About
Cultural Plan and Goals
Springfield has spent the last two years going through a community process to update its 1997 Cultural Plan, and has a new plan that is being incorporated into the City-County Vision 20/20 Comprehensive Plan. A 20-plus member Steering Committee, in addition to the SRAC Board, has directed the update to reflect community goals and priorities. Those goals are summarized below.
- Continue to build the community of artists and supporters of the arts.
- Fund and capitalize arts and cultural development.
- Stabilize and strengthen strong and healthy arts and cultural organizations through collaboration, leadership, training, and communication.
- Provide leadership for regional arts and cultural development.
- Demonstrate and increase the awareness of the economic impact of the arts as one of the foundations/building blocks of overall economic and community development.
- Contribute to the further creation of a vibrant Center City enriched by arts and culture.
- Increase both resident and visitor interest, participation, and support in and for the arts and cultural events throughout the Springfield region.
- Strengthen efforts for lifelong education, accessible to all ages and encompassing partnerships in higher education as well as pre-schools, schools, and the general community, with education provided in and through the arts.
The SRAC Board has been disciplined in developing the Cultural Plan and in communicating it to the public. It will be included in the new City-County Comprehensive Plan.
The SRAC holds monthly board meetings, with a retreat in August. An annual membership meeting is held at the end of the fiscal year in June. The committee structure includes the Executive Committee plus the following four committees: Community Arts and Education, Community Cultural Development, Finance and Asset Development, and Marketing. In addition, ad hoc committees are used for event planning. All board members are involved in at least one committee and in at least one festival. In addition, all of our arts organization members are invited to have an ex officio member on the board to provide direction and input as well as increase our two-way communication. Budgets and plans are reviewed monthly.