posted on: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The unveiling of the Erie County Cultural Master Plan has been featured on television, thanks to WJET, and in the Erie Times-News.
Arts & Culture Plan for Erie County
Reported
by: Kim Thomas
Friday, May 21 2010
Erie County has a new plan for cultural development throughout
the community.
It's called Culture Spark.
There are 35
recommendations laid out in the master plan. It will serve as the road
map for arts, culture and heritage in Erie County.
For the
past year, a committee has been taking ideas and recommendations from
hundreds of people for the 10-year plan, and Friday, Culture Spark was
unveiled.
"There's a lot of wonderful things here, but there's
not a lot of connections, there's not a lot of interaction between arts,
culture and heritage and the rest of the community. There's the
educational aspect, there's governmental and business, we need to all be
working together," said Char Mashyna, ArtsErie.
The goal of
this plan is to engage the community in arts and culture, while also
finding out the strengths and weaknesses for cultural development.
Art, music, theater, dance and film are just some of the ways that our
community is made up of culture. Now, officials want to know how to
connect these various aspects with grants and other opportunities.
They understand, that,without arts and culture, a community can be
very bland.
"It's the soul of the community, it's the expression
that can't be made in other mediums, and ultimately it's a political
expression," said Erie County Executive Barry Grossman.
The key
recommendations in the plan include, launching a joint marketing
initiative, creating a central cultural website, increasing cultural
education opportunities in grades k through twelve and developing at
least one cultural center.
Mashyna says, "we think it's gonna
impact all over the county, all different aspects, just raising
awareness of what we have and the value of it."
"The artistic
community always feels under the gun, under-appreciated, underfunded,
unloved. I don't think that's true. I understand the role art plays in
the community, without it, we're very hollow," said Grossman.
An action team will begin implementing these recommendations in June.
For
more information on this plan, you can go to www.culturesparkerie.org.
Source: http://yourerie.com/search-fulltext?&nxd_id=116416
Published: May 22. 2010 1:16AM
Arts officials unveil Erie County culture plan
Erie County arts officials on Friday unveiled an 88-page cultural
development plan as part of their year-long CultureSpark project.
CultureSpark is a cultural planning process, implemented by ArtsErie
and the Non-Profit Partnership, to identify issues, strengths and
challenges for cultural development in Erie County.
The 88-page report was prepared by consultant Bill Bulick, of Creative
Planning, in Portland, Ore.
Bulick has been involved with cultural planning for more than 20 years.
The report contains 35 recommendations promoting cultural development.
It highlights nine key cultural development recommendations projected
to have the greatest impact.
Those include the launch of a joint marketing initiative, the creation
of a central cultural website, promotion of countywide cultural
development, and increasing education opportunities for students.
The plan also recommends enhancing professional development, marketing
and support for artists and creators; developing a cultural center, or
centers; increasing private fundraising; securing a sustainable
government/public funding source; and developing new partnerships among
community leadership, governments, civic organizations and colleges.
Source: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010305229944
Published: May 24. 2010 12:01AM
Our view: Erie's art scene is part, parcel of
revitalization
For the better part of a year, more than 900 people helped to assess
Erie's commitment to our arts, culture and heritage through the process
known as CultureSpark.
The result is a 88-page report that inventories Erie's vibrant arts and
culture scene, acknowledges the role of familiar institutions and
recognizes the contributions of individual artists.
The report also shows that Erie's economy isn't just fueled by
traditional manufacturing and newer tourism and service jobs. Arts,
cultural and heritage organizations employ at least 1,000 people in our
region and pump an estimated $15 million a year into our economy,
according to Bill Bulick, the consultant who guided CultureSpark.
Even if you didn't fill out a CultureSpark survey or speak out at a
community forum, it's important to see that the arts are intertwined
with our everyday lives. For instance, at the Barber National
Institute's annual garden party on Wednesday, the scenic backdrops
included brightly colored animal posters that shout creativity and
celebrate the imagination.
Children in the Elizabeth Lee Black School made the posters with the
Barber Institute's artist-in-residence, Clarabelle Van Niekerk. "I gave
them the canvas and the paints and they came up with the most amazing
things," Van Niekerk said. "You could just see their eyes get bright
with excitement about what they were creating."
Faces of adults lit up Friday, when the Northwestern Pennsylvania
Artists Association unveiled "The Mercantile Show" at 1401 State Street.
This cooperative overlap of artistry and historic rehab shows that arts
are integral when plans are sketched out to improve Erie's fortunes.
The exhibit shows off the talents of 70 artists with 150 pieces. But
it's also a magnet to attract visitors to the rehabilitated Mercantile
Building, which has condos for sale and retail space to lease.
"I wanted to try to tie in some of the city's efforts to revitalize
this area as a cultural center," Tom Ferraro, NPAA president, said. "Why
don't we get together and we'll bring the place to life?" he suggested.
Ferraro, who left his auto dealership to work full-time as a painter,
also said that those who work in the fields of arts and culture need to
know how to succeed in business. Follow-up from the CultureSpark report
will help artists to find such expertise and to share resources.
One recommendation is to start an arts-oriented website; another
outlines the need for exhibition and performance spaces. A suggested
joint marketing initiative could also increase interest and
participation in various arts programs.
The report also stresses the need for stable public support for the
arts; the Erie County Gaming Authority took a major step in that
direction with its just-announced framework for funding regional assets.
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