each other. I plan to offer more than just the rental of space, as I have encountered a number of ways the blending of the different needs of artists is a good thing.
In short, I hope to ‘encourage’ artists that have overlapping needs or functions – then help those overlapping needs get filled. The report assumes, but does not require, the project being started in a rural area. The project might be located in a surplus school or similar building – at this point a ‘surplus’ school is probably the best starting point.
To date I have not been able to find a term that will help me find the location of such buildings that clearly do exist in other places as well. Other people may have better luck on this.
A school building is often owned outright or long term leased by the town. While circumstances vary, (sometimes much more than you might expect) this usually seems to be the normal state of affairs.
In the beginning, size is probably more important than type, but all details need to be considered. To paraphrase a famous quote, “If you have a building, they will come.” Well, if we have a building located, it’s a downhill shot to a functioning Art Village.
With the abilities of the Internet it doesn’t have to be a single building anymore. Why not combine the Art Village, and a few other things like the small business incubator and other functions, at a surplus / retired public school? While an area may not be able to produce enough artists to fill every one of the school rooms available, a mix of artists and businesses should be able to fill the rooms, and provide a safe mix in case the economy makes a change against a single Village.
Conditions that might affect one group should not hit the other as hard, and what one needs the other may supply. After all, in a way an artist is a small business, and as such, need support as much as any other small business. If you have only a few artist tenants, by itself that would be a problem. But with a number of different possible renters (artistes, small businesses, and whatever) the problem may well become a shortage of available space, not a shortage of renters.
Really, I feel this is not a problem. Most features attractive to one group will also be of interest to the other. And the hermit artists are probably looking to move further out anyway.
An everyday example would be a loading dock. No stone working artist is going to hand carry off a 10 ton block of stone, for example. So, expect a move to have a shipping dock on site, if there is not one there already.
In turn, such an item suggests a need for some kind of shipping firm, and temporary holding area - in effect a warehouse in function. From there, it’s a short step to possibly forming a shipping company, if needed.
An Art Village can have an artist support function in other ways. For example, a simple product might be a plaster of Paris block, for pottery use. A wedging board goes for about $100 in a standard pottery catalog, basically it’s a 3$ bock of plaster of Paris. You can get one made if an artist in residence has an excess of plaster - just provide the molds to catch the surplus plaster which would be thrown out anyway as it sets up.
The Art village can provide these items and others* for, say, teachers giving local pottery classes.
(* Pottery wheels have a similar 1:100 price markup. So does other pottery equipment.)
The teacher could get low cost items for setting up his class, the people attending could have an opportunity to buy such low cost items as well. The act of using the Art Village as a base of operations provides several real world benefits - the teacher has a reduced cost in first time setup for his class, the students could buy the items they learned on at low cost.
Another possible support function is a spin off of bulk purchase and processing of raw materials. A real world example would be the mulling of clay. This is best done in large lots, with a large capacity machine and stockpiled in plastic 55 gallon drums for long periods of time (long storage promotes a useful aging process). The need to process a large lot of clay would justify and support the purchase of a high capacity muller. Such machines need the industrial capable wiring an ex- school can provide.
However, the weight of such clay restricts where such a major clay stockpile can be stored (second floor storage is NOT suggested for this, even if you can easily get a barrel upstairs!).
One major feature of any school building would be the classrooms. They are going to be the greatest number of rooms in the school, and will be the largest item in the school. They will also be a natural place to locate offices or studios. Some classrooms can stay classrooms as a place for courses to be given.
There might be another use for the classrooms - for use as climate controlled storage areas, and at least one might be used for a warehouse for the shipping section. There is also the possibility of the community itself needing office space. One school building I know of ended up completely taken over by offices for various community programs.
Interaction between artists -
Some interactions are possible, example, the artists that do woodwork making the wooden molds used by the furnace and glory hole glassblowers.
General purpose shop -
Partly a site support function, partly a building maintainence function, it would also do the odd artist requested job required, like mounting paint brushes on long handles, or other strange jobs.
