Schools recently began integrating an art aspect into science and math fields, turning the old STEM acronym to STEAM. In this vein, the Washington Township green team established a committee called the “creative team” to try to combine the arts with a greener future.
The South Jersey Cultural Alliance hosted its inaugural “Arts Tank” competition, which was similar to NBC’s “Shark Tank,” but instead of pitching invention ideas to Mark Cuban and Mr. Wonderful, members of municipalities in South Jersey pitched ideas about creative placemaking to fix issues in their communities.
“We consider ‘Arts Tank’ a professional development,” Executive Director of South Jersey Cultural Alliance Karen Pinzolo said. “We were looking for a way to present the best practices of creative placemaking rather than talking heads going over concepts. We thought the format of ‘Arts Tank’ would be much more fun and really highlight what questions the ‘sharks’ have.”
Pinzolo defined creative placemaking as using the arts and culture as a tool for solving or being a part of the solution of a municipal challenge.
She believed that having a creative project would help spread the word about creative placemaking and the positive impact art can have on a community.
“Since we didn’t have a relationship with the municipalities, we needed something. When you have $5,000 to give away, it’s not much in a budget, but to do an arts project it goes a long way,” Pinzolo said. “We sent information about the competition to every mayor in South Jersey. It was a lot more helpful saying, ‘How would you spend $5,000 if you win this competition?’ instead of ‘Come to this conference, it’s important to learn about this tool.’ I think the format was really helpful in promoting the conference,”
Knowing there was $5,000 on the line, the Washington Township creative team entered the competition with its project “Paint the Town.” Vicky Binetti, the leader of the creative team, outlined the project.
“We want to promote exhibitions and a variety of things that are not just exhibits but displays of the arts,” she said. “We had a head start before the competition with our rain barrel paintings with the environmental commission and the Memorial Day arts challenge. We want to build on those.”
Washington Township’s “Paint the Town” project will include unique ways to share art in town. Because Washington Township doesn’t have a centralized downtown area, the concept of a mobile art gallery is something the creative team pitched to the sharks. Binetti described the mobile art gallery as a way to display works of art on something like a banner and have it set up in a public location, like Washington Lake Park. It could be displayed for a short period of time, like before the upcoming Wine Festival or before the summer events in the park. Because it isn’t a permanent structure, it can be moved where it is needed.
Another concept pitched was augmented reality, which would include having a QR code on a wall where one can scan the code using a smart phone. While looking at the wall through the phone, one might see a painting or photograph on the wall.
“Our idea is to do that throughout town so that people can find spots where there was nothing and now there’s something to see,” Binetti added.
The “Paint the Town” project won first prize and $5,000 at the “Arts Tank” competition. The creative team will use the funds from this victory to put the mobile art galleries and augmented reality into action.
While happy to walk away victorious, Binetti handled the win in grace.
“The competitors were really top tier. Their projects were excellent, their presentations were great,” she said. “It was very obvious they have done and will do a tremendous amount of work to implement their plans. It was humbling to be recognized with the award. It was very gratifying and exciting.”
Pinzolo added five municipalities were finalists in the “Arts Tank” competition that took place on May 29 at the Noyes Arts Garage in Atlantic City. Washington Township beat out Camden, Woodbury, Runnemede and Ventnor to win $5,000. The other four municipalities each walked away with $1,000.
