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Achieving Community: First City Art Center Danette Marie Albino University of Florida
ACHIEVING COMMUNITY
2 Introduction
The First City Art Center (FCA) is non-profit organization, located in the city of Pensacola, Florida, that was established in 1999 under the name of the Belmont Arts and Cultural Center. For years, the Center served the city of Pensacola at the Belmont area until approximately a year and a half ago when it moved to its new location on Guillemard Street with a new name to grow itself and its programming, and to set the groundwork for creating an arts district. The Center is a unique environment in which community and art collide through the dedication of its members and their goal of creating and nurturing an artsbased community. With its popular fundraising events and its distinctive programming primarily focusing on glassblowing, glass bead making, clay sculpting, and pottery, FCA draws in Figure 1. Visitors of FCA's Hot Glass, Cold Brew event reading the "Before I Die..." interactive chalkboard.
people from various backgrounds, ages,
skill levels, interests, and so on. Along with events and educational programming, the Center offers working artists and artisans studio space for rent, party packages, a gallery, open studio hours, field trips, and more that further establish the presence of art in the city of Pensacola and create a strong union among those associated with the Center. Visiting FCA, the theme of community rose many times both subtlety and obviously, reflecting the mission of the Center. As an accessible setting for art education, the First
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City Art Center has become an important aspect in achieving community and serving a community. Supporting Literature The most critical supporting literature in researching the First City Art Center is its own website (First City Art Center, 2014). Through firstcityart.org, one can learn a great deal about the Center in an accessible method; the website provides the Center’s mission statement (including a brief history of the Center), and information on events, outreach, workshops, rental space, the Gallery, party packages, their wish list, a variety of ways one can become involved with the Center, and more. Also provided were photographs for every page and links to social media accounts that further demonstrated how FCA is an environment of creativity and community. Using the information on the website, I was able to have a basic comprehension of the Center that helped my interviews go on a much deeper level of information and focus on personal
Figure 2. Screen capture of firstcityart.org's Outreach page.
testimonies. Prior to visiting the Center, I read the article “Learning from Examples of Civic Responsibility: What Community-based Art Centers Teach Us About Art Education” by Jessica Hoffmann Davis (2010). After researching FCA through its website, I had an understanding that the Center focuses greatly on community and needed resources on
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community art education to further understand the Center. Davis discusses the value of community-based art centers by addressing the question, What can schools learn from the arts education provided in the community? She discusses the pressure of justifying the benefits of art education rather than demonstrating the benefits, the dedication to civic duty in community education, the value of art education, and how community-based art education is measured. Davis strongly advocates for community-based art centers and their importance to art education and to the people they serve. Learning about the strengths of community art centers helped me to further contextualize the First City Art Center as an environment that serves the community. While observing the Center, I utilized the website of the Brazee Street Studios as a comparative, supportive literature. The Brazee Street Studios is located in Cincinnati, Ohio’s arts district and offers community housing to artists, studio space, classes, and a gallery (Brazee Street Studios, 2014). Knowing that FCA has a goal of creating an arts district, I wanted to understand how such an institution would work. Becoming aware of the possibilities and observing FCA gave me a comprehensive understanding of where the Center could be headed to. Overview The First City Art Center has a mission of fostering the growth of Pensacola, FL, both economically and culturally. To reach economic and cultural growth, the Center aspires to create an arts district surrounding the area of its location. The goals of First City Art Center were presented to the City of Pensacola, who agreed that FCA’s contribution to the cultural enrichment of the city is important for their "Live, Work, Play" movement to recruit and retain young professionals
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and entertain all residents. On May 7, 2012, the City Council, at the urging of Mayor Hayward, unanimously approved FCA’s lease of a city property that had recently been vacated by Habitat for Humanity. To continue FCA’s mission, the process of relocation from Belmont/Devilliers area to a larger and more autonomous property on Guillemard Street in the Long Hollow neighborhood began. This new location has allowed FCA not only to expand studios in size and offerings, but also to potentially create an Art District that will include private studios and galleries, as well as establish classrooms for all types of art and music instruction. (First City Art Center, 2014) FCA has been working on improving its programs and surrounding area to achieve the goal of creating an arts district for Pensacola, along with other local institutions. Through its growth, outreach, community events, programming, and support for artists, the Center as formed a strong connection with the community of Pensacola, involving a support of the community and support from the community. The First City Art Center has a Board of Directors making up the administrative and governing structure of the organization. Members of the Board of Directors oversee the events, the gallery, the programming, etc. at the Center and are currently focused on working on their plan to help FCA grow and to create an arts district. Meredith Doyen, the Executive Director, is the Center’s first executive director and has been actively working on achieving FCA’s goals, along with her peers at the Center. The First City Art Center offers various, eclectic opportunities for people of all walks of life to engage in. While FCA offers workshops in various forms of art, both visual and performative, the Center primarily focuses its educational offerings on
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glassblowing, glass bead making, clay sculpting, and pottery. These workshops can range from one-day workshops to multiple-days workshops to multiple-week workshops. The minimum age for most of the workshops is 14, while the minimum age for Make Your Own Glass workshop is 8, and a 6-week pottery workshop is offered for children varying from the ages of 7 to 13. FCA also offers a glassblowing mentorship program for Escambia and Santa Rosa County high school students; each year, four students in grades 9th to 11th are chosen for this program. Educational opportunities at the Center further extend to providing private lessons, hosting field trips and partaking in outreach partnerships with various local organizations and institutions. The Center also provides live demonstrations during their fundraising events, along with providing entertainment, food, and artworks for showcasing and sale. FCA has a gallery open to the public, which also houses studio space for working artists and artisans who are required to collaborate with each other and the organization to further develop and achieve its mission. As a non-profit organization, the First City Art Center receives funding through diverse methods. FCA funding is based on donations and proceeds from sponsorships, memberships, workshops, rental, party packages, and fundraising events. The workshops throughout the year and fundraising events hosted by the Center Figure 3. A sign from Hot Glass, Cold Brew: "Every purchase you make benefits the First City Art Center. Thank you for your support."
