Memorandum
City of Lawrence
City Manager’s Office
|
TO: City Commissioners |
|
|
CC: Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager |
|
|
FROM: Porter Arneill, Director of Arts and Culture |
|
|
DATE: June 18, 2015 |
|
|
RE: City-Wide Cultural Plan Update |
|
Background
The City of Lawrence was awarded a grant from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission to complete a city-wide cultural plan. The City of Lawrence engaged the team of Christine Harris Connections and Creative Community Builders to complete a city-wide cultural plan for Lawrence. The development of a city-wide cultural plan is one of the key recommendations of the city's Cultural District Task Force report, delivered in late 2013.
Project Description
The cultural planning process will create a functional and sustainable guiding plan which a) documents Lawrence's unique cultural assets, b) defines cultural priorities, c) recommends strategies and tools which the City of Lawrence can provide to support the efforts of the community to accomplish those priorities, and further enhance the climate in which artists, art-related businesses, cultural tourism and creative sector economic development can thrive, and d) provides recommendations for integrating infrastructure and capital improvement projects with the overall goals of the cultural plan. In order to create a successful cultural plan, numerous stakeholders in the community will be engaged.
The city's consultant team hosted several meetings from March 24-25 with local artists, arts organizations, creative sector businesses, and other community stakeholders. The consultants also met with the community for two workshops May 6-8 and, with information derived from these meetings, developed a multi-faceted survey questionnaire to evaluate assets and the current quality of cultural life in Lawrence to help glean ways to grow and ensure future sustainability. The survey was distributed publicly between May 27 and June 13, 2015 and garnered 493 responses.
The consultant team will conduct a four-hour retreat with the Cultural Plan Steering Committee on Monday, June 22nd to provide updates, background, a mission/vision draft and continue the iterative process of developing a cultural plan for Lawrence.
May
June
Steering Committee Retreat – June 22, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at FS #5
July
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Commission provide any input and comments for the plan to the consultants as they proceed to finalize the plan in July.
Action
Provide input to the consultants, as appropriate.
Christine Harris, christine@charrisconnect.com
Tom Borrup, tom@communityandculture.com
Katherine Simmons, Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission
John Hachmeister, Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission
Susan Tate, Lawrence Arts Center
Steve Nowak, Watkins Museum
Mary Doveton, Theatre Lawrence
Joshua Falleaf, Acting Dean, College of Humanities and Arts, Haskell Indian Nations University
Saralyn Reece Hardy, Spencer Museum of Art
Bonnie Lowe, The Chamber of Lawrence Kansas
Derek Kwan, Lied Center Executive Director
Ardys Ramberg, Artist
Megan Gilliland representing Destination Management Inc. (CVB & Freedom’s Frontier)
Sarah M. Oatsvall, USD 497 (resigned in June due to move)
Kate Dineen, artist
Bob McWilliams, West Side Folk
Bill Tuttle, University of Kansas American Studies
City Staff:
Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
Kevyn Gero, Management Intern
Porter Arneill, Director of Arts and Culture
CITY-WIDE CULTURAL PLAN
Steering Committee Retreat Background Document – June 22, 2015
This is a background document in preparation for the retreat on Monday, June 22. The objective of the retreat will be to agree on a vision statement for the plan, identify strategic goals, and draft some action steps and a timeline.
We will do what we can in retreat and then we will be sending a draft document back and forth with you until we have a final plan. We ask that you read this document and come prepared to use this information within the retreat process.
Additional to this document is the City’s draft mission/vision statement so that we are working within an overall city context.
STRATEGIC FOCUS
Lawrence has been fostering a ‘creative consciousness’ that permeates the entire city and way of life, even though such integrated creativity is not always recognized, understood or appreciated. This community has built a strong creative sector that adds to the social, civic, and economic life of the city. Recognizing the creative capital that has been a hallmark of Lawrence’s success, and merging it with the new City vision of ‘we make Lawrence and rural Douglas County a place where creativity thrives, sustainability is a way of life, and community pride is contagious’, means we are charged with building a compelling direction and vision for all that Lawrence can be, and to maintain and build upon the many existing community assets.
