Center for the Arts Community Forum tonight

Hi Arts Friends!

I wanted to take a minute to ask you all to make sure you seriously consider filling out the Center for the Arts Survey in the paper this week and attend the Center for the Arts meeting this Wednesday, July 22 from 7-9pm at the First Presbyterian Church, and help advocate for performance/art space needs in the community.

As the process for the Center for the Arts has moved forward, it has been very unsure if the Center would have the ability to provide a range of spaces for the performing arts, opting to focus mainly on a performing space. This meeting and the questionnaire are an opportunity to make a collective voice heard. Most people would look at a facility plan and assume if it has a stage and wings, it is providing the space resources for the performing arts. We in the performing arts know that is only the crown. To provide adequate programming, a vibrant center should have rehearsal studios, classrooms, and ideally set and costume build spaces and storage. And those spaces would serve the arts not just the performing arts. Even if one building doesn't have all those facility needs together, an overall facility plan included in the fundraising and endowment plan to provide for those spaces is critical. Those other spaces make it possible to meet the needs of youth programming, create a vibrant adult theatre, offer a full array of performing arts classes (music, vocal, theatre, dance) and create new programming in design. Just think about how these spaces could spin up a whole new variety of vibrant arts, including performing. With a plan and appropriate fundraising for these spaces, the Center for the Arts would be full of activity all the time, not just for performances. And the facilities to prepare those performances would be in place. It would give the performing and other arts a backbone that we have never had. We are a can do arts comunity that has made do with inadequate or partial facilities for too long. Burdened with always making do has probably cost us in ways we are not even aware of. How will we attract outside visitors or participants if we are always making do? How do we leverage more resources if we are always making do? Having professional spaces to create, educate, and represent our art is the key. A performing only building will be good, but we will continue to struggle to become vibrant without the pre-performance art spaces.

We could become a premiere arts community. If we are going to fundraise for a facility in this small village, the plan and funding should include arts spaces that can function for multi-use pre-performance and arts educational needs. Let's not let this opportunity only give us some of what we need. We have been doing that for too long. Please stand up and make your voice heard. The key to the Center for the Arts process is many voices lobbying for pre-performance and art space needs accounted for in the plan. Let's not make a mistake about this opportunity. YSKP has been working very hard to develop the capacity to provide some of those other space needs, but it is a big community need for our small organization to provide. With a collective performing arts center that also provides complementary spaces for perfomance needs, our arts community will have the capacity to leverage up the arts in a whole new way. Do not be side-tracked by the argument we have to choose, prioritize. We need to ask for a bigger pie, not carve up a small pie. It will be expensive anyway. Why not get what we really need? And get full community support.

Please fill out the survey and attend of you can. Unfortunately, I will be out of town! Help me, help us. See Jill Becker's invitation.

Thank you for your support of the performing arts in Yellow Springs.

Lisa Hunt

Related post: Center for the Arts Steering Committee public event Weds. night

A Message from the Center for the Arts Steering Committee

YELLOW SPRINGS CENTER FOR THE ARTS STEERING COMMITTEE

An Update for the Community January 2009

In 2009, the Yellow Springs Center for the Arts Steering Committee is embarking on the third phase of its project and we would like to update the community with a review of where we have been, where we are now, and what we plan to do next.

Several years ago, Lee Morgan approached some local theater artists about the possibility of creating a theater in Yellow Springs. A working group was brought together around that idea, and the concept eventually expanded to embrace other arts disciplines. The Yellow Springs Center for the Arts Steering Committee was formed and took on the mission to "build and operate an artistically, architecturally, and programmatically distinctive arts center that draws the community together."

To assist with this task, the YSCA engaged consultants Tom Borrup and George Sutton, who have expertise in community cultural planning and cultural facility development. The group process has been deliberate and has proceeded at a measured pace that has been able to adapt to changes in the community.

The first phase of the process, which took place in 2007, was a period of discovery and visioning. Through meetings, interviews, and research an "inventory" of Yellow Springs' cultural assets was created, which includes our history of creative entrepreneurship, a large artist population, a breadth of cultural activities unusual for a community this size, an extraordinarily high level of volunteer commitment to these activities, educational institutions with the arts infused in their curriculum, and a strong desire to do something unique that sets us apart as a community of choice.

In March 2007, a three-day community meeting brought more than 300 people together to envision an arts center for Yellow Springs, and a set of core values emerged. These included the need for both financial and environmental sustainability, keeping and improving Yellow Springs as a good place for artists to live and work, supporting existing arts organizations, producing festivals that celebrate and promote the arts, and "raising" artists with both arts education and immersion in a community that values the arts.

Toward the end of the first phase, a new idea began to emerge: rather than focus on creating a single structure or new organization, a holistic plan was established that envisioned Yellow Springs itself as a "center for art" that engages not only artistic disciplines and cultures but social, commercial, civic, environmental, and educational interests of the community as well.

There was a need for a community-wide strategic investment in creative people, organizations, and the spaces in which they work. In 2008, the YSCA Steering Committee moved into the second phase of its work by developing and testing a three-pronged approach:
1. Increase Capacity: Strengthen the cultural, educational, and economic vitality of the Yellow Springs community through a holistic approach that builds on the human capital and organizational fabric. The YSCA project has been working with several organizations to increase their capacity. The Yellow Springs Arts Council has expanded to include all arts disciplines and arts supporters, with a revitalized board of trustees that is focusing on arts advocacy and creating connectivity between artists, arts organizations, and the community. The Little Art Theatre is transitioning to a nonprofit organization in order to help assure its long-term survival. YS Kids Playhouse is developing a business plan that will expand its successful programming and address its need for a home from which to operate.
2. Establish Identity: Establish a strong identity that defines Yellow Springs as a creative and innovative community of choice. Working with the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Arts Council, the YSCA is helping to promote Yellow Springs as a creative community and cultural destination through events such as Summer in the Springs. A public art program, with temporary and permanent art, will highlight the energy, creativity, and history of Yellow Springs at its gateways and gathering places.
3. Provide Facilities: Improve and/or create facilities that support the performing, literary, and visual arts. Planned facilities include a downtown office/gallery space/administrative home for the Arts Council and other groups; improvements to the Little Art Theatre to increase accessibility and comfort for patrons; an outdoor performance space; and a high-quality indoor performance space.

This year, the YSCA Steering Committee is moving forward with its facilities initiatives and development of a public art plan. We will continue to work with the Arts Council, the Little Art, and YSKP to build their capacity. We plan to complement and be a resource to the activities at McGregor and the Nonstop Institute, and also the efforts to revive Antioch College. We believe in Yellow Springs' future as a creative community with vital business and educational assets and a lively downtown district. By this time next year, we will also have a site purchase option and a preliminary design and business plan for a performing arts facility, and be ready for a capital fundraising campaign.

The YSCA Steering Committee is looking forward to sharing more details of its plans with the Yellow Springs community in 2009. Community input has provided the focus to our vision and work and it is the community that continues to motivate our efforts. We appreciate your continued interest and support.

Jerome Borchers, Chair
Jane Baker, Vice Chair

2009 YSCA Steering Committee Members: Jane Baker, Vice Chair; Harden Ballantine; Jerome Borchers, Chair; Anita Brown; Mary Campbell-Zopf; Luke Dennis; John Fleming, Secretary; Paul Graham; Ellis Jacobs; Rick Kristensen; Amy Lee; Rob Lytle, Treasurer; Gayle Rominger; Laura Carlson, Project Coordinator