Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit 2009 » gentrification http://www.gcecs2009.com gcecs2009.com Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:06:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 The View from Amber Street. http://www.gcecs2009.com/the-view-from-amber-street/ http://www.gcecs2009.com/the-view-from-amber-street/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:33:06 +0000 hoffmank@uarts.edu http://www.gcecs2009.com/the-view-from-amber-street/ Erika Mijlin, producer of ‘the View from Amber Street’ and co founder of Artifact Pictures moderated the session.
Her documentary told the story of a warehouse in Port Richmond, Philadelphia, which once was in the epicenter of the textile industry, built in 1885. It had since gone out of business when the textiles left Philadelphia and the U.S. in general, because of outsourcing. Artists and artisans now use the space. In 2005 Tom Oliver was the building owner. It was once his father’s knitting factory. Art and industry now co-exist in the building. It houses painters, bookbinders, jewelry designers, screenprinters, sculptures, and toy designers.

The bookbinders have been tenants there for 30 years. It was once a desolate building, now enriched with art and creativity.

One of the tenant’s explained that they were all “drawn to the factory to make something, couldn’t let it go,” as they were at risk of losing the building in 2005. The community got together to try to buy the building, but missed the property being sold by 30 days.

Erika Mijlin showed the new owner the documentary and, he decided to keep the warehouse as studio space.

The new owner stated ‘We can still make money with this but why not do something that means something.”

This panel highlighted how the community that was formed here was very powerful and effective because it formed in an organic way. One must form a community by each individual.

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