Photo by Mark Rhodes Greg Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, says cultural amenities, such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, are important selling points for economic development.

Culture Clash Can Richmond capitalize on its storied past without jeopardizing its high-tech future?

By LISA A. BACON

It's a friendly town, a prosperous city and a safe place to nest. That's how outsiders perceive Virginia's capital city, according to a recent survey by the Greater Richmond Partnership, an organization that promotes economic development in the region.

There were even more good vibes among the survey responses. For instance, Richmond is beginning to gain a reputation for its budding high-tech industries. When the partnership surveyed outsiders' perceptions of Richmond in 1995, only 13 percent considered the city a technology center. That number has doubled in less than five years as Richmond has nurtured its budding info-tech, biotech and microchip industries.

But while 27 percent of the survey's respondents perceive Richmond as future-oriented, 42 percent still see the former capital of the Confederacy as mired in the past. That impression, no doubt, is fueled by nationally publicized feuds over erecting a statue of Arthur Ashe in line with Confederate leaders on Monument Avenue and placing a banner of Robert E. Lee with other Virginia heroes along the city's new Canal Walk.

On the plus side, however, Richmond's perceived preoccupation with the past is in many ways a tribute to the city's impressive collection of top-notch museums and other traditional cultural amenities. "On a per-capita basis, the Richmond area is one of the richest," says Peggy Baggett of the Virginia Commission on the Arts. How many midsize cities can boast their own professional ballet company (The Richmond Ballet), professional symphony (The Richmond Symphony), and professional theater (TheatreVirginia)? And with some 20 museums (and nearly as many privately owned art galleries), Richmond has twice the number of museums as Charlotte, N.C., which has long since surpassed Virginia's capital in population.

Charlotte has nothing that rivals the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which ranks among the best statewide museums in the nation with its extensive collections of priceless art and ancient artifacts from around the world. But Richmond's museums are by no means limited to such traditional treatments of history and culture. Among Civil War historians, the city is well-known for Richmond National Battlefield Park and the White House of the Confederacy, but it also boasts an impressive Black History Museum and the beautifully preserved home of Maggie Walker, the first black person (and the first woman) to become a bank president in the United States.

Not only does Richmond have a museum for every interest, it has a festival for every taste. In fact, with more than 23 major festivals annually, it's getting a reputation for being a festival town. According to Keith McMullin, assistant director for Downtown Presents!, which handles bookings for downtown events, hundreds of thousands of Richmonders and visitors turn out for its plethora of festivals each year. An average of 5,000 to 7,000 people show up every week for Friday Cheers, a concert event spread over five months featuring different bands in the city's Nina Abady Festival Park. Between 60,000 and 65,000 people visit the Second Street Festival over the annual three-day event, which takes place in Jackson Ward, one of America's earliest African-American commercial centers. And then there's The Big Gig, an annual two-week musical celebration that draws upward of 100,000 people to various venues around Richmond. McMullin says his figures are based on police estimates, which tend to be conservative.

On a national level, Richmond's cultural advantages haven't gone unnoticed. Last year, Money magazine ranked the Richmond metropolitan statistical area as the best midsize city in the South. And in 1997, Fortune magazine ranked Richmond 10th among North America's most improved cities in terms of business climate, quality of life and "fun quotient" among other factors. Fortune magazine, however, couldn't help but note that "having a Confederate war hero or two in your family tree will always be a plus in this town."

Maybe so, but if a city's essence is most reflected in its culture — its celebrations of visual arts, performing arts, its ethnic diversity and its historical offerings — then Richmond is quite desirable.

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Perhaps Richmond's cultural offerings aren't deal-closers when it comes to economic development. But they provide the colors for the portrait of Richmond that economic developers paint when wooing outside business investment. Greg Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, says that when marketing the area, culture has a greater impact in attracting big business than in attracting smaller ventures.

"It's not a big deal to companies that are locating a manager here," says Wingfield. "But if it's a Pittston or a GE or a Motorola, all those companies ask about the cultural community. It's part of the quality of life we're selling here."

And the selling goes both ways. Not only does the city's culture boost its marketability, that friendly business climate in turn fuels Richmond's culture. Eight Fortune 500 companies and a dozen Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered there. And many of those help seed the cultural soil. Last year, area businesses combined contributed $1 million to non-profit arts organizations in and around Richmond.

When corporate newcomers make significant contributions, especially to high-profile organizations like The Science Museum of Virginia, they get a lot of bang for the buck. In addition to enhancing the quality of life for their own employees, corporate arts contributors gain the satisfaction of giving back to the community. Even better, that exchange of good will comes with a warm, fuzzy spotlight on the corporate donor's debut in its new home. For instance, when GE Financial Assurance announced it was coming to Richmond, it used the opportunity to underwrite the premier of the Imax movie "Everest" at the science museum.

