New year for Realize Bradenton
promises more big achievements
By CARL MARIO NUDI
The new year will be a notable one for the Realize Bradenton staff and partners, as well as the community it serves.
The nonprofit will be celebrating its tenth year of promoting and initiating projects in the arts, culture, heritage and food to attract people to downtown Bradenton.
“Looking back, what we are really proud of is that we will be going on our 10th year in 2020,” said Johnette Isham, executive director of Realize Bradenton, “and there are many elected officials, civic leaders, residents, and volunteers who believe that Realize Bradenton has served as a significant catalyst in the renaissance of downtown,”
To mark the nonprofit’s achievements, it will celebrate from January 2020 until September 2020 with a series of programs and projects called The TEN, all organized to shape the future of Realize Bradenton and downtown by building on the successes of the last nine years.
Isham said the celebration would create initiatives to keep the momentum, connect the broader community to downtown public spaces, compile data from the last 10 years to guide them into the future, and contribute to the conversation on the importance of civic life.
The TEN campaign has seven elements designed to engage the community.
One of the elements in the campaign will be a community conversation and workshop with Eric Klinenberg, author of “Palaces for the People.”
The book title is a reference to the more than 2,500 libraries industrialist Andrew Carnegie built throughout the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Carnegie called them palaces for the people,” Isham said. Palmetto and Bradenton each has a Carnegie Library.
Klinenberg, professor of sociology at New York University, will discuss his book and how libraries and public parks promote civic life. The subtitle of his book is “How Social Infrastructure can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life.” Isham said Klinenberg would talk about how libraries and other public spaces, like the Bradenton Riverwalk, bring people together, and how organizations like Realize Bradenton facilitate this process.
Realize Bradenton also is working on publishing a series of children’s books, called Stories Connect, on Bradenton’s history to promote reading and connect generations while building civic pride. The first book will be about the Old Manatee district and is expected to be published in May. Isham said Realize Bradenton is looking for community sponsors to help publish these books.
All of the planned programs for The TEN celebrations this year will build on the successes of Realize Bradenton over the past nine years.
Since its beginning the organization has promoted arts and culture, such as coordinating The Tapestry Project for The Village of the Arts district, located just south of downtown; putting on the annual and very successful Bradenton Blues Fest; and bringing public art to the urban core.
“When we were first founded in 2010 there were seven pieces of public art; now there are 67,” Isham said. “Public art [has] shown nationally that it does promote economic vitality, it connects diverse people, and it’s really part of cultural tourism.”
The eighth annual Bradenton Blues Fest has become a very popular event, drawing more than 3,000 people from 39 states and at least 10 countries, according to news reports.
The annual Art Slam is another cultural event Realize Bradenton initiated to draw attention to the artistic talents of the youth in the community. Around 25 teams of students bring their art projects to Old Main Street in March during Realize Bradenton’s other popular event, the Farmers’ Market. An Art Slam visitor may see sidewalk chalk art, a circus performer, musical performances, graffiti artists, and other great street art.
The weekly Farmers’ Market also is one of Realize Bradenton’s success stories. Held every Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., from October through May on Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton, more than 35 vendors offer fruits and vegetables, plants, fresh seafood and other edible delights, as well as art pieces by local artists and craftspeople.
Isham said Realize Bradenton also plans to continue to bring the younger generations into the idea-generating process of making downtown more Millennial and Gen Z friendly. In 2016, Realize Bradenton polled area Millennials on what it would take to make downtown Bradenton a quality place to live, work and play. “We wanted to know in particular what our younger residents are interested in,” Isham said.
Their responses fit into six themes: density, diversity of people and activities, interesting venues, bikeable roadways, walkable streets and a transit system. Isham pointed out that many of the ideas of those polled have already been accomplished since the poll was taken two years ago.
To continue on those successes, Realize Bradenton is interested in coordinating a start-up lab concept for emerging entrepreneurs. “We’re really interested in a structure that will provide Millennials and Gen Z the environment for success,” Isham said. “We’d like to create an ecosystem.”
She highlighted the revival of 13th Street West area as an example, with Oscura Café and Bar, The Daily Dose Juice Garden, Sugar Cubed bakery, Chateau 13 restaurant, Teller coffee bar walkup window and Rusty Crickett boutique opening over the past two years.
“In that concentrated area are young people under 35 who have invested time and money, and we want to support them any way we can,” Isham said.
She said the nonprofit Realize Bradenton was created in 2010 to drive the cultural master plan which addressed “How and why do the arts, culture and heritage matter and what should be done to advance cultural development as an asset for vitality, prosperity and livability of Bradenton?”
Isham was hired in 2010 to head the new non-profit.
She is a designer and educator and has served in leadership positions in the arts, education, nonprofit, wellness, and corporate settings.
For more information on Realize Bradenton and its programs, visit the website at www.realizebradenton.com.