Mail box center -
The town post office does not mind if a mailbox location is set up locally - indeed, this may free up the pressure for boxes in the local post office. Both a local job and a community support feature. This is partly a public access feature as well - depends on how the community wants to use it.
I do know established companies have used such mailbox firms even though they had a fully functional mailing room at the time.
Employment firm -
And just where would that firm locate? Well, I know of a place, centrally located to the local area, with lots of parking, and office space, and a number of locations and small businesses needing workers right at hand. Humm. . . Might be an effective way to get gas savings.
Bookkeeping -
Having a number of small firms in one place would be of interest to a bookkeeper. An ‘on site‘ bookkeeper could offer a lower cost service to the Art Village firms, all gathered in one place. Again - an effective time and gas savings.
Shared resources -
Both glassblowing and pottery have a need for kilns, but the type of need is not identical. It might be possible to use the kilns for both functions with modern insulating materials and programmable controllers to cut down on problems in building or running them. There could be problems with a particular use, but there are a number of artistic needs for kiln space. Here is a partial list.
Art Clay (misnamed bit, after being fired ‘Art Clay’ is pure gold or silver)
Glass slumping
Glass annealing
Pottery and brisk work
Enameling
Metal casting
Tin plate work
This is also a safety feature - the area can be equipped with several different carbon monoxide sensors for safety.
It may also be possible to use other money saving approaches - for example, with an idea of the volume of work needed, that will indirectly suggest the number of kilns needed. You can now plan ahead for this number of kilns ultimately needed. Knowing you will need, say, 10 kilns, would justify something like building the kilns in a group to save on the heat losses on heat conducted through the walls. Build enough kilns in a circle and the ring will wrap around and ‘close’, giving you in effect a ‘free’ kiln to add to the others. This much raw pottery flow would make it easy to set up a dust control system. A local green ware storage area is also useful.
New developments like the solid state TV cameras open up new uses. For example, Corning glass of New York has such a camera set up to show the inside of a ‘glory hole’ furnace.
If possible, try to collect artists that have overlapping needs or functions. At least, have an idea of the process or functions that do truly overlap, so those needs can be meant as well.
As a typical example this report assumes (but does not require) an Art Village renter who might be building a glassblowing studio.
A woodworking artist might be used to make some of the traditional glassblowing tools, for example, which are wood.
Day care center -
A day care function is a natural add on to the Art Village, and given the conditions today there is a real need for it. I feel this is a feature sure to be given a positive vote. If this is was K to grade school originally the playground directed toward younger children should be a bonus to the Art Village. Adding a day care function would insure the items already in place are put to full use. Plus the kids would love it.
A Montessori school -
In many parts of the world, anyone who wishes to can open a school and call it a ”Montessori school” with no knowledge or training of how an authentic program is organized or run. This is sometimes embarrassing for those who understand all too well the difference. Most of these schools fail, but often not before they harm the general image of other Montessori schools in their community.
Caterer support -
Of special interest to a local catering firm would be the full function, up to code commercial kitchen. A bonus is the day to day steady customers the site would provide for that service.
The daily customers are the artists that want to eat on site, plus the parents who want to spend quality time with their children in the day care center.
Notes on glass
A "hot shop" is the most difficult of any glass craft ventue, conversely it would provide the greater returns. Example: a huge amount of heat is generated in the winter months by a hot shop. Lesser glassblowing function shops would provide almost as many benefits as well, including the steady need for oxygen. The complex with a glass making furnace at it’s core has a number of features that could be shared with other artists, or small businesses. These features include heat output of a furnace also be used to other, somewhat more mundane uses, like some of the heat output going to a lumber drying kiln.
However, activities of a lampworking shop (an intermediate step to a full ‘hot shop’) has many of those features as well. For example, a hot shop or lampworking shop might take a step forward and go directly to a tank of cryogenic oxygen to run the glassblowing torches. As a low use tank normally vents ‘excess’ (not drawn off for use) oxygen, this same cryogenic oxygen tank could run one, or a number of torches at about the same cost. In short, a cryogenic tank would support a number of torches without shortening the ‘lifetime’ use of the tank. This could include a oxy-acetylene cutting torch, as well. Such torches as those are useful in any shop.