are vital to its funding; the four Hot Glass, Cold Brew (HGCB) events make up
approximately 25% of the Center’s funding each year and the Annual Glass Pumpkin Patch makes up approximately the same amount.
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7 Description and Discussion
Prior to starting my case study on the First City Art Center, I knew of the organization through a couple of people associated with the Center, such as my undergraduate professor and FCA Gallery artist and member for the Board of Directors Thomas Asmuth, and through a visit to an event I almost did not attend months ago. I was greatly stimulated by my initial visit at FCA and delighted at the opportunity to observe it. By phone, I contacted the Executive Director, Meredith Doyen, about having the First City Art Center as the focus of my case study and she was automatically supportive of the idea. We met a couple of weeks after our phone conversation for a tour of the Center and a brief discussion on its programming. At the time, most of the Center was closed to the public, aside from the pottery and clay Saturday workshops, for the first meeting of the Gallery artists in 2014 and for the renovations and preparation for the first Hot Glass, Cold Brew in 2014. Concurrent with the tour, Doyen explained the steps the Center has been taking in order to grow and to create an arts district at Pensacola. While researching
Figure 4. A glass blowing beginner student working on a vase.
FCA through its website, I oddly did not focus on its goal to create an arts district so at the tour I was taken aback realizing how dedicated the members of the Center were to creating an arts-based community. On my first day of observation, I observed three glass workshops throughout the day. The wages for these workshops vary, there is no need for prior experience or knowledge in the following workshops, all students needed to sign a waiver, and all students were able to decide which colors and product they could create. The first
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workshop was a party package workshop with 7 teenage girls celebrating a birthday party. Tim Nolan (member of the Board of Directors), whom I met during my tour of the Center, was leading the workshop with the help of Kevin Wade (member of the Glass Guild). Nolan took one student at a time to create an ornament. While the others waited, they had refreshments and listened to Wade explain various facts about glass blowing. As this was a party package, the students were heavily guided and each took about 10 minutes or so to create their product while the whole workshop took about 2 hours long. For the second workshop, a Make Your Own Glass workshop, there were 3 students (2 adults, 1 teen), so both Nolan and Wade took a student of their own, which allowed for more ample time to create glass products and provide more information on glass blowing. While still heavily guided, there was more freedom and the workshop lasted about three hours. The last workshop was an introductory workshop with 3 adult students. The introductory workshop provided more knowledge on glass blowing and required students to make various products, instead of just one. Nolan and Michael Conrad (President of the Board of Directors) each took a student and switched them each and would always include the third one left out in aiding the students working; K. Wade, Terri Wade, and Maggie Rogers were also providing aid during this workshop. This workshop lasted over three hours and felt particularly exhausting, probably due to a long day. Towards the end, Nolan offered me the opportunity to make my own glass ornament, which I accepted. It was a brand new experience for me and I was able to get a first-hand experience of education through FCA. I was also able to interview Nolan, Conrad, Wade, and Rogers. I was particularly eager to hear Rogers’ experience as past glass mentorship student that volunteers her time in glass blowing, instructional assistance, and other opportunities.
