ATLANTIC CITY — With Art BaselMiami Beach nearing its 11th anniversary next week, it may be difficult to look past the glare of Swarovski crystals back to a time when the city was defined less by its jet-set art scene than by its murder rate, persistent mayoral corruption, and cocaine consumption (actually, maybe that last one still applies).
These days, America’s biggest art fair injects the city with an estimated $500-million economic boost each year, making it perhaps the most salient model of how art can nourish a weak economy. Other blighted cities have taken note: Detroit and Buffalo have both invested big in the arts in recent years, and, earlier this month, Atlantic City launched a $3-million public art initiative, part of a larger plan to cultivate arts tourism.
“Atlantic City has already drawn pretty much most of the gamblers out there,” said Elizabeth Cartmell, CEO of the Atlantic City Alliance. “So really the destination is returning back to its original roots as a tourism destination. Culture and art, entertainment options, are drivers of people’s selections and the duration of their stay.”
Funded by the Alliance and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the project, dubbed “Artlantic,” takes place over the next five years with a series of five public art installations. For the first phase, which debuted unscathed earlier this month despite Hurricane Sandy's impact on the area, curator Lance Fung installed works by Kiki Smith, Robert Barry, John Roloff, and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov on two of the city’s many vacant lots. The sites are currently zoned for casino development, so the installations are temporary, but organizers plan to situate the final three projects on state-owned property instead.
At a press conference, the Kabakovs cited the city’s seedy reputation as inspiration for their project, a 98-foot-long plywood pirate ship parked on the site of the demolished Sands Hotel Casino. “Atlantic City is about greed, dreams, and fantasy — about something you don’t always get but will keep trying,” said Emilia Kabakov. “That’s what a pirate ship is, it’s an adventure. It’s treasure.”
Smith pointed to public art’s power beyond attracting tourism dollars. “I once applied for a public installation permit and they didn’t choose mine because mine wasn’t the best,” she said. “I wanted to make things for the public, but didn’t want to wait until I was dead, so I started putting up sculptures in my neighborhood, and I saw how art changed it. It changes [people’s] care, consideration, and pride in the neighborhood.”
“Artlantic” is only one part of the city’s broader plan to expand its art economy, which includes grooming the neighborhood of Ducktown into an arts district. City officials are already working with Stockton College and the Noyes Museum of Art to convert a local parking garage into gallery and studio spaces.
Will it work? Miami’s legacy has taught us, too, that a commercial art industry has to be built on a solid art infrastructure. Many of the galleries that flocked to Miami to capitalize on the success of Art Basel discovered that the market couldn’t sustain them year-round.
Atlantic City might do well to look to this history. “I believe art can transform a city, but, in my opinion, you can’t carve out an art district on a map and say, ‘that’s where artists are going to hang out,’” Fung said. “That’s not how Soho or Berlin happened. It’s about community. It has to happen organically.”
Instead, Fung said he’d like to see the city focus on funding grants and residency programs for artists. He has also suggested that local agencies invest in building a large-scale exhibition space. From there, the process should start from the ground up: “There is a local art scene — surprisingly more in Atlantic City than I thought for a town that size,” he said. “So the first thing you need to do is talk to artists and, whether you like their art or not, you need to support it.”
The second phase of Artlantic, titled “Glorious,” opens in June of 2013.