south bronx cultural corridor

The South Bronx Cultural Corridor is a unique urban destination. In 2001 BCA designated a mile-long strip of the Grand Concourse as an area with a high concentration of cultural activity and branded it the South Bronx Cultural Corridor. It has been dubbed the “Gateway to the New Bronx” and demonstrates arts-based economic development in the South Bronx. BCA’s goals for the corridor are to attract visitors, increase commercial activity and engage the community in a variety of South Bronx cultural events.

The corridor includes Lincoln Avenue and the Bruckner Service Road up to 165th Street (north to south) and East River to the Harlem River (east to west). It is not a standard neighborhood per se- but rather includes Lower Concourse, Melrose, Mott Haven, Port Morris and Hunts Point, all within Honorable Jose E Serrano’s Congressional District 16. It includes light industry, residential, commercial businesses and major health and educational institutions as well as increasing numbers of artists, designers, artisans, arts organizations and more.

The South Bronx Cultural Corridor is also a cultural tourism initiative. The area supports a critical mass of major cultural non-profit institutions, galleries, and other arts hosting venues including:

• Andrew Freedman Home, 1125 Grand Concourse, 718-293-8100
• Arthur Aviles Typical Theater/BAAD, 841 Barretto Street, 718-842-5223
  Web: www.bronxacademyofartsanddance.org/
• Artisans Boutique, Hostos Community College Lobby, 450 Grand Concourse
  Web: http://bronxarts.org/bcadc_artisian_institute.asp
• Boricua/Festival Hispanico, Luis C Stephenberg Alers
  Email: bxhispanic.festival@bluetie.com
• Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10456, 718-681-6000
  Web: www.bronxmuseum.org
• Bruckner Bar and Grill, 1 Bruckner Blvd, 718-665-2001
  Web: www.brucknerbar.com
• Ghetto Film School, 79 Alexander Ave, Bronx, NY, 718-589-5470
  Web: www.ghettofilm.org/
• Greenworker’s Cooperative/Rebuilder’s Source, 718-617 7807
  Web: www.greenworker.coop/website_j/
• Gordon Parks Gallery at College of New Rochelle, 332 E 149th Street, 718-665-1370
• Hagan St Philip Gallery, 112 Lincoln Avenue
  Email: hagansaintphilip@yahoo.com
• Hostos Center for Arts and Culture, 450 Grand Concourse, 718-518-4455
  Web: www.hostos.cuny.edu/culturearts/
• Lincoln Hospital, 234 E 149th Street, 718-993-3860
• Longwood Art Gallery@ Hostos, 450 Grand Concourse, 718-518-6728
  Web: www.longwoodcyber.org
• MUD/BONE Studio 889, 889 Hunts Point Avenue, 718-620-2810
  Web: www.mudbone.org
• South Bronx Food Cooperative, Saturdays at Nos Quedamos, 754 Melrose Avenue, 646-226-0758
  Web: www.sbxfc.org/
• THE POINT CDC, 940 Garrison Avenue (at Manida Street), 718-542-4139
  Web: www.thepoint.org
• Pregones Theater, 571 Walton Avenue (btwn 149th & 150th Streets), 718-585-1202
  Web: www.pregones.org
• Spanic Attack’s The Bronx Salon, 271 Alexander Avenue
  Web: www.bronxsalon.com
• Synthetic Zero
  Web: www.syntheticzero.com/

Public Transportation: the 2, 4, 5 and 6 subways run through the area and it is also served by the 1, 2, 6, 13, 19, 21 and 32 Bronx buses, and the Melrose stop on Metro North. An additional Metro North station (Yankee Stadium) is planned for the area.

The First Wednesdays Bronx Culture Trolley (pictured, below) provides fun free transportation for New Yorkers and tourists to visit the vibrant arts and culture scene in the South Bronx once a month. The Bronx Culture Trolley also brands the area as a culturally vital, safe and welcoming place that features an engaged creative community. Click here to find out where the trolley will go this month!

Every week more positive press about the Bronx appears in local, national, international newspapers, on local and regional cable TV and the Web. Today, the community faces a new and significant shift. The steady progress of redevelopment yields both new opportunities and new challenges for the South Bronx. Major business and employment anchors in the South Bronx are the target of the City administration’s goals to spur greater private investment in the area. Re-development plans for Yankee Stadium and the Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market offer expanded job opportunities as well as expanded/increased tourist and retail options for consumers.

BCA offers several programs and initiatives that seek to address critical issues facing Bronx residents, artists and small business owners as new investments and an influx of new immigrants transforms the community. The initiatives address a diversity of needs and opportunities in the community and are captured under the larger project concept of the
South Bronx Cultural Corridor.

The following key components of the Corridor strategy are the facilitators for this change – the Bronx Culture Trolley, a symbol of positive change in the South Bronx that is energizing the community by increasing publicity for local cultural resources; the Artisan’s Initiative, including the new bronxArtworks, which engages immigrant and trade artists with the goal of increasing exposure and earned income opportunities, and the Fine Arts Service Bureau/Art Handler training program, which provides resources for the artistic community and the local citizenry by training participants in the skilled profession of handling and maintaining fine art and artifacts. Soon to be released is the new Creative Industry Directory, a free index/resource guide to the burgeoning creative economy located in the South Bronx.

Arthandler Training Program	Creative Industry Directory

Artisans Initiative	Bronx Culture Trolley

Creative Economy and Opportunity

BCA is concerned with a range of social issues including civic engagement, community collective action, and quality of life matters. The relationship between culture and commerce sometimes identified as the creative economy sector is at the core of our community building initiatives. We will work to generate revenue for neighborhoods, increase tourism, strengthen bonds within neighborhoods and pique interest in and increase exposure to the arts.

We recognize that there is enormous potential for artists, arts institutions and organizations to re-locate to the South Bronx area i.e., fine arts storage, arts related commercial business, individual artists, community and non-profit arts enterprise. Important questions emerge.

• Are there appropriate community based organizations, merchants, large institutions (health and or education) to support the creative economy as it moves forward? Are landlords, community boards, elected officials willing to support and or participate?
  
• Is there private and public funding to support new creative strategies, and are there possible earned income streams?
  
• Can this work be accomplished in a timely fashion? And in a comprehensive manner that will support the rapid shifts and ongoing transient trends centered in the area?

As the area shifts and transforms, many needs such as upward economic mobility and social integration for immigrants persist and are exacerbated by recent changes in the real estate market. These changes simultaneously represent new opportunities: an expanded economic base through new retail and housing development, increased interest in tourism and consumer activity in the area for Bronx residents and others, and a new diversity of artists in the area to bolster venues for cultural expression.

At the core of the BCA’s efforts is a model of community revitalization using arts-led community economic development as its primary strategy. Serving a community that has, for decades, been rich in diverse cultural identity, expressed through the arts, the BCA seeks to engage that cultural and artistic expression as a catalyst for change.

Alexander Avenue Art & Antiques Cluster meeting, January 2008

What’s Next?

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Grant #SBAHQ-06-1-0010 is funded by the SBA. SBA’s funding is not an endorsement of any products, opinions, or services. All SBA funded programs are extended to the public on a non-discriminatory basis.