S12 E29: Delaware State of the Arts - Cityfest: the Urban Artist Exchange and the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

Ever pondered how the arts and government can meld to create vibrant, inclusive communities? Well, let's sweeten your curiosity with insights from Tina Betz, the Director of Cultural Affairs in Wilmington. Tina, with her special blend of creativity and administrative expertise, has been a key advocate for the arts in Wilmington, helping foster cultural initiatives that breathe life into the city.

In this fascinating chat, we journey through the rich history of Wilmington's Clifford Brown Jazz Stables project. The grand vision for this project includes an amphitheater, artist studios, urban green space, and even a unique stormwater management system. Backed by financial support from the Welfare Foundation, Longwood Foundation, Delaware Community Foundation, and the State of Delaware, this project aims to create an artistic oasis for both residents and visitors alike. Moreover, the Urban Bike Project's partnership is a testament to the synergy between art and community well-being.

Of course, no discussion about Wilmington's cultural scene would be complete without the much-anticipated Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. This remarkable event is more than just a jazz festival - it's a celebration of musical diversity that brings both local and international artists together on one stage. And speaking of jazz, we dive into its ever-evolving nature, reflecting on how Clifford Brown himself was a prime example of an artist who consistently pushed the boundaries of his craft. Join us as we unravel the richness of jazz and explore how it continues to shape our cultural experience.

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.

Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.

Transcript

Terrance Vann: 0:12

For Delaware State of the Arts. My name is Terrence Van and I am joined today by a Womington staple, an incredible artist and her own right an organizer, and has brought some of the biggest names to our city. I have Ms Tina Betz, who is also the Director of Cultural Affairs in Wilmington. Good morning, I have you nice and early here today. It's an absolute blessing to be speaking with you. Can you give our listeners a little bit of a backstory? I know you have it's so rich, but you know, if you could just paint a little tapestry for our listeners about you know what you do, what you have done, just to kind of get us started with a little intro.

Tina Betz: 1:00

Well, thank you, terrence. First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to be on with you this morning, and I use the word staple, it's like. Does that mean bold?

Terrance Vann: 1:10

I don't know but I know it is. That means that means timeless.

Tina Betz: 1:16

Okay, thank you. Thank you, that's a. That's a. That's a spin that I would prefer to go with. Yeah, I've been bouncing around, you know, advocating for the arts and having my fingers and the the the creative sector pot for more than three decades, mostly in government and with nonprofits, and it have been involved with the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival since the inception, since before it was the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, it was, we called it Jazz and on the Square it was just a multi-day downtown Musico event that is now, you know, grown to be one of the most respected jazz festivals in the world.

Tina Betz: 1:57

Quite honestly, you know, as part of co-founding theater and after there had not been a theater, a movie house, a downtown movie tent again for decades of better, sir Superman and I co-founded theater and a few years ago a partner and I, rich Newman, who now lives in Colorado, fringe woman 10 to to the city, which I would love to do again, by the way. It was just, yeah, an incredibly unique event that brought people from all over the region into woman 10. Would love to do that again and you know just many, many things. So women's and children's course was a, was a baby of mine and David Christopher, you know a little bit more than 20 years ago now and of course that is an organization that is out on its own.

Tina Betz: 2:49

You know founded slays and it's just doing incredible things around the city with you know, more than 500 young people around the city in their neighborhood fires, going from the you know the hilltop over to the northeast area and just reaching out to kids and giving them the highest level of musical education that's available free to children and of course that you know that organization has helped at least feel a little bit of the whole that is left by the arts being removed, you know, from public schools in large parts. So you know I just have my fingers in the pot. You know, whenever there's something, you know that look and there is, seems to be a blank canvas, you know I try to. You know, form partnerships that help, you know, make that canvas come to come, to come alive. So that's what I like to do oh, that is.

