Public Art as Economic InvestmentA Case-Study for BronzevilleMicah SmithJames WolffFarran ArnoldTimothy MoyarTable of ContentsProject Summary1. Introduction2. Needs Assessment2.1 Background2.2 Problem Statement and Goals2.3 Objectives3. System Requirements4. Data Acquisition5. Data Analysis6. Results7. Summary & Conclusions8. References & AcknowledgementsProject SummaryChicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood is a community rich in expressions of urban African-American life in the industrial-era United States. Black Metropolis, an organization that promotesawareness of Bronzeville’s historic past and future vitality, including sustainable and localizedeconomic policy-making, presented to Destination: Bronzeville Academic Consultants (D:BAC),and engaged our group on a project to document Bronzeville’s public art expressions. Thatcommunity’s historic cultural expression of post-Civil War era- to early-20st century African-American life in the urban north, including the precipitance of growth brought on by themigration of rural South blacks to Chicago, encapsulates an historical archive of modern, ‘city’culture. Included are representative artifacts of music, art and education. Black Metropolis’presentation cited timely opportunities in the contemporary political dynamic of Chicago, as wellas opportunities for federal investment. Black Metropolis specifically requested an interactivepoint-map, scalable and suitable for HTML formatting for the world wide web. The map wouldindicate “instances” of categorized public art expressions within a spatial representation ofBronzeville’s identifiable borders. D:BAC proposed the creation of two additional maps as aframework for analysis of Bronzeville’s current economic viability: one analyzing property valueand another analyzing household income, composed to also approximate locations of public artinstances.Our group was limited in development of an HTML-form of this mapping deliverable.However, D:BAC was successful in documenting all instances of ‘public art’ as proscribed byBlack Metropolis and presented in this documentation. Instances have been verified by first-person observation. It’s our opinion that the data presented in this document is current andaccurate.One limitation we experienced was the geographic referencing of some public art instances tothe postal coding system, such as monuments and sculptures. Locational placement couldn’t bedefined by ‘street address’. Another limitation in our analysis was intra-team communication.Conflicting personnel employment schedules and commuting schedules mitigated a groupdynamic. Yet another problem was verifying a defining physical geography of Bronzeville.Defining features were variably, depending by source. For the purposes of this project, our groupaccepted Black Metropolis’ spatial description of the neighborhood.D:BAC process was work-phased as: 1. Literature review, 2. Definition of public art‘instances’, 3. Classification, 4. Geocoding, 5. Procurement of US Census Data, 6. Constructionof thematic maps, and 7. Summary & Conclusions.A review of our thematic maps suggest the need for further detailed study of thisneighborhood and its dynamic. Our maps describe an urban system in flux: a neighborhoodwhose past, present and future are dislocated from typical patterns of urban gentrification.Bronzeville’s adaptable infrastructure, regardless of proximity to historical ‘public art’, does notappear to be relational to household income or property value.Summarily, instances of public art, as defined by this study, are not a constituent aspect ofmeasurable value to Bronzeville’s real-estate ‘dynamic’. Mitigating factors, such as opportunisticland speculation, have diluted this attribute’s potential impact for localized gentrification.IntroductionD:BCA, a DePaul University group comprised of undergraduate Geography Departmentstudents, was formed in response to an in-class presentation by the local, communityorganization, Black Metropolis. Dedicated to promoting sustainable, “bottom-up” economicpolicy, Black Metropolis promotes this neighborhood’s place in Chicago’s vernerable history;particularly that of contemporary African-American experience. That community’s historiccultural expression of post-Civil War era- and early-21st century African-American life in urbanAmerica, including the precipitance of urban growth brought on by the migration of rural Southblacks to one of American’s “promised” Northern cities (Chicago), encapsulates an historicalarchive of urban 20th Century African-American culture. Included are representative artifacts ofmusic, art and education in the development of modern American life.Black Metropolis’ presentation indicated opportunity provided by the potential designation ofthe 2016 Olympics to Chicago (Currently, the proposed Olympic Village and Olympic Stadiumare on Bronzeville’s accessible lakeshore). As well, the recent inauguration of President BarackObama, formerly an Illinois State Senator and south-side community organizer whose earlypolitical territory included Bronzeville, brings heightened awareness for actionable policy-making, which respects the past, recognizes present realities, and provides a charter for futureeconomic stability and responsible, community re-development. An initial D:BCA literature review provides a generous array of topical academicabstracts, periodicals and publications concerning the legacy of Bronzeville. Pertinent abstractsare available at the Steans Center website. Our review of relevant journalistic articles includesBoyd (2000) and Grams (2006). As a framework for the historical context for our review, we alsoincluded readings on ‘Jim Crow’- style segregation in the American South and similar publicpolicy in the urban, American north.Needs Assessment2.1 BackgroundEarly phases of our project required additional understanding of our project directive,described by Black Metropolis. Internally, questions persisted as to what requirements wereneeded for our group deliverable. Clarification was communicated through in-personengagements with Mr. Harold Lucas at the Bronzeville Visitor Center. Specifically, BlackMetropolis was interested in a spatially accurate representative map that documents current“instances” of publically-accessible art. (D:BAC accrued four separate “in-person” meetings withMr. Lucas at the Bronzeville Visitor Center facility). Through