Danville Arts & Culture Plan
Danville, Virginia
WHY
To build upon the creative energies in the City of Danville a 10-year strategic arts and culture plan to formalize and operationalize the people and organizations already doing arts and culture work in Danville. The plan includes a well-defined vision, analysis, and brand for publicly supported art of all kinds within the City of Danville. The plan is intentional in weaving more opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy the arts and Danville’s culture.
HOW
Thirty-five leaders in the sector were interviewed about their vision for the Cultural Arts Program. Stakeholders included arts organization leadership, elected officials, city department heads, and local arts business owners. Focus groups were also held with arts leaders from various organizations. Members of the public were engaged in a number of activities, including sharing their ideas for arts and culture and considering public art types and locations. The public was also given the opportunity to contribute directly to a survey, which received 181 responses.
Strategies were defined to target the needs and desires of specific community profiles to provide city leadership with a roadmap for implementation that serves all creators, consumers, and advocates of arts and culture.
WHAT
While participants shared the overall quality of arts and culture in Danville was average, there was a hunger for more—specifically, live music and theater and community arts events and festivals and iconic public art. Through the implementation of the arts and cultural experiences outlined in the plan, Danville will have a roadmap for how to capitalize on their growing tourism market drawing visitors and artists from the region while supporting creatives and cultural organizers at the local level.
Arts Launch Henderson
Henderson, Nevada
WHY
Henderson is a city with a longstanding upward trajectory and now is a unique moment to continue that forward movement with a large-scale focus on arts and culture. Over the previous decades the City of Henderson along with its partners have undertaken numerous arts and culture efforts. This plan builds off these previous informal efforts and seeks to formalize an arts and culture program in order to take the city to the next level of success in the arts.
HOW
The plan provides a blueprint by which Henderson can stake its claim as the foremost community for arts and culture in Southern Nevada. We begin by establishing a vision for arts and culture in Henderson and detailing the projects, programs, facilities, and partnerships that can be capitalized upon to advance strategic objectives. We then go in depth into the details of how to operationalize and fund ambitious new initiatives through a formal Arts & Culture Henderson program — as well as how this program would function. Finally, we dream big to explore potential projects that could launch Henderson with a detailed action plan.
WHAT
In addition to public engagement this plan is built upon intention. From the beginning the planning team and city staff determined that this plan should not only be visionary but should also be highly actionable. The plan would also need to be highly policy driven and one of the first outcomes of the planning process was the development of the Henderson Public Art Policy. The plan is also built upon the city’s other planning efforts. Throughout the document you will see efforts derived from the Strategic Plan, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan and other planning efforts the city has undertaken.
Peoria Arts & Culture Plan
Peoria, Arizona
WHY
Peoria is a well-established but fast growing city West Valley of the Phoenix Metro Region. The city has long focused on providing public art and cultural amenities for its residents and has had many successes since the adoption of the an Arts Master Plan in 2009. With most of the goals from the 2009 plan achieved and new leadership in place there was key opportunity to re-evaluate the program and determine next steps.
WHAT
The Peoria Arts & Culture Plan focuses on six key priorities that are bolstered by strategies and big ideas connected to the priorities to support transformational change. Extensive research and mapping supported the needs residents expressed in surveys and interviews: access to arts and culture needed increase to areas where it is not easily accessible.
Clearwater Cultural Arts Strategic Plan
Clearwater, Florida
WHY
The City of Clearwater has a long legacy of investing in arts and culture. In 2020, the city revisited its 2002 Clearwater Cultural Plan to identify new arts and culture opportunities for the community and create a guide to help the Cultural Arts Department implement them.
HOW
Designing Local employed community conversations, policy and program research, analysis of current cultural programming, and an understanding of the local and regional cultural ecosystems to create recommendations for the future success of Clearwater’s Cultural Arts Department.
WHAT
The updated Clearwater Cultural Plan is an implementation handbook to guide the next 5–7 years of the City of Clearwater’s Cultural Arts Department and ensure the long-term sustainability and vitality of the city’s cultural offerings.
Frankfort Arts Master Plan
Frankfort, Kentucky
WHY
Frankfort has been a destination for Kentuckians since its establishment as the state’s capital in 1792. Now the city and its partners have endeavored to improve arts and culture in the city, particularly in the downtown area, to increase economic activity and capitalize on the area’s popular bourbon industry. The city received an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to express its community values and vision through public art, and to enhance cultural amenities throughout the city.
HOW
Like everything else in 2020, our planning process in Frankfort was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. What was initially envisioned as a series of large public meetings became online focus groups and an enhanced survey effort. A socially distanced ‘choose your own adventure’ engagement opportunity was set up at an outdoor sculpture park to allow for safe in-person engagement. These efforts yielded extensive input and greatly influenced plan outcomes.
