Strength through Diversity

 

"Richard Florida pointed out how important the arts are to building a vibrant community with a diversified economy.  I want to salute Denis Smith and Art Mode Gallery for their work, not only in Ottawa but elsewhere in Canada, providing artists and art lovers with a special place to gather together," Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, B.Eng.(Civil), M.Eng.-Sci., Ph.D., Entrepreneur-in-Residence, University of Ottawa, Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Founder of the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and supporter of the arts.

 

(Speech at the Official Opening, Art Mode Gallery, 96 George Street, Byward Market, Ottawa, Canada. June 13th, 2006.)

 

Why are the arts an important part of the human condition? Think about it for a minute—humans have been creating art for a long time. Here is a beautiful image—a cave painting in Lascaux, France—created by an artist, circa 15,000 to 10,000 B.C.

 


 

Imagine if you could create something that would last 17,000 years—that is 1.25 million sunrises and sunsets*. Now there is lasting satisfaction in that.

 

When I was involved with the creation of the Palladium (now Scotiabank Place), I was told I had made a lasting contribution to the City of Ottawa. But frankly, most of these buildings are dated after little more than a generation and are uneconomic after two. The then City Council compromised the design of the Civic Centre (completed in 1967) by lopping off most of one side to save a small percentage of its budgeted cost. As a result, the building, with its lopsided design, was dated even before it was completed.  We build power centres (big box stores) today to be tear-downs after only 15 years or so.

 

(*Someone should create a business that would allow children (and adults who can still appreciate the magic in life) to enter a cave and paint something lasting there.)

So why are the creative arts and the creative class important? Why shouldn’t we just focus on politics and business and forget about anything ‘uneconomic’? Why should Ottawa City Council support artists and the arts; why should it fund festivals? Aren’t festivals like the Tulip Festival money losers?

 

We did an analysis of the value of organized tree planting on city streets for a course I teach at Carleton’s School of Architecture (http://www.dramatispersonae.org/Treescapes.htm) and guess what? We found that:

 

“95.8% of the increase in the Return on Investment, ROI (i.e., 23%/24%) can be attributed to the act of creation and just 4.2% can be attributed to the actual measurable change in benefits…”

 

That means that the overwhelming increase in property values caused by organized planting of street trees could be traced to the improvement in quality of life and not to measurable factors such as a reduction in air conditioning costs.

 

Why would anyone pay tens of millions of dollars for a Monet or a Van Gogh? You could have a perfectly good reproduction made for a few hundred dollars.

 

Well, you want a real Monet or Van Gogh because it is beautiful beyond belief and because there is a perception of great scarcity and, hence, great value. Most of my students think that the price of a thing somehow reflects its costs but a little thought on the matter quickly reveals that costs have practically nothing to do with price—the price of a thing is whatever a willing buyer and seller agree to.

 

I am writing a Design Economics Handbook for Architects, Artists and Engineers that is cleverly subtitled “Get Rich While You’re Still Alive”. I don’t know about Monet but I know Van Gogh suffered from terrible poverty. It is my view that the creative classes, while creating new and exciting opportunities in our economies and most of the value in our societies, often don’t get what they deserve, they get what they can negotiate (to paraphrase our Dean of Engineering and Design, Sammy Mahmoud at Carleton University).

 

So let’s teach our creative classes to capture more of the value they create and, hence, let’s expand that sector for the benefit of all. Part of that effort is what we are here today to celebrate—the opening of a place where artists can do just that—get a fair return for their effort and the value they have created.

 

Jane Golden started a program in Philadelphia to bring graffiti artists ‘in from the cold’. Today, the Mural Arts Program (www.muralarts.org) there employs over 300 artists each year and teaches over 1,000 young people the art of creating murals at no cost to the students. More than 5,000 tourists each year enjoy mural tours in that city.

 


“Philadelphia Reads," 20th and Arch (1999)

Artist: Josh Sarantitis

 

Richard Florida coined the term “the Bohemian Index” as a way to measure the likely impact of the presence of a creative class on a city’s economy. His research found a positive correlation between the presence of a creative class and economic growth. Not only do the arts contribute to a higher quality of life, they also attract creative people in all fields—technology, education, health sciences, even real estate—and this leads to higher growth and a more sustainable and diversified economy.

 

We know that farmers are better off if they rotate their crops or even perhaps intersperse one crop in another. Reforestation efforts that use mono-culture are extremely susceptible to disease. ‘Forests’ made up of nothing but pine trees are practically devoid of wildlife. Diversity builds strength in nature and in human-made environments as well.

 

Tolerance of diversity, not just in terms of tolerance for and encouragement of a diverse economy but also a tolerance for differences amongst people be they religious, social, economic, political, gender, orientation, what have you, leads to a more interesting, diverse and healthier city-state.

 

So here’s to strength through diversity and here’s to tolerance and, lastly, here’s to Art Mode Gallery, long may it live…

 

Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, June 13th, 2006, Ottawa, Canada.

 

http://www.dramatispersonae.org/

 

http://www.dramatispersonae.org/ShortFormResumeParsed.htm