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THE IMAGINE BUTTE RESOURCE CENTER (IBRC) hosts a growing community of thinkers and makers working together at the historic Phoenix Building in Uptown Butte. The center was first established in 2014 as a gathering place for creatives to begin making and learning with one another, exchange creative inspiration and craft expertise. Today, the IBRC is home to many diverse creative projects including the Foreground Gallery, Butte Arts Symposium, the Butte Arts Monthly publication and the Eye|Land Institute residency program. The IBRC offers support to community members by maintaining a collaborative meeting grounds and providing access to a growing collection of studio resources through workshops, exhibitions and events. The IBRC is always looking for new volunteers and members to learn and grow with the IBRC’s existing team of passionate thinkers, makers and doers. |
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WHAT IS IMAGINE BUTTE?
Imagine Butte got its start in 2002 with a meeting that gathered arts, non-profit community development and housing organizations, and local government agencies to work toward sparking hope at a time when Butte's future was in doubt. After the mining operation closed in fall 2000 due to high energy prices, Butte's identity as a mining town was shaken, and the future fuzzy. Reviewing the pathways taken by other challenged locations, organizers Bob Corbett and Barbara Miller (co-founders) connected with IMAGINE CHICAGO, and the appreciative inquiry approach, which uses problems as ramps to new discoveries, and focuses only on assets, the dreams that are possible or whatever can be imagined.
Because the arts played a role in Butte's identity from its beginning, Corbett began a series of graphic explorations with the 17-group collaborative that grew into neighborhood valuation studies, a community needs assessment of households living in the lower value properties (7000 properties at the time) and a number of other outcomes. These were used in a series of out-reach proposals. The collaborative also engaged Mel Levine, a master planner formerly of the Rouse Corporation to resume studies begun in the early 1970s about the Uptown Butte (Heart of Butte) district. An arts and entertainment district overview called ENJOY BUTTE was the outcome in 2005, which laid down the challenge of doubling Butte's earnings from out-of-state tourism and building on assets including City of Champions (sports identity) The Crossroads of I-15 and I-90, the Uptown Heart of Butte District as a place of Fun, Games and Entertainment, as well as building on its copper culture and motor and car identity, to start. The Berkeley Pit, as the most obvious element of Butte's environment, was not to be ignored, Levine said.
The collaborative identified a High Schools Neighborhood (between Butte Central Catholic High School and Butte High School) as a top priority, and began intensive collaborative development of the uptown entry routes, particularly Mainstreet. Collaborative members planted hundreds of street trees, self-help residents built scores of new homes working with housing organizations, renovations were accomplished, new infrastructure was installed, and the school district invested in new parking, lighting and signage that dramatically improved the appearance of the Uptown entryway and let Butte's youth know that their high schools were important, vital parts of the town. The purchase of the Phoenix Building in 2005 was the starting point for redevelopment of the Heart of Butte area, focusing on the arts and entertainment, as well as education.
Youth engagement has been a continual part of the collaborative, and numerous youth activities were developed. In 2007, Butte was chosen as a site for the National Folk Festival, based on proposals developed out of the collaborative. The rest of this part is History. Today, the housing and planning IMAGINE BUTTE collaborative is finalizing the first round of Neighborhood Stabilization Project funding, investments in Butte's historic homes and neighborhoods and supporting the cultural asset mapping and People's Atlas elements of upcoming planning efforts.
Imagine Butte got its start in 2002 with a meeting that gathered arts, non-profit community development and housing organizations, and local government agencies to work toward sparking hope at a time when Butte's future was in doubt. After the mining operation closed in fall 2000 due to high energy prices, Butte's identity as a mining town was shaken, and the future fuzzy. Reviewing the pathways taken by other challenged locations, organizers Bob Corbett and Barbara Miller (co-founders) connected with IMAGINE CHICAGO, and the appreciative inquiry approach, which uses problems as ramps to new discoveries, and focuses only on assets, the dreams that are possible or whatever can be imagined.
Because the arts played a role in Butte's identity from its beginning, Corbett began a series of graphic explorations with the 17-group collaborative that grew into neighborhood valuation studies, a community needs assessment of households living in the lower value properties (7000 properties at the time) and a number of other outcomes. These were used in a series of out-reach proposals. The collaborative also engaged Mel Levine, a master planner formerly of the Rouse Corporation to resume studies begun in the early 1970s about the Uptown Butte (Heart of Butte) district. An arts and entertainment district overview called ENJOY BUTTE was the outcome in 2005, which laid down the challenge of doubling Butte's earnings from out-of-state tourism and building on assets including City of Champions (sports identity) The Crossroads of I-15 and I-90, the Uptown Heart of Butte District as a place of Fun, Games and Entertainment, as well as building on its copper culture and motor and car identity, to start. The Berkeley Pit, as the most obvious element of Butte's environment, was not to be ignored, Levine said.
The collaborative identified a High Schools Neighborhood (between Butte Central Catholic High School and Butte High School) as a top priority, and began intensive collaborative development of the uptown entry routes, particularly Mainstreet. Collaborative members planted hundreds of street trees, self-help residents built scores of new homes working with housing organizations, renovations were accomplished, new infrastructure was installed, and the school district invested in new parking, lighting and signage that dramatically improved the appearance of the Uptown entryway and let Butte's youth know that their high schools were important, vital parts of the town. The purchase of the Phoenix Building in 2005 was the starting point for redevelopment of the Heart of Butte area, focusing on the arts and entertainment, as well as education.
Youth engagement has been a continual part of the collaborative, and numerous youth activities were developed. In 2007, Butte was chosen as a site for the National Folk Festival, based on proposals developed out of the collaborative. The rest of this part is History. Today, the housing and planning IMAGINE BUTTE collaborative is finalizing the first round of Neighborhood Stabilization Project funding, investments in Butte's historic homes and neighborhoods and supporting the cultural asset mapping and People's Atlas elements of upcoming planning efforts.
