21st Century Trends

AKA Creative, a creative urban space from SCP Streetcornerprophet.com on Vimeo.

That was kind of the tagline given to me when I showed up at a media preview of the 70′s soul music revival stage play ”There’s No Woman Like the One I Got,” which had its debut on December 1^st.  I was impressed by the vocal styles of the artists performing in the play but I was even more intrigued by the space.  I took a tour of the building on 314 and Remount Road in uptown Charlotte, stopping to ask people there, what is this place.   I was confused.  Was it a small community theater or maybe an art gallery?   Perhaps it was an incubator for businesses and artist, these were some of the thoughts that came to mind.  Then finally I talked to founder of AKA Creative, Jesse Shane.

Creative community spaces are not new but lately we have seen a shift in how urban areas use spaces to service the diverse needs of communities.  Charlotte, North Carolina is known as little New York, being compact in size and one of the fastest growing urban cities in the U.S.   The arts scene isn’t all that bad either, but because the city is small the use of spaces tend to take on a more creative edge, to accommodate the growing diverse palette of artists and art lovers.  Governing.com calls it DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Urbanism.  They also connect this growing trend to budget cuts to the arts and urban planning.  Todd Newcombe is Governing’s editor and he correlates the growth of DIY Urbanism to social media, the Internet, and a growing public interest in urbanism.

A local example of tactical urbanism is AKA Creative.   Shane describes it as a gallery and venue space where artists, entrepreneurs, and social innovators can showcase their work and collaborate on creative initiatives that will have a positive impact on the world and the local community.   You can find videos and photos of the events, artists, and innovators who use the space on the Internet at akacreative.com.