Bangor seeking ideas for cultural survey

BANGOR – The city conducted a pair of back-to-back meetings Thursday to drum up interest in a citywide assessment of arts, culture and the humanities.

The idea is to find out what people in the area really want in the way of arts and culture.

“It’s a unique opportunity for Bangor, for people to say what they want to see, what they want to see change and what they don’t want to see changed at any cost,” Christina Piazza said during one of two sparsely attended meetings held in council chambers at City Hall.

Piazza was hired by the city to conduct the cultural asset assessment, which is funded by a $15,000 research grant from the Maine Arts Commission and a $3,000 stipend to hire a folklorist.

Piazza said the more comments the city gets, the better the outcome will be.

“Without a broad demographic, it does not have as much weight,” she said.

The resulting arts and culture policy is to be updated every five years, according to Sally Bates, a city development officer and artist helping to oversee the process.

So far, about 1 percent of the city’s population of about 31,500 has taken the survey, available in paper format at City Hall and other public places and online through the city’s Web site at www.bangormaine.gov, Piazza said.

To participate over the Internet, responders should click on “Cultural Development/Public Arts and Culture Survey,” found on the menu running down the left side of the site’s home page.

Piazza also will be working with at least seven focus groups to be drawn from a variety of arenas, including the arts community, funders, business leaders and people with disabilities.

The city’s cultural development ordinance calls for a cultural survey to inventory existing assets, needs and strategies for filling the gaps.

The city also has a municipal cultural plan and a panel of local experts to oversee it.

Unlike other Maine communities, however, Bangor has taken the additional step of incorporating the arts and culture into its comprehensive plan, making them a city priority as opposed to an afterthought.

Underlying principles include:

. Recognizing the dynamic social, educational, artistic and economic impacts of the arts, humanities and culture, and the fact that the city must respond to changes in those areas.

. Art and culture are relevant, meaningful, inspiring and central to the integrity of one’s being, and strong contributors to Bangor’s unique sense of place.

. Art and cultural activities should be accessible to everyone.

. Art and cultural activities are engines of economic growth and, as such, should be nurtured.

. The purpose of municipal support for artistic, cultural and humanities events and groups – as well as public art collections – is to help sustain the level of activity and accessibility that meets the community’s needs.

For more information, call Piazza at 433-7154, ext. 11, or e-mail her at bangorarts@hotmail.com.