Terrance Vann: 3:44

That is wonderful. That's wonderful to hear, and I am one of those youth that have been affected by. You know all these, you know amazing programs in the city and you know it's awesome to be able to talk to you and dive deeper on this because you know I can speak from personal. You know experience, you know going to cab Callaway and you know I got the privilege to play in the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and it was a life-changing experience. So there there are so many lives that have been changed by your work and your impact. You're also an artist yourself. You know, as a classically trained singer, you've performed in so many different venues and how do you feel? You know being in both spaces and you know having an artist perspective and bringing it into government work yeah, a lot of my colleagues have that.

Tina Betz: 4:35

you know have had their lives on both sides of that fence and it is. It's a valuable experience to be a part of. You know, when you're on, when you're doing sort of the coordinating and that side not, you know, not practicing at the art, it makes a difference when you have been on the other side and you appreciate the type of environment that is conducive to artists bringing the best you know that they have to the table. It is really important when you're looking at it not through the creative lens, and I think that when you're an artist you bring your creative lens to everything that you do, to everything that you do. You know, even when I'm doing I'm looking at budgets, for example.

Tina Betz: 5:21

This may seem a little bit, you know out in that field, but you know one of the things I look at is how much of that money is going toward administrative and all of those sort of things or how much of it is really supporting the art and the artist. I mean that you notice those sorts of things. I mean I've sat on a couple of wars where I've made that observation. You know, gosh, that looks really heavy on the administrative side. I mean so and I think that, you know, being an artist helps. You see that you know, as I said, there are a lot of our colleagues who bring that same skill set to the table, and that's, you know, that's a good thing.

Terrance Vann: 6:02

Absolutely and I agree 100%. I think I wish everyone could take almost like a creativity course, you know, because even if you're not an artist, having that extra lens of perspective goes a long way and I think everyone benefits from it, especially in spaces where creativity isn't which, you know, government isn't is notoriously not the most creative place, fortunately, when you have good leadership, you know we and we have enjoyed that for a while, I mean with our current mayor, mike Pazicchi.

Tina Betz: 6:33

I mean, I worked 13 years for Jim Baker and you know both of these, both of those experiences my 13 years with Mayor Baker and, you know, been back and working with Mayor Pazicchi since 2017, both of those experiences have been really supportive of what it is that you know I try to do. I mean, I don't have to do a lot of battling and a lot of explaining and I think that comes from trust, but I also think it comes from an understanding of, you know, the value of the, of the arts. I mean, I was just over at our newest project, which I hope we have a chance to talk about a lot today, the Urban Artists Exchange, where we've converted stables into artists studios and art making studios and art teaching studios and a new outdoor amphitheater. I was just over there on the east side of Wilmington with Mayor Pazicchi yesterday and he is so excited and so supportive and I want it to be the best you know that it can be.

Tina Betz: 7:31

So, you know, and that's really very special. I mean, I have peers around the country who don't have that luxury. You know they have the battle for you know, to make the case and that can be exhausting. That can be exhausting, yes, yeah. So you know, I feel really fortunate that you know, even though I work in government, that I have been able, that I have enjoyed the support. You know the leaders that I've worked with and worked for.

Terrance Vann: 8:01

I want to take a minute to remind our listeners that you are tuned into News Radio, 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV for Delaware State of the Arts. In this most recent project, how did it come about? You mentioned you wanted to dive a little bit deeper. Let's kind of let's talk about what is the project, when is it now? Where do you see it in the future? The impact that it can make, I feel like it's a tremendous. It's a tremendous blessing for the community.

Tina Betz: 8:31

It is. It's a huge asset and I like to give a big nod to Dolores and Barbara Washam, who for years operated the Urban Environmental Center on that same site. I mean, there were stewards of that site for almost I think almost two decades. Had it not been for their commitment to that one acre piece of land, lord knows what it would have been. Applaud to Barbara and and Mr Dolores Washam, the Washam sisters, and the project has gone from the Washam sisters primarily operating one building, the building. The building now is currently occupied by the Urban Bike Project and they're great partners on the site and there were a bank of stables and back. I would say in maybe about 2010 or so, I had a conversation with the Washam sisters and talked about what their vision had been for the entire sites and they also they always had a vision to convert to stables and to do mostly environmental projects on that one acre piece of land. So when they decided that they wanted to hang up their spurs and move on to do other things, the site was returned back to the city of Wellington. So I started working with other partners within city government at the time as I said about 2010, to come up with an idea of converting the stables into artist studios. We did a design of all of those components and then I left the city.

