THE ART OF BROWNSVILLE - COMMENTS

I am back in Austin with too much time on my hands. I miss Brownville! I went to school today to make myself helpful at International Orientation but alas things move on and my help was not much needed. I am hanging with my friend Lisette and will go see Big Fish. As of the Brownsville project, the dean wished to personally meet with Frank and me next week. Hopefully the proposal will go through! Frank and I also met with Dr. William Hanna of the University of Maryland who is implementing a study of Arts Possibilities for the Matamoros-Brownsville Cities called Cooperation & Development. We spoke with him and Dr. Anthony Knopp, a history professor at UTB. We ended up speaking for almost 1 1/2 hours and it felt awesome to have an intelligent conversation about Brownsville and its arts culture. Here are the conclusions he came to in his first statement.
1.) The Brownsville-Matamoros area is economically stressed. (Brownsville has 12% umemployment compared to a 6% for all of Texas)
2.) There are numerous performing and other acts activities on both side of the border that can form the core of an intergrated arts program.
3.) Cross-border collaboration and promotion can make the area into a tourist destionation for the arts, enhancing the local economy.
4.) Change will not occur without leadership and some financial investment.
Dr. Hanna feels that the creation of a Brownsville-Matamoros Arts Committee should be formed to identify current arts activities and to promote them. His ideas are great and I hope that this committee will come into form soon. Maybe I can help create it but for now all we have is a small seed planted. Lets hope it blooms!