Progressive Change Community Development Corporation

Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek

THE VISION

Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will be a catalyst for transformation, creating a place that is the heart and soul of the community. It will foster creativity that is rooted in the place and engaged with the community Its success will be gauged not only by its economic value but the wealth of ideas, resources, pride, and talent.

IMAGINE

The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek as a community cultural hub, where a diverse and dynamic mix of art, culture, technology and innovation and other community initiatives will converge to create a new and exciting existence for a vacant and abandoned space, that prior to its death, served the community as a place of culture and activity and as a beacon of hope. When completed, this inviting 80-acre urban landscape will contain 50 units of affordable housing that will be home to income qualified professional artists and other qualified community residents. The Center will also contain co-work spaces, production studios, IT technology labs, retail space, a restaurant, a theater and a multipurpose room in the commercial space for community use such as conferences, classrooms, performances, and events.

The original vision for Mill Creek was developed through a series of community meetings sponsored by West Philadelphia Financial Services Institution and Progressive Change Community Development Corporation, with participants coming from the Mill Creek Community Partnership and the neighborhoods surrounding the old Shanahan Catholic Club. The meetings were held at Philadelphia University’s SEED Center, where students in the design collaborative gave shape to the collective vision through a collection of design charettes that allowed and encouraged the participants to re-imagine the architectural and landscape possibilities for the creative place.

Progressive Change then conducted a series of conversations with artisans of various forms to confirm artist interest in the project. These conversations have proven to be invaluable in determining not only the specific spatial needs of the creative community but also in discussing collaborations that will connect IT with Arts to create innovation in music and film production, film scoring and performance technology. These conversations have acknowledged that both art and technology are derived from the human experience and can and should co-exist together in one place.

THE PLACE

The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will be located at 4624 Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. The Center and the community within which it resides takes its name from Mill Creek, which was buried in the 19th century in order to make way for urban development. Mill Creek’s earliest residents were Lenni Lenape Indians. Later residents included Swedish settlers. In the early twentieth century, Mill Creek became home to a community of Irish Catholic residents who created the Shanahan Catholic Club. The migration of African Americans from the rural south to Philadelphia during the period of the great migration from the 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s and the white flight and economic disinvestment that followed, changed the face of the predominately Italian and Irish immigrant neighborhood into a primarily African American community.

Later residents included Swedish settlers. In the early twentieth century, Mill Creek became home to a community of Irish Catholic residents who created the Shanahan Catholic Club. The migration of African Americans from the rural south to Philadelphia during the period of the great migration from the 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s and the white flight and economic disinvestment that followed, changed the face of the predominately Italian and Irish immigrant neighborhood into a primarily African American community.

Along with the change in residency came a change of culture, and the Shanahan Catholic Club transformed into the Mill Creek Community Center. Although located in Mill Creek, the Center was vibrant and full of life. It functioned as a cultural and educational hub for all the neighboring communities and much of West Philadelphia north of Market Street. Today, Mill Creek and the surrounding communities stand in stark contrast to the cultural vibrancy of the past. Mill Creek Community Center is a testament to years of the economic disinvestment that occurred when the color of the residents changed. It now stands as an abandoned building situated in a blighted and economically depressed community.

Today, Mill Creek and the surrounding communities stand in stark contrast to the cultural vibrancy of the past. Mill Creek Community Center is a testament to years of the economic disinvestment that occurred when the color of the residents changed. It now stands as an abandoned building situated in a blighted and economically depressed community.

As a beacon of hope, The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will be a catalyst to transform this community into an artistic and innovative destination.

THE SPACE

Imagine a space where artists will be able to live, work and create in one space. Imagine a place where divergent thinkers and convergent thinkers come together to expand the possibilities of our limited thinking through arts and innovation. Imagine a space where these forms are able to create innovation and artistry in the same location. Imagine a place where thinking and doing may be better than knowing because testing the limits allows for expansion of the box.

Imagine a space where entrepreneurship is the order of the day and derives from the creative environment that permits and supports its existence. Imagine also space where IT is taught to obtain lucrative IT certifications; acting is taught to explore and discover one=s intimate and creative self; and filmmaking is taught to capture, expose and document this exploration and discovery. Imagine collaborative co-working spaces where innovative film and music production is made affordable for the independent filmmaker and music producer to exploit what is captured.

Imagine a place where Nubian comic book characters can come to life through illustration, theater, and film-making. Imagine a place where the community is not only welcome, but is invited intentionally, to come in and stay awhile through the use of theater productions; vending spaces, IT classes, acting classes, community meeting rooms, and restaurants. Imagine a space where the workspace and living space was intentionally designed as platinum LEED. Imagine outdoor space that is considerate of the ecology of the environment.

If you can imagine all of this, then you can imagine The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The opportunity of creating a dynamic Arts, Culture and Innovation Center will require an innovative approach that is fluid, engaging, viable and visionary in order to create a place that will be nurturing and enabling of creativity, while simultaneously, inviting and welcoming to the local community and its residents. In a word, we believe that The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will be an engine that drives this community, socially, economically and creatively.

To these ends, we anticipate that The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will include affordable housing, live/work space, artist studios, film production, theater and IT as well as multipurpose space that can be utilized by the community.

THE IMPACT

Once completed, we believe that The Arts, Culture and Innovation Center at Mill Creek will become a creative and economic anchor in West Philadelphia. We believe that the collection of Art, Innovation, and Culture will facilitate growth and development in this community.

The Center will be a place that will nurture an exchange of dialog among resident artists, IT professionals, artistic entrepreneurs, and the community. Not only will it create jobs, it will be a connecting and gathering place that will celebrate culture and community while exploring the outer limits of technology and creativity.

IMAGINE.

Progressive Change Community Development Corporation is designed to connect capacities and fill in the gaps in our West Philadelphia neighborhoods. Our focus is to enrich the community by acting as a resource by promoting healthy living environments. Some of these programs will include the greening and beautification of our neighborhoods, financial literacy workshops, job skills training, and leadership and management workshops and more. Our hope is that Progressive Change CDC can foster a productive environment for collaboration where communities that work and build together also achieve together.

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Innovation & Art Center at Mill Creek

Sustainable Design Studio Fall 2016

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