Albany Arts Scene Revival

By: Aliya Allen

Albany, N.Y., Nov. 13, 2007 - Historic Albany is city with a wealth of art culture, and home to one the largest collections of modern art at the Empire State Plaza. Center Square, known for its night life and entertainment culture, including Lark Street , is paved with 19 th century cobble stones at every intersection, and rows of brownstones. The neighborhood has been nicknamed little “Greenwich Village”.

Annually Albany celebrates its own cultural diversity at a series of festivals that showcase the local art culture, like Tulip Fest, Latin Fest and Albany Jazz Fest. Amidst all of its own local culture the city is also in a prime location. Home to the Times Union Center, and smaller venues like the Palace Theater or the Egg, it just so happens that Albany is equidistant from other major venues in New York City and Boston, dubbing it the “Crossroads City” in which both national and international acts play. However, some locals argue that the city is continually passed over by major acts when traveling from New York to Boston because of “high ticket prices and lack of acts in our major venue.” Some say Albany is falling short of its progressive names and lacks the ability to bring more diverse entertainment and pushing the large underground art environment into the foreground of its metropolitan area.

Bob Buckley, a local of 31 years in Albany, finds little solace in the revival of the Albany arts culture. As one of the band members of local popular indie-rock bluegrass band called Kamikaze Hearts, Buckley realizes there are a lack of visible venues. The band must be very strategic about when it plays since there are only a few available venues. Due to their local fan base the Kamikaze Hearts “only play every three months” said Buckley “to ensure that people still come and fill up the place.”

A lot of bands compete for limited time spots at these places, such as Tess’s Lark Tavern, Red Square and Valentines. Even though there is a wide range of local artists, the arts in Albany is “flourishing but still underappreciated,” said Buckley, “Instead there are state workers who go into work at nine leave at five and just follow that routine over and over again.”

In some respects Albany appears to be in a conundrum to many of its artists and residents. On one hand the arts are flourishing rapidly all over the Capital Region, and on the other, the residents of Albany are in some respects unaware of artistic diversity at their finger tips. Downtown Albany, which would be the metropolitan epicenter of the city, goes unnoticed as the prime place to show case this hidden art scene.

However others may disagree with the lack of faith in the revitalization of the arts in Albany. There are a handful of grassroots groups beginning to work on larger scales to incorporate the communities of Albany in the underground art environment. As a way to shatter the “smallbany” image sometimes used to describe the small city with big hopes people like Jeff Mirel form support for local artist by looking inwardly at neighborhood revitalization. Mirel is the president of Albany Barn, a non-profit organization that works with local community centers to promote the cultural arts of a communities like “Summer in the City,” which featured youth art in the South End community center. Another one of the Barn’s chief goals is to have a creative haven or community arts center for local artist that will be “affordable subsidized housing,” said Mirel.

In addition to networking within the different communities of Albany, groups like Albany Barn also try to also bring the art community together as a cohesive group showcasing in different series like First Friday.

Michael Weidrich who is the president of both the Upstate Arts Guild ( UAG ) and also the recently formed Lark Street Business Improvement District ( BID ) have created a link between local business and local artists, called First Friday.

On every first Friday of the month businesses on Lark Street transform their store fronts into gallery spaces to showcase the craftsmanship of local artists. At about 7 p.m. Lark Street is buzzing with excitement as students and residents of Albany alike move from store to store in support of local visual artists who exhibit their works sometimes as a fundraiser for First Friday or just to sell them. The wine flows until 9 p.m. when the store fronts begin to close, ending the festivities until the next month.

While right around the corner Albany Poets run two open mics, one on the last Monday of the month at Tess’s Lark Tavern and every last Tuesday at Valentines. Mary Panza the vice president of Albany Poets, is in charge of forming and scheduling events like the open mic’s and Word Fest; a five hour kick-off open mic event with multi-media and music entertainment.

“The Albany art environment is booming along with Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga,” said Panza and those who complain about the lack of things to do are just “arm chair quarterbacks.” Most of the information about the events of these types of grassroots organizations are accessible through the internet and email lists.

Smaller non-profits like the Capital District Federation of Ideas (CDFI) use their website to list the schedule of events being held in their space off of Lark Street. Like its larger organization counterparts CDFI is focused creating community connectivity by working with not only artist but students and colleges, said Heather Williams former president of CDFI . Albany does have a large population of college students that are looking for different types of artistic outlets and the 20 to 30 year-olds are fueling the current art environment in Albany, Williams said.

Daniel Nester, an Assistant Professor of English at The College of Saint Rose and an essayist and poet is one of those people who are trying to connect the two communities of the college student and the residents of Albany. Through his Frequency North series Nester, often brings students to CDFI for open mics while either soliciting or booking local and outside poets to read for his classes. Even though Nester has only lived in Albany for two years he has already seen the need to pay attention to the “homegrown local poetry readings and open mics” in order to get a larger following in the residential areas for the arts in general, which in turn may help keep young urban business workers in town instead of moving to other urbanized areas.

“Too many people move away after they finish whatever temporary function they’ve been assigned to complete in Albany,” said Thomas Wilk current president of CDFI. Therefore the downtown Albany district does not have a strong backing to create a visible arts community. However this arts revival isn’t only happening in Albany, it has spread to Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga. Maybe Albany will jump on the band wagon so it can begin to retain some of the young urban business men and women, with the backing of all of Albany’s communities the arts might final come out of the shadows in progressive Albany.