Capital city begs to differ with Commissioner Matthew Herbert’s Topeka bashing; Herbert apologizes

TOPEKA – Suffice it to say there were people in Topeka who were fairly unamused Wednesday after reading the comments that one Lawrence city commissioner made the night before regarding the Topeka arts scene.

Expressing his displeasure with City Manager Tom Markus’ budget recommendations, including cuts to the Lawrence Arts Center and the lack of funding for the proposed East Ninth Street project, Commissioner Matthew Herbert made some comparisons between the Lawrence and Topeka arts communities that were not intended to flatter Topeka.

The Journal-World’s Nikki Wentling quoted Herbert as saying: “Congratulations, we just became Topeka, Kansas. I live in Lawrence because it’s not Topeka, Kansas. I don’t want my legacy to be that I helped to make Lawrence Topeka.”

“Grrr,” was the Facebook comment from one of my neighbors down the street here, a neighbor whose wife works at the Topeka-Shawnee County Public Library.

People here consider that library, and the Sabatini Gallery inside, one of the crown jewels of the capital city and a testament to this city’s support for arts and culture. It was financed with a $23 million bond issue that voters in Topeka overwhelmingly approved 20 years ago next month.

But Hi Stockwell, a Topeka-based studio artist, formerly of Lawrence, who owns a gallery in the new and thriving NOTO arts district in North Topeka, had more to say on the subject.

“Comments such as this are insults to both cities,” he said. “It’s a bullying process that says little about the issues and a great deal about the person who makes them.”

The NOTO arts district, for those who haven’t seen it, is held out here as another example of the vibrancy of the Topeka arts community. It’s a place where local artists and investors, largely on their own initiative and without city subsidies, took over vacant buildings in a decaying part of the city that was close to becoming a post-industrial ghost town, and turned it into an arts mecca, full of galleries and trendy restaurants that now draw visitors and shoppers by the thousands.

NOTO, however, is just one example of what some people here would call a cultural revival taking place in Topeka.

Over at Topeka City Hall – a building that includes the refurbished, Art Deco-style Topeka Performing Arts Center – officials were laughing off Herbert’s comments.

City spokeswoman Aly Van Dyke called attention to the newly redesigned Kansas Avenue, the city’s main downtown strip, a project that is just now wrapping up after two years and more than $6 million of public investment in the streetscape alone.

The area now features broad sidewalks and “pocket parks” that invite musicians and public activities, not to mention statues and other public art celebrating the history and culture of Topeka and the state of Kansas.

The public art, though, was not funded by the city. It all came from private donations, Van Dyke said. In the planning stages of the project, the city set a goal of getting $1.8 million in private funds. It ended up getting $3.8 million.

And that’s one of the key differences between the Lawrence and Topeka arts communities. It’s true that Topeka does not have the kind of publicly funded arts center that Lawrence has, and it does not invest large amounts of public money in public art the way many in Lawrence would like to see their city do.

Instead, Topeka has had to rely more heavily on drawing significant investment from private sources within the community.

“I consider myself from Lawrence and strongly support the arts, visual and performing, there,” Stockwell said. “Having lived in Topeka the last 15 years, I’ve found differences, however the struggles remain the same. Those struggles primarily consist of convincing the community of the value of the arts, not only to increase the value of life, but also to the local economy.”

Update:

Herbert posted an apology for his comment on Facebook Wednesday evening, in which he said that he was referring to “the legislature which convenes in Topeka,” not “the private citizens and artists of Topeka.”

“In expressing my desire to see Lawrence stick to their culturally vibrant roots I didn’t need to degrade anyone else’s city,” Herbert wrote. “That was a very poor choice and for that I am truly sorry.”