In my Ignite talk last week, I mentioned that I thought it was high time we move on here in Baltimore from defining ourselves to the outside world simply by the quirky and irreverent parts of the city’s cultural life. I think those aspects are an important part of Baltimore’s artistic identity, but that defining the city’s arts scene with a strong and overbearing emphasis on the weird sends a message that we’re not to be taken all that seriously.
Then I read Deborah Patterson’s post on Open Society Institute-Baltimore’s Audacious Ideas blog, in which she expressed indignation at the fact that Austin, with its “Keep Austin WEIRD” slogan-campaign, topped the list of Best Cities for Artists and Designers with Baltimore not even cracking the top 25. Yeah, seriously, like WTF? In Deborah’s opinion, Baltimore has “never fully claimed its identity.” I’ll agree with that too. I just don’t think WEIRD is the brand we ought to be pushing.
I realize that’s kind of a provocative stance to take in this city, but I think defining Baltimore’s arts scene based primarily on it’s irreverence and quirkiness is a major hindrance to the scene’s growth and respectability. The comment section is open.
Should we ‘Keep Baltimore WEIRDER’ than Austin?
Is being weird ‘pure brilliance’ or just good marketing?
Do we want to go ‘all in’ with the quirkiness?
@Kathy: The heroin business has changed. Baltimore is not one of the hot heroin hubs — at least not in terms of the new product: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ygs3zv4
@Brian: Focusing on Austin’s weirdness-as-branding misses the bigger advantage that they have over other cities, which is their huge student population. If Baltimore wants to grow — artistically, economically or in any other meaningful way — the city needs to start setting up new college campuses. For any whiners who say the crime/poverty/whatever is sure to kill deals: Have you ever watched a research university walk away from free land in close proximity to the world’s best hospital? I thought not. The city just needs to put some slightly-more-than-token effort into getting things started.
Better weird than the way I think of Baltimore…lots of murders and fairly recently the heroin capital of the U.S.
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