Art Festivals and Land Use in Oregon

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Art Festivals and Land Use in Oregon PlA TOLLO BROWN* ARE ART FESTIVALS worthy of serious attention by scholars . or are they merely a passing fad or another version of that capitalistic and materialistic pastime called "shopping"? The author considers art festivals to be an important source of information about the needs, values, and interests of a great number of Americans today, and thereby as a significant part of 20th century American mass culture. But before examining the spatial and resource implications of this form of social behavior in Oregon, we need to know how all of this interest in the arts began, who started the festivals, and why. Art festivals first appeared in our culture in the late 1950s and early 1960s, around the same time that urban parks in cities all over the United States were becoming a great safety hazard. Parks were used either for the wrong reasons (such as drug peddling, crime, sleeping places for drunks) or not at all. Outdoor recreationists, artists, and park directors began to meet and to discuss the concept of "Art in the Parks" as a potential solution.1 Between 1961 and 1966, sponsorship of activities involving the arts by recreational agencies doubled and in some "Mrs. Brown is a former Associate Professor and Reference Librarian at Oregon State University, now living in Gainesville, Florida. 1S. H. Frieswyk, "The Arts and Communication in Recreation and Park Programs," Parks and Recreation, Vol. 1 (Dec. 1966), pp. 976-977; Norman Kaderlan, "A Report on the Parks, Arts, and Leisure Project," Parks and Recreation, Vol. 8 (Sept. 1973), pp. 29-30; Nellie D. Arnold, "Opt for the Arts in Recreation Education," Parks and Recreation, Vol. 9 (June 1974), p. 45. 49 50ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS cases even tripled.2 With the influx of average citizens back into the parks, crime rates began to decline in large urban parks.3 Even the federal government began to recognize the arts as an "essential part of the Nation's resources" and began working with private agencies. Their joint efforts culminated in 1971 in the completion of Wolf Trap Farm of Virginia, this country's first national park devoted to the performing arts, and Glen Echo Park for Participatory Arts in Maryland, both operated by the National Park Service. The Smithsonian's Festival of American Folk Life, begun in 1970, likewise belongs to this national arts and crafts movement.4 The 1960s were also a restless time of violent race riots in our nation's urban areas. National conferences were held concerning the arts as agents of social change. Some community development directors even planned their programs around the premise that the arts were "essential" to an effective antipoverty program because, as one expert put it, " . . . the sheer ugliness of the slums is the prime cause of alienation and isolation ."5 Hence the arts were introduced. A year after the Watts riots of 1965, leaders and residents of that community held a summer art festival in order to channel their community into more constructive activities and to improve their image.6 This is an annual event. In the 1960s downtown shopping areas were beginning to feel the emptiness and isolation brought on by the postwar 2Norman Kaderlan, "The Arts in Recreation" Parks and Recreation, Vol. 7 (June 1972), p. 33. 3Judith Murphy and Ronald Gross, "The Arts and the Poor" in Reflections on the Recreation and Park Movement, comp, by David E. Gray and Donald A. Pelegrino (Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown Co., 1973), p. 215. 4Sidney G. Lutzin, "At Last . . . Culture Comes to the National Parks," Parks and Recreation, Vol. 7 (March 1972), pp. 22-26. 5Judith Murphy and Ronald Gross, p. 216 (see footnote 3). 6Judith Murphy and Ronald Gross (see footnote 3). See also: David E. Gray, "The Case for Compensatory Recreation," in Reflections on the Recreation and Park Movement pp. 196-198 (see footnote 3); Dorothy Maynor, "Implications For the Ghetto" in Technology, Human Values and Leisure, edited by Max Kaplan and Phillip Bosserman (New York: Abingdon Press, 1971), pp. 108-116. YEARBOOK · VOLUME 41 · 197951 superhighways, super shopping centers, and new suburban discount stores. Chambers of commerce in cities all over the...