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The glass mentorship is offered every year to 4 high school students of Escambia and Santa Rosa County as part of the First City Art Center’s outreach program. Influenced by FCA and its mentorship program, Rogers plans to have a career in glass blowing. My second observation took place in Ann Robinson’s 6-week pottery wheel workshop that meets every Tuesday night for three hours. The pottery wheel room can accommodate eight students at the most, making workshops rather intimate; in fact, compared to the glass programming, the clay and pottery programming is rather small but it offers a variety of workshops, including a children’s workshop, and is growing further. There are 8 students enlisted for this workshop but 2 were absent during my observation; all students are adults and vary in skill and experience. While there, students were working on pots that they begun prior to the night of my observation. Consequently, there was little instruction needed that night, however, Robinson consistently gave advice when needed and held a small presentation on glazing for those with little
Figure 5. Half of the pottery wheel room.
to no experience in glazing. With the small number of students, Robinson is able to provide personalized instruction for each student, meeting their needs and desires. She was very personable and offered me a chance to work on the wheel (which I accepted). I was able to interview T. Wade on her experience as a student and her involvement in both clay and glass work; she feels that both programs have their unique benefits and is happy to be involved with FCA. I was also able to interview Robinson and through her I learned more about FCA’s outreach program, specifically how it offers complimentary workshops to the staff of Gulf Coast Kid’s House (GCKH), an organization serving victims of childhood abuse.
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I attended the Hot Glass, Cold Brew event as my third observation. Guests are suggested a certain amount of money to donate to the FCA for entrance and access to a hand-blown glass or hand-thrown ceramic cup. Guests can fill their cups with complimentary, locally brewed beer as they enjoy the event with artisan-cooked pizza and live music. During HGCB, the Center offers live demonstrations in both pottery and glass work, the Gallery and the Gallery artists’ studio space are open to the public after hours, children’s activities are available, and more. I was able to observe two demonstrations: a glass blowing demonstration, which packed the usually spacious glass blowing area, and a pottery demonstration, which occurred at the intimate pottery wheel room. I was also able to observe Meredith Hartsfield demonstrate how to create glass beads while she had her work on display and for sale (all proceeds went to the Center). I was also able to visit the Gallery for the reception of its new exhibition and the Gallery artists’ studio space, open to the public as a means of educational
Figure 6. The entrance of FCA during Hot Glass, Cold Brew.
interaction. At the Gallery, I met and interviewed Foster Common, another past glass mentorship student. While he does not have career goals in glass blowing, he is dedicated to FCA and plans on staying with the organization for as long as possible. Children’s activities were taught and supervised by members of FCA and GCKH. Along with collaborating in children’s activities for HGCB, the Center collected baby items to donate to GCKH during the event. Also, for this event, FCA installed an interactive art project called “Before I Die…” created originally by artist Candy Chang. Through this project,
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anyone that participates can share their dreams and aspirations for their lives. As a whole, Hot Glass, Cold Brew shows how dedicated the members of FCA are to creating an artsbased community. For my last observation, I went to Sam Nettles’s 6-week clay sculpting workshop that meets every Saturday morning for three hours. There were 5 students present with a couple of absences during my observation; all students were adults and varied in skill and experience. Students were working on busts that they begun prior to the morning of my observation, so little instruction was needed although Nettles consistently gave advice when needed. Prior to this observation, I met with Thomas Figure 7. A clay sculpting student working on her bust.
Asmuth for an interview. I wanted Asmuth’s perspective on the Center as both a member of the Center and as a professor in a
traditional art education setting. Asmuth, having been with the organization for several years, gave great insight on its recent development with its programming and goal of creating an arts district. He believes that FCA is a place of an eclectic group of people that work together to provide a creatively stimulating environment and that a traditional setting can learn from FCA’s community-oriented dynamic. Implications for the Field of Art Education Through observing and researching the First City Art Center, I gained insight on an art education setting outside of the traditional school and museum settings. I have observed and experienced a community-based art education and attest to its dedication to the community. The devotion and admiration shown by many to an organization like FCA, in which art is not measured through academic means and is focused on social,
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creative collaboration for a higher purpose, presents a challenge of art education in the traditional school setting, along with its successes. Those in the traditional art education setting can benefit to learn from community art centers and create a more supportive community for their students that will further their social and emotional development in a health manner. An understanding of the value of art education beyond economics and academics is needed to fully respect art and the students of art. As Davis (2010) mentions: If my only concern with that student who is going to an art center every evening instead of standing on the corner is, “Have your board scores increased?� I am surely asking the wrong question. Might school administrators change their views of the value of the arts if they could see in closer range the ways in which the arts improve the lives and futures of youth in the community? (p. 88) To include more community-based dynamics in art education at the traditional school setting will further enrich the environment and nurture respectable relationships between peers and instructors. Traditional educators can look to the First City Art Center, as it provides a model of a civic, arts-based environment that is boundlessly evolving.
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13 References
Brazee Street Studios. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.brazeestreetstudios.com/ Davis, J.H. (2010). Learning from examples of civic responsibility: What communitybased art centers teach us about art education. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 44(3), 82-95. First City Art Center. (2014). Retrieved from http://firstcityart.org/