WHAT
The plan recognizes short-, medium-, and long-term strategies to achieve some broad and bold visions. By following the strategies outlined in this document, Frankfort will be able to phase in its proposed projects and programs as the economy recovers.
Akron Cultural Plan
ArtsNow | Akron, Ohio
WHY
The Akron Cultural Plan is a culmination of more than five years of work by the City of Akron, along with its partners ArtsNow, the GAR Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The plan seeks to build upon past studies of Akron’s cultural landscape to help the community grow and prosper, with arts and culture at the center of the city’s renaissance.
HOW
Extensive public and stakeholder engagement revealed themes of access, equity, parity, and more. Initial recommendations focused on creating more inclusive creative leadership in Akron and creating access for all.
WHAT
Work on the plan began in early 2019 and was completed in March 2020. Recommendations fell into 10 priority areas: Equity, Accessibility, Education, Talent, Engagement, Connections, Economic Impact, Resources, Placemaking, and Public Art. The planning team continues to assist with ongoing implementation of the Akron Cultural Plan and the Akron Public Art Program.
Why a Cultural Plan?
As part of the Cultural Plan, the team created a
series of videos from community members to
encourage participation throughout Akron. Here
are a few of our favorites. Check out more videos
on our YouTube page!
Upper Arlington Arts & Culture Master Plan
Upper Arlington, Ohio
WHY
The City of Upper Arlington has one of the oldest arts and culture programs in Central Ohio. Housed within the Parks & Recreation Department, its Cultural Division is advised and supported by the Cultural Arts Commission, a seven-member group appointed by City Council for the purpose of fostering and encouraging the development and preservation of arts in the community. As part of this charge, the Commission recognized the need for a clear and thoughtful master plan to guide the future of cultural arts in the City of Upper Arlington.
HOW
The yearlong process of developing the master plan kicked off in the fall of 2018, beginning with a general study of the history and current state of the arts in Upper Arlington. This research was followed by an extensive 6-month community input process that included more than 1,000 one-on-one touch points in the form of surveys, focus group meetings, and pop-up events held throughout the city. The feedback received from this public engagement demonstrated the community’s support for the Division’s programs, as well as support for continued investment in the arts.
WHAT
The Arts and Culture Master Plan established a series of short-, mid-, and long-term implementation strategies that focused on enhancing existing programming, strengthening operations, and raising awareness of the arts and culture opportunities available to residents. It provided clarity on the purpose, roles, and responsibilities of the Cultural Arts Commission, and set forth an inspirational guiding framework for exploring expanded public art opportunities in the community. The plan was accepted by Council in December 2019.
Surprise Arts & Culture Master Plan
Surprise, Arizona
WHY
Surprise, Arizona is a city in the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro Region whose leaders are looking to arts and culture to help define their vast and growing metro area. Current plans forecast that by 2050, today’s 125 square miles will expand to 400+, and today’s 125,000 residents will increase to 500,000. This projected growth provides an opportunity for the city to proactively ensure new development is interspersed with arts and culture reflecting the city and its people.
HOW
Great care was paid to integrating the Public Art Master Plan with other planning efforts, such as the Park and Recreation Master Plan, to ensure that it could be easily implemented alongside others as the city grows and develops. Due to the large scale of the population and land area, the team focused on making public engagement accessible and diverse. From baseball spring training to public art bus tours, the team provided interesting engagement opportunities that met the needs of a community whose population includes large numbers of young families and retirees.
WHAT
The Surprise Public Art Master Plan covers topics ranging from recommendations on how to bring more publicly- and privately-supported public art to the city to encouraging the development of large-scale cultural venues. The plan helps solidify the role of art and culture in the future of Surprise.
University District Arts & Character Plan
University District Organization | Columbus, Ohio
WHY
“Time” and “change” aren’t just words in The Ohio State University’s alma-mater, they are words that perfectly capture the University District neighborhood. As the ever-evolving place transitions into another new era, long-term residents and businesses want to ensure the spirit of the community lives on for the next generation. The University District Organization took action to ensure that new buildings had ample public art offerings and new residents had myriad opportunities to engage with the arts.
HOW
A diverse community necessitates diverse engagement. In the University District, this meant targeted outreach to artists and performers through Music, Visual Arts, Culture, and History workshops hosted at various music, art, and poetry venues. Additionally, residents, students, and others who cared about the neighborhood were provided online and in-person opportunities to share ideas about how its spirit could be better reflected in the built environment.
WHAT
The University District Arts and Character Plan generated targeted recommendations to add public art to the neighborhood and bolster existing performing arts and music venues. A ‘Music Trail’ concept modeled on other successful marketing efforts — but with an artistic twist — will help drive attendance to existing music venues. Additional recommendations include specific locations for art pieces to be added, as well as possible future art trails and installations.