Want a more vibrant arts community? Increase upscale housing, economist says

According to Anirban Basu, a key to developing a vibrant arts community is …

… housing.

And why does that vibrant arts community matter?

"There is a neat relationship, a correspondence, between creativity and economic dynamism," he said

Basu, chairman and CEO of Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group, presented findings Monday from an updated study Sage conducted of Washington County’s arts, entertainment and related education sector — an analysis Sage first performed in 2012.

The update, commissioned as the earlier study was by the Washington County Arts Council, concluded that since the initial study, "Washington County has progressed tremendously … in terms of bolstering its cultural offerings despite an intervening pandemic."

And it had two main recommendations for going forward:

• Expand the supply of upscale housing and promote housing for artists in downtown Hagerstown, and
• Reaffirm the arts council's role as the "leading coordinating body for arts and entertainment in the region.

The update notes that the initial report concluded the "potential to generate a large and growing arts and entertainment community was vast." The new report, it said, "assesses the extent to which that potential is being actualized."

In other words, has there been progress since 2012?

Momentum — and a big impediment

"Some of the most vibrant communities in the world are soaked in arts and entertainment," Basu said. "That seems to be part of economic dynamism, community dynamism of rising socioeconomic performance."

To assess the impact in Washington County, "we talked to people," he said. "'What do you think about the arts and entertainment education in Washington County? What is going on Boonsboro or other municipalities? What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What are your complaints?' — we get a fair amount of those, as it turns out."

Sage conducted a survey that netted nearly 200 respondents — "a blockbuster performance," he noted. "We heard from a lot of different voices" through the survey and from focus groups, he said.

Sage also analyzed attendance, population demographics, market performance and the housing market. "These things all fit together," Basu said.

Since the first survey, Hagerstown's Urban Improvement Project — which, among other things, saw the expansion of both the Maryland Theatre and the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts — has been completed. The theater project was finished in late 2019; the Vincent Rauth Groh Academic Center at BISFA was completed nearly a year later.

Both projects were to be catalysts in the city's Arts and Entertainment District. And both were completed just as as a global crisis shut them down.

"Of course, one of the things that happened between 2012 and 2024, was the pandemic," Basu said, which affected visitation and other dynamics that would otherwise have contributed.

Nevertheless, the study showed that visitation to "key Washington County venues have recovered to pre-pandemic levels or better."

Specifically, the report says, attendance at Maryland Theatre events and visitation to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts have nearly reached their 2019 levels.

Where to go from here?

Basu particularly emphasized that mix of upscale housing and spaces for artists to live and work as the impulse that would move the arts community forward.

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"If you want to create a more dynamic arts and entertainment cluster, higher incomes are necessary," he said. And those higher incomes are appearing in Washington County, he added.

"In the current economic environment, we've actually often seen the fastest-percentage wage growth, or income growth, among the most entry-level, ordinary entry-level jobs," Basu said. "And that's great because that means that we're democratizing economic benefit, economic growth. And that means those folks have more spending money to spend on special items like arts and entertainment."

And "discretionary spending power proximate to artistic areas for communities is very important," he said.

But in addition to upscale housing, he said, there should be "targeted" affordable housing for artists.

"My point is not affordable housing for affordable housing's sake in downtown Hagerstown," he said, "but affordable housing that's very targeted, very intentional in what we're trying to accomplish. But then at the same time expanding the supply of upscale housing."

Several developers have taken on such projects in downtown Hagerstown. The city once operated artist lofts in the Arts and Entertainment District, but opted to get out of the residential management business.

Think you'd like living in downtown Hagerstown? Read this report before you answer

But Hagerstown Planning Director Kathleen Maher told The Herald-Mail that the city might look at ways to encourage private developers to produce artists' housing.

And that new stadium? Basu predicted that would help the arts and entertainment community, too. New performance venues, galleries and other arts facilities also have opened around the county, including downtown Hagerstown, Boonsboro and Cascade.

Downtown Hagerstown in 2024: New facilities, new activities, and the return of HAGERFEST

The other major recommendation was to have the arts council be the go-to agency for coordinating and marketing arts and arts events throughout the county, Basu said.

"Somebody needs to step up and do that," he said. "The Marketing to Increase awareness, the coordination including with respect to schedules, and in our research, it just made sense about what should be the Washington Arts Council.

"If the arts and entertainment and education cluster wants to achieve its potential in Washington County, it's going to need that kind of coordination."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Want a more vibrant arts community? Increase upscale housing, economist says