"Included in the mantra, these days, of many economic development professionals is some level of recognition of the role of the arts in attracting new business to a city or region. Nurturing art is critical to achieving a positive outcome as our city and region experience an exciting and critical evolutionary phase.
Lexington talks the talk about the arts - incessantly. But it does not yet walk the walk. We say "yet," because we are blessed with encouraging exceptions, and - ever the optimists - we would like to think that far more members of our business community are indeed willing to support art than is evidenced by a city center that is largely barren of color and verve.
If we as the business sector are anything more than pretentious about our desire to lift our community to among the sophisticates of American mid-sized cities, we will have to bend to the task. To attain credibility as a place that embraces art, we have to demonstrate understanding of a truth: that to enjoy art, one must compensate its creators. Like the basketball prodigy, artists too have bills to pay; children to rear and educate; dreams to fulfill. They will stay here and share their unique talents, if those things are possible here.
We look to our arts leadership to raise its profile, and become present, aggressive and persistent in reminding all at every opportunity that art - or more troubling, the lack of it - expresses a city's character and soul.
Upon announcing his retirement after 35 years as conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic, George Zack was asked for his perspective on the role of the arts in economic development. His response bears worth repeating here.
Recalling an appearance before the Optimists Club, Zack recounted a story to the group about IBM's site search many years prior. They had been to Houston, and most assumed the Texas city would win the site selection contest. "When they came to Lexington," he said, "the search committee got around to all of the leaders of the city, and the first question asked was not about I-64 or 75, about water or electricity, or about schools. No, the first question was: 'Do you have a symphony orchestra?' I'm amazed by that. Until I realize that industry is not dumb. Industry knows where to be and what to do, because it's a profit-driven entity."
Zack remembered sitting down to great applause at the Optimists Club meeting, feeling he had delivered quite an impressive speech, when the fellow who had introduced him stood up and said, "I don't think this young fellow knows who I am." Laughter followed, and Zack thought to himself that he'd made a mistake. Everyone appeared to know the joke except him. Zack's host then pointed out he had been the chairman of the search committee at IBM and confirmed that everything Zack said was absolutely true. Further, he explained that if the answer to the orchestra question had been no, IBM would not have located here.
This remains true today. As Zack noted, the presence of corporate headquarters and academic institutions - key as they are to a community's economic health - are not enough. What makes the difference in attracting not only corporate industry but also conventions to a city is the cache of the arts - hard evidence of an economy so strong and engaged that it can support such valuable by-products as symphonies, performance spaces and public art.
There recently have been notable glimmers of hope, including Alltech's generous sponsorship of the Opera program at the University of Kentucky (in addition to serving as primary sponsor of the FEI World Equestrian Games), and also at UK's School of Music, the support of the Lexington Diagnostic Center & Open MRI, as well as Neurosurgical Associate for the 2006 presentation of "Collage — A Holiday Spectacular" - arguably among the season's finest holiday entertainment anywhere.
The Lexington Diagnostic Center also made recent Business Lexington news by stepping forward in support of Lexington Extraordinary Arts Program (LEAP), an innovative plan to place all around the city 50 examples of the best of student sculpture.
There are many more, among them Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, Thomas & King, Clark Distributing, Phillip Gall's, Verizon Yellow Pages, Blue Grass Airport, Toyota and Ball Homes - consistent supporters of the arts, including the Opera House Fund which is now working to renovate that city-owned historic gem. The Lexington Philharmonic is striving to establish an endowment to ensure its operations, and the LexArts Campaign for the Arts has disbursed funds to artists throughout the region.
All who already support these efforts richly deserve praise and our gratitude for stepping forward, time and again.
But, there's the rub. While many of us in small business are not in a position to hand over comparable sums in support of the arts, surely we can do more than we have, even as we've benefited from the largesse of deeper pockets.
In this way, we can achieve credibility as a city so bursting with public art and exciting performance spaces that our entertainment dollars remain right here, instead of traveling north to Cincinnati or west to Louisville.
Now is the time to think seriously about the image we plan to present to the world when those international throngs and global television crews start turning up in late 2009, and in full force in the fall of 2010.
It's not enough for a newspaper to suggest that this is something other businesses should do without a willingness to do it ourselves and to recognize everyone else who is stepping up to the plate.
Therefore, the publishers of Smiley Pete Publishing have committed to make a gift of at least $10,000 in donations and/or in-kind contributions to community arts during 2007. If any Lexington area small business accepts our challenge to do the same, we promise to let the business community know about it on the pages of Business Lexington. In the coming year, we will highlight those businesses that have made a commitment to advance our creative community as examples for the rest of us. E-mail me at tom@bizlex.com to let me know how your company has made that $10,000 investment locally in the arts, and we pledge to give you the credit you deserve.
First to step into our spotlight: Internet service provider QX.Net. The company has contributed $7,500 in cash to the Lexington Arts League, plus annual Internet services valued well in excess of the remaining $2,500 required to meet our threshold. Until we got wind of it, QX had not planned to toot its horn. We believe there is every reason to recognize QX.Net and CEO Jonathan Barker for walking the walk.
As one famous brand put it, just do it folks. Make us work for you!
"