It hasn't been said for awhile, so we want to remind you of the RACC aspirational statement:
Rochester will be a vibrant, active, diverse and inclusive arts and cultural community for all. Local artists and arts and cultural organizations will be supported by each other and the broader community as a vital resource for the community's health and growth.
Informational interviews ongoing
In light of those aspirations, members from the RACC steering committee have been reaching out to arts organizations, cultural groups and individual artists and meeting with them one-on-one.
The meetings taking place have two primary goals:
- To learn more about activities, missions, needs, dreams, and about how RACC and individuals and organizations can interact and support each other in all sorts of capacities, and
- to gather input and feedback specifically about potential interest in and uses for an Arts and Cultural Center - uses such as shared office space, meeting space, performance space, kitchen space. A center which can serve all those needs would be an incredible asset to our community. As it happens, there is an opportunity right now to create such a place in the soon-to-be vacated Senior Center (aka the Armory or the Castle). Information gathered will be highly valuable when the time comes to offer proposals through to the City Council.
The interview team has an extensive list of people and groups to contact so if you haven't heard from them yet, you probably will soon. Feel free, however, to contact RACC at raccnews@gmail.com and make sure we know about you.
Update: Master Plan for Public Art
On our other exciting front, as has been previously blogged about, the Policy team has been busy since April working with the Greater Rochester Arts and Cultural Trust vis a vis their plan to bring a consultant from Forecast Public Art in St Paul to come down and help develop a Master Plan for Public Art in Rochester. The Trust requested in April and the City Council agreed to provide at their May 18 meeting matching funds to help pay for this consultant. That plan now is moving forward.
Two important things of note: we learned that when Forecast Public Art does these kinds of projects, it always does so with a steering committee comprised of a broad swath of the community, which was the recommendation also of the RACC policy team. The other item of note is that this request was approved in large part because members of RACC stepped up immediately to offer their support and particular expertise to the members of the Trust, the offer was quickly accepted and acted upon, and it was thus demonstrated to the city leadership that arts groups can work together for a common goal. The road is not always smooth, but it can lead us all forward.
Did you know: event calendars
You are probably familiar with event calendars from the Convention & Visitors Bureau, Downtown Alliance, Post Bulletin, KTTC, etc, and these are great comprehensive resources. However, there are some out there focused especially on arts and culture happenings in town that may highlight offerings you are unaware of. Here are a few to get you started - let us know about others!
Logo design
The work of the Collaborative is important, and we want the community to know that we are living out our aspirational statement as best we can. To that end, we would love an exciting logo that represents! Email raccnews@gmail.com if you would like to help with that.
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