Memphis aspires to be a city of choice. It wants to retain and attract the creative class. Our salvation lies within. To truly spark a creative renaissance in Memphis, first support the local creatives who already call Memphis home. 

Memphis should be confident in its creative talent. Be proud of them. Invest in them. Nurture them. Showcase them. Help them thrive and build industry. Give them reason to stay. Give them MAP. 

Much like Robert Church's Church Park and Auditorium (the inspiration behind MAP), MAP would serve as a fertile incubator for emerging artists. MAP’s infrastructure would empower ambitious creatives to develop, expose, and market their art and garner public feedback. Think of MAP as a testing ground and launching pad for budding artists and arts groups. Imagine MAP as a do-it-yourself center for emerging artists. 

MAP would also create a conducive environment for collaborations between the various arts and artists, whether planned or serendipitous. With the circulation of filmmakers, musicians, dancers, performing artists, and visual artists at MAP, the interchanging of ideas and cross-pollination of disciplines would naturally occur. Art movements are seeded in such fertile environments.

MAP would also provide artists with a highly visible and engaging downtown platform to showcase their art. Downtown offers them the greatest exposure among locals and tourists. The South Main Art Trolley Tour proves that creating an engaging arts environment in downtown attracts large crowds who support the arts.

Millions of tourists, who tend to stay downtown, visit Memphis annually to celebrate the city’s historical culture. It would seem that they’d be naturally inclined to appreciate our emerging culture too, especially if they have easy access to it downtown. MAP would be a dynamic downtown destination that would draw both locals and tourists. It would also help engender vibrancy in downtown and help stimulate a true downtown renaissance. 

But it’s not just about downtown. It’s also about helping to bring the entire city together. MAP would increase access to the arts for low-income and minority communities, which not only lends to cultural and economic development but also enriches communities, bridges racial divides, and fosters social harmony -- all of which Memphis sorely needs.

Statistics show that many of the troubled inner-city youth are creative/right-brained students who have not found much hope in the world of academia, which increasingly, in our standardized-test school system, gives the arts short shrift. The arts provide creative youth with alternatives, hope, and soul-nourishing fulfillment. Given Memphis’ high crime rate, chances are there is a great deal of unfulfilled creative energy in Memphis that is not being tapped, nurtured, and channeled in a healthy and constructive way. 

MAP would help energize the creatives here and position Memphis as a thriving arts hub. After all, artistic, innovative, and soulful creativity have historically been our city’s niche. And while our groundbreaking artistic past is our heritage, today's artists and creative youth are our future. Incubating and integrating our city’s creative class should be top priority. Doing so is the key to becoming a dynamic city again and a magnet for creatives. MAP would contribute to this worthy goal.

Nationally, Memphis could be that inexpensive "neighborhood" with abundant character, soul, and unrealized potential, where artists tend to cluster. Wherever creatives congregate, cultural institutions subsequently get built, people gravitate to them, and the businesses follow. But first, Memphis needs to produce the goods from within, by laying the groundwork and leveraging the locals who already call Memphis home.

With its prominent river-bluff location on the Promenade, MAP would serve as a cultural beacon on our city’s doorstep. It would announce that Memphis is a distinctive arts destination with the community-wide goal of inspiring the American culture… yet again.

If you believe in MAP and what it could do for Memphis, and if you want to see it on our Public Promenade, then please show your support by becoming a Facebook fan or joining MAP's email list. Thank you.