AGE: 39
JOB TITLE: Director of Arts on the Ave
Christy Morin never thought there would be "squelchers" - neighbourhood folks who were down on all the artists moving into homes and creating studios around her 118th Avenue neighbourhood, where she and her family have lived for the past 15 years. It was a kick in the gut. Morin thought the inflow of art was sparking life and injecting spirit into the place, which has lost its identity over time and become a struggling community with high levels of poverty.
As a community leader, she has created events and spaces to encourage that rejuvenating spark. But "the squelchers were concerned that change is coming, and it's not controlled in their environment," says Morin. "The arts are very grassroots, very uncontrolled, and can happen any time," she adds with a smile. "The squelchers aren't going to stop it. This is much bigger than that."
How exactly have the arts spurred change? For the Kaleido Family Arts Festival, which offers film, dance, theatre, visual and literary arts and an arts market on Alberta Avenue, Morin scouted out owners of vacant buildings on the avenue, asking permission to use the sites as venues. "We'd paint them; we had a group of reservists living in the neighbourhood who came in and did all the electrical and plumbing. It was amazing," she enthuses. Another project called the Bloom'n Garden Show and Art Sale, prompted by the atrocious state of the area's alleys, brought experienced neighbourhood gardeners together with newbies for a horticultural education day, all in a festive atmosphere.
Morin's latest thrust is to collaborate with the city and other levels of government to
create more permanent arts spaces on the avenue, possibly by buying buildings with the help of grants and investors before real estate becomes too expensive as the avenue improves. "What's happened historically is artists come, inhabit a neighbourhood and create change, then they're moved out," she explains. "We need to be strategic in purchasing buildings [and houses], so we can call it home in 15 or 20 years."
Of course, artists alone don't turn a neighbourhood from a detour to a destination: "We need more cool, funky businesses - boutiques, ice cream shops," she says. "I'd love to see a true Montreal bagel shop move onto the avenue."
STORY COMMENTS (7)
Congratulations Christy
Hello:
I would like to point out that in all of these comments, Christy has not yet been congratulated.
Congratulations Christy and cudos to the team who chose her as one of the Top 40 under 40!
Christy has done something relatively simple, but perhaps highly complex at the same time. She is an ordinary person who has accessed the combination of her experience, education, learning and an unbelievable amount of hard work and commitment to contribute to her community.
In addition, the team of volunteers who are involved with Arts on the Ave, under Christy's leadership have also contributed their talents, their commitment, their time, their energy to their community.
They are "paying it forward", using all the wonderful gifts that they have been given to make a change in a community.
Youth (under 40) is a great thing. When we are younger, it is really difficult to understand why others are not as passionate as we are. Would that we would all acknowledge the ideals and passion that we had when we were younger and work as hard as Christy does to make a difference. Best wishes, Christy!
Bigger than the Arts
Thank you for the recognition of other neighbourhood volunteers. It is the term "squelchers" that is truly offensive. Yes, there are others that would have preferred the Avenue Iniative money be focussed on the initial goals determined at Community Consultation. More community consultation about the change in direction of the Revitalation toward the Arts may have avoided people being disgruntled. I don't think anyone can deny that the Avenue is looking good - it is, as a result of many people's hard work. But while the goal of making this an artists haven is a lovely goal, this was not one of the original goals and it appears that a good deal of the Revitalization money has gone toward this. Perhaps the fault is with the City because the process should have been for those who volunteered to work toward the original goals set out at consultation and not stray from those without further large scale consultation, rather than pursuing their own agenda. I cannot fault Christy for working toward her dream - I only fault her for the name-calling in this article and the assumption she made as to why people may be disgruntled. Again, they were promised one thing and got another - with the money that was supposed to purchase the first thing. Understand?
Bigger than the Arts
It is virtually impossible for one person (Christy) to accomplish all the things that have been accomplished on the avenue by herself. There is a strong team of volunteers (not only artists, by the way) from this community that are excited about this work and highly involved in the efforts being made. Christy has provided awesome leadership, but she is not doing this alone.
Also, drugs and prostitution are a huge social issue. Arts on the Ave cannot solve it. If drug dealing activity and prostitutes begin to move to other areas, that is not the fault of an Arts initiative on 118th avenue. These problems are everyone's problems-everyone in Edmonton, Alberta and Canada. We are talking about significant social change that requires the efforts of an entire society (including people who reside in any neighbourhood).
Residents been working hard for years!
Residents have been working extremely hard in this community for years (volunteering - not getting paid) -those residents are fighting an endless battle out of the spotlight to clean up the crap within their neighbourhoods. Some of the newer folk don't realize that and can be really dismissive.Christie is shocked that people aren't happy? When she's turned the Revitalization into her vision and then receives compensation and kudos as well as a good boost to her career, while the rest of us continue the "dirty work" and on top of it she then has the nerve to call people that dare to disagree with her squelchers? Beauty is great but is not a substitute for safety in the neighbourhood. While the Carrot and Christie were on Global the other night, I had two scary looking hookers working the corner right near my house, and my family has been victimized by crime three times in two years. Wow, angry I am.
Tipping Point
I am totally pumped to see the tipping point finally starting to fall!!! I am a long time resident of Alberta Ave and yes we are finally seeing change. Entrepreneurs are finding the area attractive for something other than predatory retail. Street corners are more often free of crime. Residents are shaking off the lethargy and apathy and are now sharing and enjoying and protecting the community that we live in. Yeah, right on!!
Different Point of view
Wow, imagine anyone not wanting to see a neighbourhood revitalized by art and artists. Great plan, but I have to say after years of trying to deal with crime issues in this neck of the woods, I'm tired of having the special interest groups of 118th ave, shoving all of their problems back into my neighbourhood.There has been 0 community consult in the area of Alberta avenue in which I live. As a matter of fact right from the beginning it has not been on the 118th ave. initiative's radar. They just simply don't care that they have pushed some of the problems into adjoining neighbourhoods. WE tried right from the beginning of this project to have ALL of Alberta Avenue included in the initiative, but the area south of 115th avenue has been completely ignored. Now I have the trash that was working 118th ave, working my corner 1t 96 st and 113 ave. Nice......Not only that, the 118th avenue initiative lifted the block captain program from another neighbourhood organization and made it their own with no acknowledgement of what came before. Thanks for that. To label us as squelchers is just insulting. All of us care about the arts, but we are not prepared to turn 118th avenue into an 'artist's haven' at the expense of the rest of the neighbourhood. Get with the program. If you want to make real inroads here, get rid of the drug dealers, the hookers and the slum landlords. The rest will follow.
Squelcher
I might be a squelcher but I love Art and am friendly with a lot of artists that live in my neighbourhood. Is that a contradiction? However, having been very involved in the development of the original Avenue Initiative Plan that was democratically developed, I wonder if rather than being a democratic process anymore, it's lost that democratic process to a special interest group who really stand to benefit - you know, the artists and others that are being paid and are provided opportunities to sell their wares due to this direction. What about those who are still worried about the high level of crime in the community which was supposed to be addressed but really hasn't been. I don't believe that pretty lights will chase away the darkness. I think the problem is that the Avenue Revitalization no longer addresses the average residents concerns, and that is why people are down on the project. They did not get what they asked for and were promised.
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