IC Open City wants to cultivate street performers
Calling all musicians, painters, spoken word poets, sopranos, writers, dancers, jugglers, taggers or undefined artists: IC Open City wants you.
IC Open City is a new, first-of-its-kind pilot program spearheaded by M.C. Ginsberg, the Iowa City Downtown District and the Iowa Digital Engagement and Learning Initiative at the University of Iowa Rhetoric Department.
The program will begin at noon Wednesday with an hour-long concert from Xiaomei Zhu of traditional Chinese music played on a guzheng at the Weatherdance Fountain Stage.
An estimated 40 performances will hit the streets of downtown Iowa City at all hours of the day for 10 weeks, combining regular downtown performances with newly curated presentations. Some performances will be shared in advance on the program's Facebook and Twitter pages; others will be more spontaneous.
Mark Ginsberg, owner of M.C. Ginsberg, said some performances will be "edgier than others" and span the expressive spectrum.
"The idea is it gives us a mix of what is going on in this community in front of people or behind the doors that people don't normally see," he said.
The program will give artists freedom to express themselves downtown and earn some cash, while giving the city a more "structured" calendar, he said.
Ginsberg said his business and the downtown district have budgeted nearly $12,000 for the pilot program to pay performers $50 to $150 — depending on the size of the group — for a roughly 60- to 90-minute performance.
"I call it social capitalism," he said. "I believe in a profit motive, I believe in capitalism, but I also believe that if we're in a community and we're taking sales from that community that we're morally and ethically bound to give some of that back."
Iowa City is the perfect place for a program like Open City, Ginsberg said, because we aren't afraid to take risks.
"I don't think we're afraid of failure, and we've seen many of those before," he said. "We're not afraid of expressing our opinion. We're not afraid of revolutionizing or evolving."
Currently, organizers are working to get the word out about the program to artists.
To book a performance, email icopencity@gmail.com for more information. Performers must send a three- to five-minute YouTube or Soundcloud demo, an IRS W-9 form and sign a contract to receive honorarium.
Panhandling is prohibited in much of downtown Iowa City, aside from certain areas of the pedestrian mall permitted by city code. Nancy Bird, executive director of the Iowa City Downtown District, said busking was "at jeopardy" with stricter regulations introduced last August.
"We thought, 'Well, if you can't busk for tips per se on the ped mall, how can we make sure that performance doesn't go away?' " she said. "Instead of having people out there begging for it, why don't we find that structure to pay people for their talents?"
Performers will accept tips at permitted locations, and Open City officials will be on scene to ask for donations for future programming.
Sophie Katz and Claire Rosen, two incoming sophomores in the UI IDEAL program, are interning with Open City as a research project, with the hope of creating a framework for future street performance programming.
Rosen will study how to successfully book performances and the logistics of implementing a street performance program, and Katz will interview audience members to learn who attends arts programming and how to attract a more diverse crowd.
"With a street performance, they're right there, and you'll hear them while walking down the street and be attracted to them or not," Katz said. "So the question is, 'Who are these people that come to see these shows?' "
John Engelbrecht, head of Public Space One and a public art coordinator contracted with the Iowa City Downtown District, said the mantra of his work "has always been that art is not just for the privileged few."
"How can we meet people halfway, or whatever, and I think street performance is that," he said. "It's taking away any barrier. It's just the performer and the audience there."
Engelbrecht said whether performers perform through Open City or not, at the end of 10 weeks, he wants to see more arts "collide" in downtown.
"For me, half of it is an idea campaign," he said. "Take over your city. You can come and play here and it's for everyone. Put more weird stuff onto the streets."
Reach Aly Brown at abrown11@press-citizen.com or 887-5404.
IC Open City
• What: IC Open City is a new, first-of-its-kind pilot program that will bring an estimated 40 performances to the streets of downtown Iowa City at all hours of the day for 10 weeks, combining regular downtown performances with newly curated presentations.
• For more information or to book a gig, go to www.icopencity.org. Find the group on Facebook at by searching IC Open City or on Twitter at @icOpenCity. Email a 3 to 5 minute YouTube or Soundcloud demo to icopencity@gmail.com.