Tina Betz: 10:14

When Mayor Williams came into, his administration came into being. I left the city, the Urban Bike Project needed a home and approached Mayor Williams about coming into that space where we had a vision to Black Box Theater. And so Mayor Williams and the Urban Bike Project struck a deal and the Urban Bike Project is there and, as I said, they are great partners. They are really good to have on the site. They added just another dimension to what it is that we're doing. So then Mayor Williams, after his administration, mayor Pesicchi came in and this idea of converting the stables into artist studios and amphitheater and all that stuff was still hanging in the back of my mind. And when I was fortunate enough to have Mayor Pesicchi ask me to come back on board, I approached him, chief of Staff Tanya Washington, who works for the Baker administration. I said remember this idea, you know this, you know, do you think this would be great? It's a little bit of convincing because, you know, when you saw the stables they were just in such total disrepair and the site was overgrown and it was just. I mean, it was just a big, you know, a huge undertaking. It really was. But you know, I showed up the designs that we had and, you know, revised the vision a little bit, because now we had an Urban Bike Project, we didn't have that building for Black Box Theater and then we were just off and running Terrence.

Tina Betz: 11:36

So since 2017, the city has invested heavily in both human power and capital into this project. The welfare foundation came on board, the Longwood Foundation, the Delaware Community Foundation, the state of Delaware, so you know all of these partners. So the stables are done almost, except we want to age back them now. So so we're asking, you know people for funding to help us do that so we can do year on programming the amphitheater platform or performance space. That is totally done and has this really nice green room. It's huge.

Tina Betz: 12:18

So I can even accommodate artists like the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, for example. You know, globally accommodate that. And then we can also go down to smaller ensembles, you know. So you know that's done. And this morning I just got photos of trees being delivered for the to make it an urban green space. And then we were also very fortunate to be able to work with the city's public works department because they had a very high interest in mitigating the impact of border runoff into the brand new one and flooding in that area of town. So, in addition to everything that you see, that people will see, obviously above ground there is a lot of infrastructure underground of stormwater management that will have an impact of ripple effect for a few miles out from the site to help, to help, you know, lessen the impact of flooding in that area, so we have stormwater management, biloswells, little rain gardens and now a big amphitheater and the stables trees being delivered.

Tina Betz: 13:27

This project is such a huge, will be such a huge asset for the entire city of Wilmington, but especially for the east side of Wilmington which is, you know, an historic neighborhood in the city of Wilmington and it's with the walking distance of, you know, east side residents to northeast area, you know just a lot of communities will be able to come enjoy what it is that we present there, which we plan to be robust.

Tina Betz: 13:52

It's not we don't want to just build it and go well, isn't that pretty. You know. We build it because we want to make sure that it is activated as much as possible in where there's just programming happening all of the time for the community and I want to mention the vision is for it to be free to the community. We will not, we do not want to do ticketed events. So whatever we do, we will go out, we'll beat the bushes to raise money so that there is zero barriers to accessibility to what it is that we're doing and everything that we do also will be high quality artistically. So I know that was a lot, but it's a lot to. You know, I'm just so excited about what it is that you know that we're doing there, in all of the possibilities that it brings.

Terrance Vann: 14:41

Oh, it sounds so exciting. I mean it sounds fully transformational and 180 degrees of of just change. I've driven by that area many times so I know exactly where you're talking about and I know that that just elevates. You know everything in that area and it's also great for the listeners to hear how much goes into a project like this. I think folks they'll be there enjoying it but they might not ever see all of that. You know just organization that went into. I mean just hearing about the, the store and drain and just all that had to happen to collaborate and make that possible. It's remarkable and I think the city, the city is going to appreciate that for many years. And now, moving into Clifford Brown coming into next month and I'm sure that's kind of a massive, you know undertaking in its own right every year, annual you know annual just huge party for the city and you know some of the best musicians in the world are right in Wilmington for three nights. Is is or is it four nights.