For that matter, any artistic function that involves ‘directed heat’ would benefit from access to glass blowing torches themselves. Because of the nature of glass, glass blowing torches have to be a superior design and function. They will work very well for any effort that needs directed heat.
Along the way to making the plans for the Art Village I saw the possibility of other features. The existence of these features depends in part on the building size, the local grounds, and the building features.
Phone Answering service -
The school has the office space and the phone lines already in place* to support this function. There will also be a inter classroom intercom system there as well.
* (standard widespread phone company policy is to run *all* local phone lines into such a building - there are several technical reasons for this)
A local Museum
Not all locations will have a need for this, but this is a possible function of the Village. Depends on the town, of course.
A local library -
The Library area of the school will probably be ‘book free’ when things get started - I expect the book were removed when the school stopped functioning, but the building should still have the bookshelves in place. I would suggest against the library being broken up, as there are probably better, more positive uses for it for the original function. With the room basically unchanged there are at least two functions it can provide. One such use would be to hold art books donated to the Art Village. The other can be supporting a full local library.
Local townspeople could donate books to provide books needed for the library. Such a location will be slowly restocked with donated books in one form or another. I have been involved with this project so I have firsthand knowledge of the project. The library could also provide a place for a retired couple to start a paperback business store.
The shop classes area -
Of course, again the tools were removed when the school stopped functioning. However, things like industrial wiring and industrial lighting were left behind, perhaps even some of the larger items like compressed air systems, workbenches, and dust collection systems were not removed.
Auto shop area -
This is a natural for reuse as an auto repair shop. Conversion to a real garage would happen very quickly.
Related Art village support items -
Other community support functions include things like a community fax machine, community copier, and other items like a public access computer. Depending on demand and building features, this might be an Internet café, in the cafeteria, or possibly the library. As there will be office space on site, there is the possibility of use by a number of local firms.
The auditorium is something that should not be broken up. It is quite possibly the largest single room for miles, and looking at the room as just cubic footage would be a mistake. There are a number of functions possible in the space that would work best with the room in it’s original form. There are other possible low cost upgrades to the auditorium. Based on personal experience, obtaining a full size theater quality movie screen is possible, for example.
Even the original design of the school can be an aid to the day to day operation of the Art Village. A school design now has only one normal access point to the building. The Art Village starts off with offering access to a number of firms, but only through a receptionist - a gatekeeper in effect - that can be a contact point even though the person is not present at the time.
Emergency functions and community support -
Local support of the community would include functions like providing a ‘stand by’ church for use in case the original becomes damaged. Community support can also come from providing a location for the Red Cross, or for groups providing community support.
* (The Red cross states one of the needs for disaster center is a large building, of course, but other items like storage space and available communications is also given as a needed item.)
As support for the Art Village, I have collected a large and diverse amount of facts and information I plan to make available as a special data base. This information, plus the other information provided by other artists, presented as an Internet data base, could provide support to artists worldwide. In effect this would create a virtual ‘Art Village’ almost overnight.
Having a good showroom is another one possibility for the Art Village, and having a number of artists showing their wares in one place will tend to justify trips from patrons, encouraging extended visits by patrons, providing local benefits somewhat like having an upscale shopping mall in the area.
Other functions -
Depending on the building and grounds - another possible function is the display of unusual artwork and community projects, both inside and out. This might include local functions that were using the building grounds before the Art Village was established.
There is a possibility of some creative reworking of items around the building - for example, with some yellow paint a propane tank can become the ‘Yellow Submarine in dry-dock‘. Eyesore becomes art.
As a ‘business anchor’ for some functions that are a bit hard to describe. For example;
Retirement homes have a number of people joining them, many with a number of still valuable items they might wish to donate. Frequently they might have life experiences, tools, musical interments or similar items for donation to the Village. In some cases the Village can be a clearing house doing nothing more than bringing such people together.
While I’m not excessively ‘Green’ (ecologically supportive) I do feel ecological solutions to problems should be encouraged where possible. Whenever possible these solutions will be added to the general operation of the Art Village.
Yours,
David Smith
david_s_14850@yahoo.com