Buffalo Rising Online

Feb 25th 2008, 11:15am By queenseyes

Here's a brilliant idea... and one that has been talked about repeatedly for many years. Actually, it's kind of cool to see that so many organizations are looking to team up these days. We recently posted on University at Buffalo's Re-Mapping Buffalo's Urban Space. And we've seen the culturals included in major events such as the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts. Now Mark Donnelly, the man behind Cultural Niagara, is planning on hosting a major gathering of local institutions that will bring together groups like the Historical Society, the Zoo, NYPA, Burchfield-Penney, the carrousel groups, Lewiston Arts Council, Just Buffalo and the Community Music School. The idea is to support the region as a whole and to figure out ways to strengthen our culturals.

At a time when we are seeing the Burchfield-Penney rise out of the ground, we are also dealing with a cultural mishap like Studio Arena being in debt millions of dollars. How can the culturals learn from each other? Can the Buffalo market support the existing cultural bas... let alone a growing contingent of organizations rising to the surface? We still want to see the bike museum downtown. And what about Mudpies Children's Museum? If these groups are not communicating, then surely there are missed opportunities. What if a communal brochure was created with shared expenses? How do you get the brochures in front of a Toronto audience? How do you match up culturals with a bigger sponsorship list? Are there national foundations that we are not tapping into?

I spoke with Mark Donnelly this morning to find out what his goals were. "We did the same sort of thing last year when we launched Cultural Niagara... on a much smaller level. It has evolved so much since last year. Since the launch, Cultural Niagara has become a tool for the culturals and at this point we're making the best of what we have. We need to step back and think about what the culturals mean to us. Just thinking about losing Studio Arena is scary. We have a 1950's infrastructure with a much smaller population. That means that we need to support the culturals twice as much. We are the luckiest people on earth to have what we have here. My intention is to bring these groups together to try to find the solutions. The solutions will be in the room. The tough thing will be... 'How do we keep the momentum moving forward?' In two hours we have already gotten fourteen groups to sign up (since this morning). On the bright side, this could be the spark that sets off the flame."

See the details on the flyer for date, times, etc. To RSVP to the event, click here.