In a wide-ranging conversation about how city government can support artists and foster a diverse, healthy and sustainable creative economy, Madison’s mayoral candidates shared their visions for the future of the city’s arts and entertainment scene on Jan. 16 during a public forum at the Barrymore Theatre.
Themes of improving racial and cultural equity, increasing affordable housing, fostering connections with local schools and businesses, and expanding access to transportation infrastructure came up repeatedly in response to questions from moderators Kate Hutchinson and Brian Standing, both WORT-FM radio hosts. The candidates also favored retooling city policies in areas like zoning and permitting to make processes more flexible and accessible to a diverse group of creative entrepreneurs.
“The city tries to put things in boxes,” said Satya Rhodes-Conway, a former Madison alder and senior associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy think tank where she manages the Mayor’s Innovation Project. “Creatives don’t live well in boxes.”
The forum was organized by Arts + Literature Laboratory, a performance venue and community arts center on the city’s east side, and Tone Madison, an independent arts and culture website. Five of the six mayoral candidates were present; incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin, citing a conflict, was absent.
Candidates spoke of their personal connections to the arts in Madison and emphasized how their backgrounds and campaign objectives would enhance the city’s role as a supporter and facilitator of creative and cultural programming. “My role as a tech leader involves helping businesses grow,” said Ald. Maurice Cheeks, a vice president of business development at MIOsoft, a Madison-based software company. “The city’s role in ensuring [the creative economy] continues to grow is going to be investing in creative entrepreneurs — particularly entrepreneurs of color.”
Raj Shukla, executive director of the conservation organization River Alliance of Wisconsin, said he “wouldn’t have made it through high school if it weren’t for music.” When asked about ways to increase access to arts education in local schools, he floated the idea of pursuing partnerships with local businesses. “The big question is funding — how are we going to fund more programming, more space set aside for artistic purposes? We need to ask the private sector to be a part of this,” he said, adding that philanthropic engagement is tied to economic growth. “Madison, Wisconsin, is right now going through an economic boom. Right now is the moment when we can approach the private sector.”
Toriana Pettaway, the city’s racial equity coordinator, recommended racial equity analyses of issues relating to arts and culture in the city, pointing out that systems like zoning are rooted in the perspectives of wealth and whiteness. “Any time any person of color has ventured off to open up any establishment relating to people of color, it’s always associated with criminal activity,” she said in response to a question about how the city can improve its relationship with non-white artists. Pettaway is running as a write-in candidate.
Artists and others depend on functional infrastructure, including affordable transportation, and Rhodes-Conway and Cheeks both emphasized the need to retool the city’s public transit system. They proposed increasing late-night service and improving efficiency and access for all citizens — not just those who live on the isthmus. “We have a phenomenal bus system,” Cheeks said. “It just works a lot better for some than others.”
Comedian Nick Hart, who pointed out that he’s the only working artist running for mayor, struggled to answer a question about how to help creative entrepreneurs who are being displaced by gentrification. “You want a comedian to answer that?” he said.
Rhodes-Conway took the opportunity to provide, as she put it, “a real answer,” pointing to places like Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon, where city governments have helped establish cooperatives, land trusts, displacement mapping, and community control of space and land. “We need to think about it now while we have potential access to getting site control [of available spaces],” she said, “rather than five years from now when it’s too late.”