Tina Betz: 15:51

Four nights, wednesday through Saturday. Yeah, and for those with the stamina, we do late night jams from 10 o'clock at night after the festival ends in Rodney Swarff, until one o'clock in the morning.

Terrance Vann: 16:03

Those are, those are turning into. I had the honor to sit in one when I was. I used to play trombone and you may know my friend Vernon James. Oh, sure, yeah. So we grew up together and let me tell you, for people listening, these are, these are you can't miss. These are these are events. I mean you get, you get to be right there with the musicians. It's jamming in there.

Tina Betz: 16:28

I mean it is jamming and every now and then and you never know when this may happen you have an artist who just played that evening at the festival. I mean it's just you know, that's happened, where they just you know, drop in because they're staying at the, at the hotel Dupont or another hotel nearby, and they'll every now and then just stop in. So that's always a possible surprise. But, yeah, they're great.

Terrance Vann: 16:53

Yes, and I mean the acts. I've got to see Chick Korea I've got to shake the hands of I don't think he was able to play, but Freddie Hubbard was there and I got to shake his hand. I mean so the Clifford Brown Jazz Fest. It's almost indescribable what it means to Warmington, and so you've been there from the beginning. Like you said before, it was even Clifford Brown. So now, at this point, 36 years, how does that feel?

Tina Betz: 17:25

Feels great, first of all seeing how much the community appreciates it. And when I talk about our local community and also the broader community, I mean we've had people who can their vacation, who live in other countries who can?

Tina Betz: 17:40

their vacation around coming to Warmington for the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. So that's just. This festival puts Warmington on the map and it gives us an opportunity to showcase our city, which is just getting better and better and better all the time. It's a sense of pride. I took the opportunity again to go onto the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival Wikipedia page to look at all of the artists, the past artists who have attended, and it is amazing. I mean, it's such a powerful experience to read down all the names, and one of the things that I find very satisfying is that you have local artists like the Faustina Dixon on the same night that you may have a Chick Korea, for example, or Ray Jones, avery, or some of our local artists. A part of the mission of the festival is to bring the Chick Koreas and Freddie Hubbard's and the Stanley Clarks and the Marcus Millers and all of those people to the stage, but also to shine the spotlight on our local and regional artists. It's really an important component of the festival.

Terrance Vann: 18:59

The inspiration that happens every night on that stage is just it's remarkable. I that's what I'm saying, I can't even describe it fully. And, miss Faustina, I play with the Warmington Youth Jazz Band and that changed my life. So like to hear that how interconnected all these things are. It's just remarkable. And I think the last Clifford Brown someone said they come from Hawaii. I remember they were calling out different places and that's just huge. That's absolutely huge for Warmington.

Tina Betz: 19:32

And then look at it from the point of view of jazz and how jazz is always evolving. I mean, it's jazz, it's simply not a static form of art. Every now and then over the years, I'm hearing it last and last night, goodness. But every now and then, somebody will say Clifford Brown would never have played. That it's like oh, we don't know. Clifford Brown was 25 years old when he tragically and unexpectedly left us, and I would think that he would have been the type of artist who would have continued to evolve and explore, test the limits of his arts.

Tina Betz: 20:09

I mean, when you look at artists, for example, like Amal's Davis, you listen to an early Amal's Davis and then listen to Amal's Davis later in the spirit, and I mean the evolution is just astounding. So we try to take that concept and program the jazz festival in that way. People understand the diversity of this music. It is not in a box, thank goodness, because if it were it would die. I mean, how many times have you had that discussion? Is jazz dead? Well, no, first of all, and that's because it hasn't been smothered in a box. It's allowed to breathe and to continue to grow and to diversify and to explore. So that's what we try to do when we're deciding which artists to bring to the festival. And I think when folks take a look at this year's lineup, I think we've been very successful at underscoring and underscoring that Music playing, music playing.