The John R. Oishei Foundation, First Niagara Financial Group and Empire State Development Corporation are joining forces to establish the Buffalo Arts and Technology Center (BATC). The BATC will potentially serve over 400 at-risk high school students and train 200 under employed or unemployed adults over three years.
The center, expected to be located at Artspace Buffalo, 1219 Main Street, is expected to debut late this year. It will offer after-school visual arts programs for at-risk urban high school students, as well as health sciences career training for under-employed and unemployed adults. Training will be geared toward specific positions at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and throughout the local health care sector.
More than $3 million in public-private seed money has been earmarked for design and build-out of vacant commercial space on the first and lower floors of Artspace to accommodate the programs. The unusual marriage of art and vocational training programs is modeled after entrepreneur Bill Strickland’s highly successful Manchester Bidwell Corporation in Pittsburgh, a two-pronged template for social change which dates back four decades.
“As a foundation, we often look for best practice models that we can learn from and potentially bring to Buffalo. We believe Bill Strickland’s program in Pittsburgh is one such model,” said Oishei Foundation President Robert D. Gioia.
“Bill’s work across the country to use the arts as a hook to keep at-risk teens engaged in their own education with an eye towards high school graduation and to establish specific adult training courses directly related to local industry needs is getting good results and is a model that will provide hope and opportunity for those who need it most in our community.”
Announcement of the Buffalo Arts and Technology Center follows an 18-month feasibility study, which included direct input from nearly 150 community thought leaders in the areas of education, the arts, employment recruiting and training, the health care industry and urban neighborhood revitalization.
John Koelmel, President and CEO of First Niagara Financial Group, who took part in analysis of the program’s potential to positively impact at-risk youth and unemployed adults in Buffalo, has taken the helm of the public-private endeavor.
“First Niagara is proud to call Western New York our home and prouder still to play a role in launching this unique initiative, which creatively addresses the current employment environment and will help provide the next generation with the tools they need to succeed in work and in life,” Mr. Koelmel said.
He noted the public-private partnership will build on the momentum of the recently announced “Say Yes to Education” initiative which promises higher education aid for all students who live in the city and attend Buffalo Public and Charter schools. It also ties in with Governor Cuomo’s $1 billion economic development pledge for Western New York aimed at jobs creation and retention.
Mr. Koelmel said while First Niagara, the Oishei Foundation and Empire State Development Corporation are committing seed money to get the center’s doors open, he’s calling on other private and public sector entities to pledge contributions to support operations and build-out.
“Over the past several years, the Pittsburgh model, established by Manchester Bidwell Corporation Founder, President and CEO Bill Strickland, has spread to six other urban areas, with plans for 14 more sites, world-wide. Mr. Strickland, whose programs have given thousands of students new reasons to finish high school, while providing adults with saleable job skills, said Buffalo is ripe for the two-tiered model.
“Our center in Pittsburgh has blended successfully two different educational approaches–youth arts and adult career training–into a powerful combination that is adaptable to fit the specific needs of other communities. The one thing we keep in all our affiliate sites is the mentorship philosophy. That type of student-teacher connection can change lives,” Mr. Strickland said.
Mr. Strickland, who credits his relationship with his high school art teacher as the reason for pursuing higher education, has been described as an architect of social change, working to break the cycle of poverty by offering alternative paths to those left behind or not given a chance to succeed.
“We believe in creating empowering educational environments for people who might otherwise fall through the cracks in the system. By carefully architecting spaces where students of all ages and backgrounds feel safe and nurtured, these same students–who might have failed in other settings–succeed, grow, and become assets to their communities,” he explained.
The BATC partners are working with local and national Artspace representatives to finalize details for use of approximately 15,000 square feet of vacant commercial space on the first and lower floors of the Main Street building. HHL Architects of Buffalo, the firm which designed the building’s adaptive reuse from a Circa 1900 automobile factory and later a car dealership to Artspace Buffalo’s work/live lofts in 2007, has begun preliminary work on creation of the new arts/vocational training center.
Will Law, Chief Operating Officer of Minneapolis-based Artspace, said the BATC will be a good fit for the Artspace Buffalo.
“We’re very pleased to be a part of the Buffalo Arts and Technology Center. In 2005, Artspace recognized the potential for the arts to be a catalyst for economic development in Buffalo,” Mr. Law said.
“The BNMC is thrilled to see this effort gain traction and recognize the need for skills training and education specific to local employment opportunities. The Project represents a benefit to both at-risk populations and the local health care industry,” said Matthew K. Enstice, President, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
“Preparing our workforce for the growing industries in our region is absolutely critical to successful economic development,” said Western New York Regional Director Christina Orsi. “This Center will be a model for training that addresses the critical needs of the health care industry. By educating and training underserved populations, we enable them to more fully participate in the work force.”
The BATC team has launched an immediate search for an executive director. More information on the initiative and an online application is available at the BATC website.
Deadline for submitting resumes for the executive director post is March 1, 2012.