CreateAustin

Is Austin becoming too expensive for creators?

Is Austin becoming too expensive for artists and creators to live and work here? That fear has been voiced very strongly by many participants in focus groups and interviews. Yet others, including public officials, cite statistics that assert Austin is still affordable compared to other large, Western US cities. What is the truth? Is this a critical issue? How will we decide? What, if anything, will the Austin community do to assure that its most creative individuals can continue to live and work here?

Where does creativity reside?

Bill Bulick here, inviting you to weigh in…

Input received from focus groups, interviews and community meetings so far has reflected two strong currents of thinking – that Austin must be careful to provide support – “habitat” - for individual artists and creators – and that it is critical that the community do a better job in sustaining its major cultural institutions. Which is more important? Can we do both? What does a cultural infrastructure look like that can accomplish both? How could institutions and individual creators work more productively together?

Creative Community

Create Austin is here for people from various creative disciplines to come together to share their ideas, their visions about how Austin can foster its artistic community to new heights.

Attending a CreateAustin meeting was of my favorite events of last year, because here were dozens of other very creative people, all using different media to express.  Here were people I would LOVE talking to for hours -- about process, passion, metaphor... the SUBSTANCE of creation and creativity.  From a completely different perspective than mine.  It was fascinating!  Being a video game maker (and dabbler in photography), I really truly LOVED hearing different viewpoints, new metaphors, new ideas... it was heaven.

So CreateAustin.org can foster that kind of communication.  It can be a place to share art, to share needs, to share resources, to share IDEAS, to share how we can make Austin an even more wonderful haven for art and artists, where the creative pursuits are held as important (or nearly so) as good roads and for sure moreso than another generic city apartment complex or strip mall.  Where art is nurtured as an important facet of society. As Ben Shahn points out in "The Shape of Content", he was dismayed by a university's charter that touted the importance of art, then pages later pointed out that it wasn't serious pursuit, like science or math. That must not happen here. Both hands must work toward the same goal, instead of the second hand undoing what the first one does.

Austin is taking a step forward so that will not be the case. It's been said you can judge a civilization by the quality of its art.  Austin's civilization is about to rise to a higher plateau. And if we all work together, we can be part of something wonderful.

So how about it, creative folk of Austin?  We've started a dialogue.  We've stated our intent.  But what are each of us personally going to do about it?  Let's ask not what our city can do for us -- let's ask what we can do for our city. And then show each other that we can accomplish it. Together.

So let's hear about it, Austin -- what can we do with CreateAustin.org, with our collective voices, hands, hearts... to bring about the change we all want?   

For me, I want to start monthly get-togethers of interested folks in a more relaxed setting, where artists from different disciplines can socialize and share their experiences.  Not a meeting, but a gathering. A forum to start communication as people as well as artists.  So in addition to ideas about change, let's pick a time (First Wednesday?) and a place (open to ideas) where we could congregate, knock back a tea, soda, or beer, and talk of creation, change, and passion for art.  Let's make this happen. NOW.

--Tom Hall, KingsIsle Entertainment