Wabash River Region Arts & Culture Plan
Clay, Parks, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo Counties, Indiana
WHY
The Wabash River region is made up of five counties in western Indiana on its Illinois border: Clay, Parks, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo. The Wabash River cuts through the region from north to the south, providing dynamic and thriving waterfronts across both rural and urban areas, with many opportunities for investment and expansion. While much of the rural landscape is agricultural and forested, many downtown areas provide hubs of arts and culture for residents in and around those areas. The region is home to an exciting and deeply collaborative arts community. Together, they will cultivate compelling destinations for public art and diverse cultural experiences, making the region a vibrant and engaging hub for arts and culture. The main goals of this plan are beautification and placemaking, community pride, health and wellness, and local investment. Targeted goals of the Regional Arts & Culture Plan include beautification and placemaking, boosting community pride, encouraging health and wellness, and investing in the community by preserving historic assets and supporting local organizations, facilities and programs.
HOW
Engagement for this process was conducted to help identify and assess existing resources and gaps and provide a foundation for transformative projects. Engagement was promoted through RDA social media and through stakeholder networks. Engagement took the form of community surveys, stakeholder conversations, and public engagement such as a focus group held at Arts Illiana with members of the 41|40 Arts & Cultural District Advisory Group, as well as two public meetings. The primary concerns gleaned from public engagement included lack of funding for arts organizations, limited performance space and opportunities to experience local cultures in community settings.
WHAT
The Wabash River Regional Arts & Culture Plan provides a flexible, proactive framework that creates opportunities for decision-makers to pursue diverse funding sources and pivot implementation priorities to take advantage of changes and growth in the local cultural ecosystem. It also allows the community to continue to dream big, yet places emphasis on actionable, momentum-building steps for growing local arts and culture assets and tackle them as additional funding and capacity becomes available. The plan details the three priority regional objectives as well as actionable steps to reach them. These objectives include strengthening the Wabash River Region arts and culture community, promote regional arts development and tourism with a focus on the 41|40 Arts & Cultural District, and increasing the visibility of arts and culture in community spaces and downtowns.