DRAFT VISION STATEMENT FOR DISCUSSION
Lawrence will have the most robust, sustainable, vibrant and innovative community in Kansas as measured by its achievement in fostering a collective creative consciousness across all ages, organizations, government, and businesses.
YOUR VALUES
· Diversity of views
· Citizen engagement/participation
· Respect for local history and heritage
· Inclusivity
· Sports and recreation
· Authentic downtown
· Relationship with local universities
· Making a difference; being courageous
· Lifelong learning
YOUR ASSETS
· Wide variety of arts and culture
· Strong creative ‘maker’ community
· Culture of learning
· Active and plentiful artist community
· Final Fridays
· Friendly and engaging people
· Vibrant neighborhoods
· University of Kansas
· Haskell Indian Nations University
· City engagement with citizens; voice is as important as money
· Appreciate and respect the ‘weird’
· Local food and sustainability movement
· Social capital priority
· Growth of culinary arts; education, food movement, Farmers Markets, restaurants and chefs
YOUR CHALLENGES and OPPORTUNITIES
· Opportunities for local artists to have more awareness and earn more money
· Needing a long-range cultural plan
· Not knowing who is responsible for what
· Mechanisms for building networks
· Need for stronger business sense in the creative community; and for community to be educated about creative businesses mean money and community attraction
· Better marketing of Lawrence as a creative place
· Funding – grants, microloans, start-up venture capital
· Understanding the role of Cultural District and 9th St Corridor in overall planning
· Determining fit of arts and culture within City planning and priorities
· Connecting east and west Lawrence with respect to arts and culture
· Better integration of KU and Haskell communities
· Retaining sensitivity to historical preservation and architectural strategy
· Development of riverfront
· Transportation – available mass transit, pedestrian and bike friendly access
· Opportunity for more collaboration
· Placemaking needs to be better involved in overall planning
· Determining a strong and clear role for the City in advancing arts and culture
· Political landscape of the state of Kansas, and the impact on policies and funding
· Not as inclusive or diverse as it thinks it is
· Performing arts networking is not as strong as visual arts networking
· Free State Festival is crowding out local entities because of corporate sponsorship, e.g. Free State Brewery couldn’t participate because sponsored by Stella Artois.
· City fees are inequitable for events
STRATEGIC THEMES
Given all of the background work on this plan, it is clear that Lawrence is very satisfied with what it has built so far and that it now needs to focus on ONE vision, with everyone pulling together in one direction. Further, it seems very important that this cultural plan needs to be for ALL of Lawrence, not just downtown or east Lawrence, and that there is integration with the Cultural District as well as the 9th St Corridor project.
Below are some strategic themes compiled from the work done to date.
1. We Love Local: We value creativity and entrepreneurship in all forms; support artists, small business, farmers, food producers, culinary arts, local enterprises from specialty retail to technology innovators; this includes keeping these sectors stimulated with external sources/ideas, new talent, education for all age groups, training and development, collaborative spaces
2. We Have a Big Embrace: We strive for cultural equity and synergy; embrace and support the diversity of the community, including youth, elders, multiple ethnicities/ages/ways of thinking; take greater advantage of assets such as Haskell, KU and the wide range of people and ideas they engage and bring to Lawrence; build alliances between the creative sector and others seeking social justice and improved quality of life (as in “Arts and….”)
3. Living Harmoniously is Important: We are willing to engage in comprehensive placemaking and placekeeping; retain neighborhoods with their distinctive qualities and functions; create places of meaning and quality of life for people of all ages; grow community with authentic assets (people, identities, built environment, logistics, relationships, organizations)
4. We Want to Build and Market a Creative Brand: We would like to expand cultural tourism and marketplaces for cultural and creative products and activities including web-based markets for locally made products. This includes helping our creative organizations and artists grow and more expertly market their offerings. We want to be able to measure and detail the impact of our creative economy.
5. We Love Celebration: We pride ourselves on community celebrations in public spaces including parades, festivals, and special events that recognize the varied people, stories, and talents of Lawrence
6. Lifelong Learning is Very Important: We continually reinforce the value of learning for people of all ages including cultural practices, the craft of making, critical thinking, and public discourse; value life-long learning, traditional cultural practices, and innovation