The sponsorship put GE in a positive light before thousands of people who saw the film, a significant number of them attracted to the show from an up-market mailing list. It also gave GE more public exposure than most companies could afford to buy in advertising by landing the GE name on all promotional materials for the "Everest" premiere, from brochures to the big Imax screen itself.

According to Adrienne Hines, executive director of The Science Museum of Virginia Foundation, such sponsorships are financed on a sliding scale, depending on the size of the gift, the size of the event and the size of the audience. Smaller to-dos, like "Swinging on the Tracks," a live band event, can be underwritten for as little as $1,000 or as much as $10,000, depending on how big a slice of the spotlight a company wants to share. Imax events are considerably more, costing as much as $100,000.

It's money well spent, says GE spokesman Mike Kachel. "When GE goes into a community, we like to make sure we are a good community partner, that we make it a better place to live and work." Not only for its own 1,000 area employees, "but to improve the quality of life for everyone."

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So much of Richmond's culture is grounded in its Civil War and Revolutionary War history. City fathers and concerned citizens have worked hard to commemorate and preserve this legacy — from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Jefferson Davis was warned that the Union Army was about to enter the city, to St. John's Episcopal Church, where Patrick Henry declared, "Give me liberty or give me death."

Henry's Hanover County plantation, Scotchtown, is well-preserved as is Hanover County Courthouse, where the fire-breathing patriot practiced law. Richmond, meanwhile, features the home of John Marshall, the chief justice who brought the U.S. Supreme Court up to full power. And Virginia's Capitol building, designed by Thomas Jefferson, is a showcase of early American History that revolves around a magnificent statue of George Washington, the only one that was made from life.

Against this historical backdrop, however, the city has spread its arms to embrace diverse modern cultures. Far less homogenized than ever before, Richmond and its residents support a wide variety of ethnic cultural endeavors, from the Elegba Folklore Society to the annual Greek Festival.

Yet Richmond can't seem to unload the perception that it's still fighting the "War of Northern Aggression." Indeed, it's hard to ignore historical assets, because so much of the city's present day culture is rooted in them. While 400,000 visitors annually enjoy its rolling fields and pastoral zoo, Maymont doesn't offer a hint of Civil War strife or the racial fallout that followed. Yet, unbeknownst to many who visit this Victorian estate, its land and mansion were donated to the city by a Confederate major.

Yet, in a city whose racial makeup is 58.5 percent black and 39.7 percent white, it has become politically incorrect — not to mention politically risky — to shine the glory light on anything or anyone on the side of the South in the war that ended slavery.

When Robert E. Lee's portrait was displayed beside other cultural and historical figures to celebrate the opening of Richmond's Canal Walk, a bitter debate between Canal Walk organizers and disgruntled blacks captured national headlines for days. In fact, a snippet from the incident was spoofed repeatedly on the national cable network, Comedy Central. Perhaps Richmond could have avoided that spectacle, but an earlier controversy over placement of a statue of tennis great Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue was a too-recent memory in the national press.

That kind of bickering in the big arena tarnishes Richmond's image. "There are some negative perceptions about Greater Richmond based on the recent controversy," Wingfield admits.

But other cities with similar pasts, like Charleston and Savannah, are able to draw on their historical strengths without the scrutiny and criticism that Richmond gets. Why is Richmond so cursed?

"I don't know," Wingfield says. "I wish I had the magic bullet."

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While many Virginians compare Richmond to Charlotte, Wingfield has noticed interesting similarities between Richmond and Kyoto, Japan.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan 1,000 years ago. And just as Richmonders might hop a train to D.C. or New York for a stronger dose of culture, Kyoto residents are just an hour away from Tokyo by bullet train. Also, Kyoto University, much like Virginia Commonwealth University, trains technologists and produces great research. And also like Richmond, Kyoto enjoys an excellent quality of life and easy access to major markets.

Yet somehow, Richmond's Japanese counterpart has found ways to celebrate its past without jeopardizing its future. "There are lots of shrines and reverence for history," Wingfield says, "yet Kyoto has the highest concentration of high tech in all Japan." Wingfield is intent on learning from the Kyoto model, but his analysis is far from complete. "We've gotten as far as identifying the commonalties," he says.

And what if Richmond's racial divide persists?

"We'll be taking two steps forward and one step back," Wingfield says. But even Wingfield, whose daily dealings with the Richmond image put him at the top of the learning curve in such matters, doesn't have the answer.

"We need to deal with it," he says. "I don't know what kind of forum or what kind of exchange needs to take place. But we need to recognize that we all need to work together."