by Bailey White
Staff Writer
It has been two years since the Brooklyn Arts and Design Center moved downtown to the Florida Ballet building on Forsyth Street.
The organization, designated with non-profit status a year ago, was founded in 1998 to provide a nurturing environment for artists and designers beginning to develop their professional and academic careers.
Now in its fifth year of operation and with a second location in Riverside on Stockton Street, co-founder and board president Mark Rinaman is looking toward the future and Brooklyn’s place in it.
“Our overall plan,” he said, “is to evolve into more campuses – potentially even in other cities – and to provide development framework to the creative-and -culture-based segment of the economy.”
Rinaman draws inspiration from the Savannah College of Art & Design, which has campuses scattered across downtown Savannah, and from the Torpedo Factory in Washington, D.C., a converted factory that now houses artist
studios and workspaces that are open to the public.
“One role I want Brooklyn to fill is as a facsimile of what a university could provide in terms of professional development, continuing education, internships and community design center services,” he said. “If developed properly, we could provide that type of environment. Whether we’d provide formal education, we’ll see, but it’s always helpful to be around others doing creative work because you can kick ideas around together and you come up with things you may not have on your own.”
Rinaman sees an opportunity for Brooklyn to provide an environment for research just as many universities do.
“Brooklyn is and will continue to conduct studies and research similar to the way the JCCI does, but with a focus on the urban design and civic form, economic development, environmental and emergency response aspects of the built environment,” he said.
Over the years, the Brooklyn Arts and Design Center has seen between 50 and 60 artists and designers use it as a headquarters and more participate in the shows and exhibits it hosts. They are essentially members and are encouraged to work together to organize shows and exhibits.
“This is an organization that people get out of it what they put into it,” said Rinaman.
There’s another benefit, Rinaman believes, that the center can provide to the city.
“A place like Brooklyn can reposition the neighborhood development and bring a real sense of place to an area,” he said. “We want to bring cultural energy to specific geographic locations.”
Downtown is definitely one area of focus.The group responded to the Downtown Development Authority’s Request for Proposals for development ideas for the Hayden Burns Library. Their idea was that the space be renovated into offices for architecture firms, writers and creative business.
And the Riverside space at Stockton and Myra streets is in an area with slow economic growth that Rinaman would like to see improved.
“It’s not enough to just build a building and hope that people will come,” said Rinaman. “There has to be something unique to get people downtown and into other areas that need revitalization.
“In that way, I think Brooklyn becomes an amenity. There are interesting people, design events and gallery shows, and people want to come and check it out.”