It’s a surprise and no surprise at all: Franklin County has been ranked the sixth most vibrant small arts community in the nation.
The designation by the National Center for Arts Research, based at Southern Methodist University, names the “Greenfield Town Microarea” on its third annual Arts Vibrancy list of communities nationwide.
The list ranks more than 900 communities across the country, examining the level of supply, demand, and government support for the arts in each.
The Greenfield Micropolitan Statistical Area — with a population of 70,601, corresponding with the county — is one of eight communities listed for the first time.
“Close to the University of Massachusetts and numerous private secondary schools, the area has a rich and diverse arts community,” says the description of “Greenfield” in the NCAAR report. “In the ’60s and ’70s, Franklin County was home to several large communes, many of whose members and their children still reside in the area. The citizens of Greenfield are instilled with a ‘counterculture’ mentality that is exhibited in the various civic organizations and businesses that foster participation in dance, theater, visual arts, and music.”
It says the local cultural council “supports all forms of culture, including heritage and natural history, performing and visual arts, and participatory and experimental events,” and notes downtown Greenfield’s designation last August as a Crossroads Cultural District by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The region ranks 12th of 937 areas in overall Government Support, which Zannie Giraud Voss, one of the report’s four authors, says is “huge.”
“In Greenfield,” the report says, “you can find public art pieces, murals, and painted parking meters. Pop-up art space Jaume I, opened in a storefront in June 2016, hosts a variety of events and performances, ranging from music and dance concerts to art shows and film screenings.
“The Town of Greenfield is surrounded by small rural communities (the “hilltowns”) that are populated with potters, glassblowers, graphic artists, painters, and sculptors. The adjacent community of Shelburne Falls is home to the studio of world renowned glassblower Josh Simpson. Given the rural New England nature of Franklin County, it is not surprising that woodworking and furniture making are also well represented.”
The designation measures the level of per capita federal and state funding for the arts, as well as the per capita measure of all the money spent by organizations and presenters of cultural programming, for which the region ranked 56th nationally. A third factor was the per capita population of independent artists, number of arts and culture organizations and employees of those organizations, with Franklin County ranked 21st of 937 communities nationally.
“What’s interesting for us was the fun we had discovering communities that we never knew existed,” Voss told The Recorder, “but the data has led us to things that stand out as having a lot to offer the community.”
Although listed as “Greenfield Town, MA,” Voss said the data used from the U.S. Census Bureau of Data, along with the Internal Revenue Service and the National Endowment for the Arts,” is for “micropolitans — counties in which the urban core has 10,000 to 50,000 people” together with their surrounding communities.
“Isn’t it exciting?” asked Linda McInerney, a Greenfield theater producer whose downtown arts extravaganzas like the Double Take Fringe Festival, Full Disclosure Festival and Eggtooth Productions, often in vacant spaces around Greenfield have added to the cultural vibrancy of the town, along with musical productions at The Arts Block and arts organizations like Pioneer Valley Symphony, Silverthorne Theater and efforts like the Green River Festival.
“How did they even know where we were?” said McInerney, who has been keenly interested in creating an arts center in the long-vacant First National Bank on Bank Row.
“I went through every single one of the top 10 communities listed, and every single one has a community arts facility — at least one — that’s very well established and very well supported by outside funds and is a vibrant not-for-profit. Greenfield and Franklin County are able to do this without having a facility downtown. It’s almost like ‘they are here, so let’s build it.’ It’s not even a ‘build it, they will come.’”
Ann Hamilton, former Franklin County Chamber of Commerce president, who for decades promoted the county’s arts and tourism venues, said, “I have no idea how this happened, but it’s very nice. She said the new designation should be very helpful in marketing the region.
Susan Worgaftik, who has helped spearhead the Greenfield Cultural Council’s work in winning an Adams Grant for public sculptures and helped the town’s cultural district be designated, said, “This is very exciting. It says the work we’ve been doing has been recognized.”
Voss added, “In the current climate, it is more important than ever to recognize the vital role that the arts play in creating dynamic places to live, work, and visit, and the Arts Vibrancy Index shows us that this is the case in communities all across the country, not just in large cities and on the coasts.”
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