The City of Roanoke held its final public meeting on the proposed Arts and Culture Plan on Tuesday evening in the Special Events Center of the Roanoke Civic Center. Interested parties, many whom had previously attended other meetings over the course of several months since Fall 2010 when the Roanoke Arts Commission first invited various groups to collaborate on the plan, met to review the steps and determine from three categories what set of steps would be the most important for them.
Introducing the meeting, Nathan Harper, Chairman of the Arts Commission, explained the very reason for the plan, besides that many of the area’s artists and organizations had wanted a formal collaboration. Simply, this Arts and Cultural Plan is part of a greater comprehensive plan for the city and each of its neighborhoods actually do have plans that address various needs of their respective neighborhoods. Tom Carr, Director of Planning, then took the group through the Plan’s six basic components, which can be found online at the Roanoke City website, http://roanokeva.gov/planning.
Doug Jackson of the Roanoke Arts Commission led the group to the three Building Blocks of the plan, which were posted on the walls, so that everyone attending the meeting could decide which initiatives presented meant the most to them. These initiatives were previously discussed at the earlier meetings last year and now represent the actions to be taken in moving forward with the Arts and Cultural Plan.
Commission members supplied attendees of tonight’s group with dot stickers and post-it notes so that everyone could make their choices after reading through the action steps and also leave specific comments, questions, or further recommendations for each of the action items in all three categories. They were also asked to pick which of these three main points were most important to them: People, Education, and Life-long Learning; Livable Communities and Engaged Neighborhoods; and Vibrant Region and a Healthy Economy.
Speaking of the latter, it was pointed out that Roanoke in this plan would “Recognize Arts and Culture as an essential element of the Roanoke Valley’s economic development and community brand.” Important also is that we must “effectively expand awareness and participation by engaging cultural organizations, individual artists and our neighborhoods” in implementing the plan’s actions to be successful.
The most popular actions decided by the group in the three “Building Blocks” were as follows:
People/Education/Life-long Learning – Convene regular meetings with Arts and Cultural org administrators and educators; a post-secondary Arts School; and Partnerships for visual and performing arts in schools grades K-12.
Livable Communities/Engaged Neighborhoods – Get more arts in neighborhoods through new grants and categories; Expand public art throughout the city and region.
Vibrant Region/Healthy Economy – Structure city arts grants and plans as line-items; Identify local government incentives.
Rupert Cutler of the Arts Commission wrapped things up with some comments from out-of-towners and new residents who have complimented Roanoke recently for its vast offering of Arts and Culture compared to the larger cities they hail from, including San Francisco. With cooperation between artists and organizations (and the oft forgotten input of local private businesses who tend to do more than just donate money), we can expect Roanoke to be widely recognized for more than just its greenways and outdoor recreation.
Mr Cutler also encouraged all those attending this evening to make the next two meetings in support of the Commission’s recommendations. These meetings will be open to the public and if you have not signed up for reminders by email, you may visit the Roanoke Arts and Cultural Plan Facebook page and join up by “Friending” them to get ongoing information.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roanoke-Arts-Cultural-Plan/161576160527182
The next meeting will be the Planning Commission Hearing at Roanoke City Council Chambers 1:30 PM on June 16th and then the Council Hearing, again in the Council Chambers, 7:00 PM on July 18th.
UPDATE: Due to scheduling conflicts, The Roanoke Arts Commission had to change the original dates and times for two hearings. Interested parties were notified by email last week regarding new dates for the following two meetings:
Planning Commission – July 21 at 1:30 in Council Chambers
City Council – August 15 at 7:00 PM in Council Chambers
In the interest of seeking more input for the development of Roanokes proposed Arts Culture Plan the city is holding a public form 5 30 p.m. In late 2009 when the City was discussing a proposed Arts District that would provide financial incentives to arts and cultural entities we started to realize that the program should be one of many tools to encourage development of arts and culture in Roanoke. While City staff working with the Roanoke Arts Commission is leading the process we want the plan to support and guide anyone involved in the development of Roanokes arts and cultural scene..