Culture and Art = More Jobs, More Fun! - Feb 2010

Feb 2010

Culture brings a community to life, which in turn stimulates businesses that bring plentiful and good paying jobs. There are more ways to approach the job of building a community than just more golf courses. The cultural life of Medford has a lot of room to grow and we can all nurture the growth by supporting local arts and artisans.
To grow our culture we must support the fledgling works as wells as the established artists. It is inspiring to attend high school plays, support church choirs, and to be viewers in local galleries. We need to support the young, the mature and the young-at-heart artists in our community.
Jackson County rates above the national average in the Creativity Vitality Index as presented by the Oregon Arts Commission in a 2006 report, but as you can imagine that is heavily influenced by the activities in Ashland. Imagine how high the rating might be if Medford were the cultural center of Jackson County instead of Ashland.
Lorraine Clarno, President of the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce, was quoted in that Vitality Index report as saying, “Most people recognize the value and importance of performing, visual and other forms of art on individuals and quality of life in general, but don’t often connect the incredible business opportunities and contributions a strong and healthy arts community brings to a local economy.”
Soon after I first came to this valley in 1989, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development had completed a study that indicated big businesses would look at our area more favorably if we had more golf courses. So more golf courses were built. Then they discovered that it was more than just golf courses, those executives wanted to live on the edges of those golf courses.
That posed a particular problem because while you could build a golf course on land zoned exclusively for farming you couldn’t build houses on the edges of the course. The important point is that we do have the willingness to create a community that businesses will find vital to their own interests.
Now that we have our golf courses, what we seem to be missing are the cultural attributes that should be accompanying those golf courses.
The Craterian Theater is a good example of what can be done with vision and community support. Robin Downward’s work to create the new Randall Theatre Company of Medford – a community theatre – is an example of the courageous visions we need to encourage (email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
One of the easiest, and certainly least expensive, things you can do to support the arts is to visit the Third Friday Art Walk in downtown Medford (around the Plaza block on Main Street 5-8.00 pm.)  There you will find musicians, poets, painters, sculptors, and performance artists.
Developing Medford’s cultural life means creating public spaces that encourage experimental and unusual expressions of social significance. You can find more information about arts, culture and community at CommunityArts.net.
Now, mark your calendar for the Third Friday Art Walk!

John Statler is the owner of Computer Services Northwest, is a former member of the Medford City Council, and sits on several non-profit boards and commissions in Jackson County.