Cultural Plan, Creamery Arts Center among 2002 priorities

A year of transformation lies ahead in 2002 for the arts in the Springfield area. Major projects that were embryonic in 2001 the Cultural Plan Update and the Springfield Area Arts Council's Cream-ery Arts Center will be full-blown and well under way this year.

In 2001, the city of Springfield held out a tremendous opportunity to the arts council, the opportunity to use the old creamery building on the edge of Jordan Valley Park as an arts center.

At the same time, arts council leaders also recognized the need to revisit our current cultural plan, fold in new opportunities such as the Creamery, and reprioritize our goals and objectives with the help and input of the community.

The arts council began the process by hiring ArtsMarket, a nationally known consulting firm specializing in cultural planning and arts center development. ArtsMarket's charge will be to assist the arts council in both updating the cultural plan and in completing a feasibility study for the Creamery Arts Center.

For both projects, working closely with the city and gaining extensive community involvement will be the keys to success. A series of focus groups to gain community input on both the cultural plan and the Creamery Arts Center will be held in spring of 2002.

Tax credits approved in 2001 will benefit the Creamery Arts Center enormously and bring approximately $3 million to the project.

The end result of the process to update the cultural plan will be a working, living document that will serve as the city's, the arts council's and the community's Vis-ion 20/20-like roadmap to a thriving cultural arts scene in the region.

The feasibility study for the Creamery Arts Center will be our blueprint for creating a truly dynamic home for the arts.

Huge opportunities are often accompanied by large challenges, and 2002 will have plenty of both for the arts. Financial challenges have long faced a great ma-jority of arts organizations, and 2002 may prove to be much more challenging than previous years.

State budget cuts impacted the arts, with 20 percent of funds granted from the Missouri Arts Council last year being held back till the end of the fiscal year, in case of more budget shortfalls. That is money arts organizations will likely never see.

The tragedy of Sept. 11 has drawn donations and financial support away from the arts, and the accompanying downturn in the economy has tightened the purse strings of many arts donors and advertisers.

Circumstances being what they are, now is the time for the arts and artists to remind supporters and community members that in tough times we all need the arts more than ever. Without the arts music, theater, dance, painting, sculpture and cultural arts we would all be living in a gray society. With the arts we have an outlet for expression, a way to connect to each other and a place to go to heal and rejuvenate.

As art advocates, we also have to loudly state the facts the arts are a very important part of the economy. Millions of dollars and thousands of jobs come from the arts and flow into the greater economic picture.

2002 will be a year of transformation for the arts in Springfield. With an updated cultural plan in hand, the Creamery Arts Center under way, and the continued support of the community, we can maximize our opportunities, meet the challenges ahead with confidence and leave a fantastic, living, cultural arts legacy for our community.

(Pamela Anderson is executive di-rector of the Springfield Area Arts Council.)