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Developing a creative economy

Waupaca’s plan for arts and culture

By Angie Landsverk


Waupaca’s new Arts and Culture Plan sets an agenda for the next few years.

That agenda includes increasing collaboration between arts organizations, broadening the involvement of youth in community arts, launching a Business Improvement District or Main Street program and involving artists in civic processes.

“A creative economy is a resource in the 21st century,” Anne Katz told Waupaca’s common council last month.
She is the executive director of Arts Wisconsin.

In her role with that organization, Katz helps nonprofits, local governments and businesses plot courses of action by developing their assets.

“I have to congratulate Waupaca,” she said.

That is because Katz said there are few communities the size of Waupaca putting energy into this type of strategic planning.

She said there are more than 9,100 businesses involved in the creative sector in Wisconsin, with more than 51,000 people employed in them.

“Waupaca is really leading the way on this,” Katz said.

Waupaca’s Arts and Culture Plan is connected to its Comprehensive Plan.

The city’s Comprehensive Plan addresses nine planning elements, and arts and culture is one of those elements.

The common council adopted the Arts and Culture Plan last month.

Katz and Megan Matthews, arts management program coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, prepared the plan and presented it to the council.

Worked on for more than a year, the plan currently covers 2018-2021 and is a document that will continue to evolve.

The plan focuses on four key areas, which were determined during a March 2016 community planning session the Waupaca Community Arts Board (WCAB) hosted.

Those areas are:

• The arts as a community resource.

• The arts as a family resource.

• The arts and quality of life.

• Connecting and strengthening the arts sector network and the community.

The planning process included the involvement of artists, city officials, the common council, UW-Extension, business owners and representatives of the Waupaca Historical Society, library, farm market, WCAB, Winchester Academy and Waupaca Fine Arts Festival.

Matthews said the plan that resulted from the process is a good one.

“You have some amazing things going on,” she said.

Their discussions included the idea of working with the schools, various art programs and the community.

Matthews said today’s employers want creative, critical thinkers.

“Providing these kinds of opportunities for students will be an asset,” she said.

Collaboration between area arts organizations is a key part of the plan.

“When you work together, you do better,” she said.

The plan includes goals for today and beyond, as well as accountability.

“Everyone who was part of the plan is working hard to impact Waupaca in a positive way,” Matthews said.

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