![]() ![]() One of the NOCD Working Group’s policy recommendations is to provide access to public spaces, and in her evocation of how Corona’s creative community manifests itself in the neighborhood, Caitlin Blanchfield reveals the story of reclaiming Corona Plaza for public use, a powerful example of putting cultural vitality and institutional partnerships to work for the benefit of the community. The first article in the series profiles Corona, Queens, where a robust network of local groups combine public art, performance, cultural preservation, and social justice activism. George, and Hunts Point emblematic, each in its own way, of what can happen when cultural uses cluster and creative practitioners collaborate in the service of their neighborhoods. Over the next several months, we will publish four original articles that illuminate the specific constellations of social forces, strategies, organizations, and individuals that make Corona, Fort Greene, St. With this in mind, Urban Omnibus has partnered with the NOCD Working Group to look more deeply into just a few of New York’s NOCDs. And while the term NOCD is meant to classify a particular district ecology, each one is unique. When you walk into a cultural district that is not defined by a large, visible institution (such as Lincoln Center) or obvious arts-related commerce (such as in Chelsea), you might not find much to distinguish the streetlife from that of any other of New York’s diverse neighborhoods. But one of the things that make NOCDs such an interesting urban phenomenon is that they are not immediately recognizable. And they have helped local cultural practitioners to share resources and best practices in a climate where intensifying real estate pressure and diminishing financial support are constant challenges. These efforts have gone a long way towards fostering understanding from planners and policymakers about how the arts intersect with other sectors of a city’s civic and economic life. To date, the NOCD Working Group has produced compelling research, convened stimulating roundtable conversations, hosted informative neighborhood tours, and begun advocacy to encourage policies supportive of local cultural economies. ![]() For the past couple years, Greenfield and Atlas have co-led a collaborative effort to convene artists, activists, creative manufacturers, non-profit organizations, and policymakers in an arts-and-culture-led research, advocacy, and awareness campaign to generate a “sustained commitment and citywide platform for revitalizing New York City from the neighborhood up.” From Westchester Square to East Williamsburg, those neighborhoods where cultural vitality seeps from the sidewalks can be found in each of the boroughs. FAB owes its density of cultural activity not to top-down policies or large institutions’ capital projects, but instead to the overlapping historical influences of “immigration, labor organizing, urban renewal and… the resourcefulness of New York’s artists.” Even though FAB is the only officially recognized cultural district in Manhattan (and one of two in the whole city alongside the BAM Cultural District), it is far from the only NOCD in New York City. The case in point for that conversation was Fourth Arts Block (FAB), an East Village enclave chock full of performing arts spaces and venues. In 2010, Tamara Greenfield and Caron Atlas introduced UO readers to the concept of a Naturally Occurring Cultural District (NOCD), an urban area where creative individuals and organizations tend to cluster.
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