It’s not the yellow brick road, but Staunton’s new Red Brick District could put the Queen City on a path toward a kind of economic Oz.
“We hope that the Red Brick District will become as famous as The Fan in Richmond or the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, that people all up and down the Eastern Seaboard will say, That Staunton Red Brick District, that’s a place where you want to go and visit,” said Erik Curren, the chair of the Arts and Culture Council in Staunton, a group representing the arts community in Staunton that found partners in City Hall and the Virginia General Assembly to work together on the vision of creating a designated arts and culture district in Downtown Staunton.
The Arts and Culture Council introduced the Red Brick District concept and nomenclature at an event at the R.R. Smith Center on Tuesday. At the outset, that’s what the District is – a concept and a name. The Arts and Culture Council chipped in nearly $2,000 from private funds to put together a marketing brochure to promote the District
“We all sat down about a year and a half ago, and we came up with this dream, that Staunton could be known even more widely and even better as an arts and culture destination, as a town for culture, as a town for entertainment, a town for people to raise their souls and warm their hearts,” Curren said.
“Especially in today’s economy, when there’s so much bad news, we felt like now was the time to strike with some good news, with some hope, with something that the business community is working together with the city and the arts community to move Staunton forward. We know this will create jobs, as we’ve already seen when the arts and culture are developed. We know this will generate tax revenues. And we know that this will put hope into the hearts of people here and people who come here at a time when we need hope more than we’ve needed it in a long time,” Curren said.
The Red Brick District has quite a head start on the road to its Oz in the form of the Blackfriars Playhouse and the bevy of art studios and galleries that have made Downtown Staunton an electic, vibrant scene.
“Arts and cultural attractions are the most predominant tourism offerings in Staunton. So it’s very important to us. And having these organizations work together collectively strengthens the message – that we have amazing architecture, that we have a vibrant arts scene, that we have a walkable downtown,” Staunton tourism director Sheryl Wagner said.
“We have a rich history of culture and local talent in this area,” Staunton Downtown Development Association executive director Julie Markowitz said. “The Red Brick District and the cultural arts designation gives us a chance to brand and package the arts organizations in the area for promotion and marketing. It brings together the different media and disciplines into one cohesive group and assists each group and each person in the group by strengthening them through this partnership and giving them more resources as they share the wealth and they share the work together as an organization.”
– Story by Chris Graham
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