FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Mollie LaFavers
859-324-0181
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 16, 2021) – In March 2017, the arts and culture community rolled out a shared vision, Imagine Greater Louisville 2020. That plan was created to answer one question – How can arts and culture best serve this community?
The Greater Louisville arts and culture community never could’ve imagined the challenges or the innovation that 2020 would bring. Great progress has been made since the March 2017 rollout, but there is much work still to do. In 2021, the arts and culture community stepped back and asked themselves, what does this community need to heal and rebuild after the covid-19 pandemic and undeniable call for racial equity in our community?
On Friday, April 16, 2021, at 11:00 am, A group of area artists, community, civic, business, arts, and culture leaders will launch Imagine Greater Louisville 2025, which provides a shared vision for the role arts, culture, and creativity can play in this stronger future. The announcement will take place virtually over Zoom. To RSVP for the virtual announcement, visit https://imagine2025.eventbrite.com
“Over the last four years, our city’s art and culture community has come together, guided by the Imagine Greater Louisville Cultural Plan, to transform our region, to help advance a more competitive, economically stronger, more educated, creative, and compassionate Greater Louisville. And despite the challenges of this past year, artists and organizations have continued to serve the community from pop-up concerts outside healthcare facilities to working alongside our teachers in NTI. Imagine 2025 is a plan to help rebuild not only the arts and culture sector but to heal and rebuild the Greater Louisville community overall – economically and socially. The arts have a unique and powerful role in creating a stronger Louisville in the future.” said Christen Boone, President & CEO of Fund for the Arts.
Alonzo Ramont, President and CEO of Redline Performing Arts, said, “Imagine Greater Louisville 2025 is an extension of the existing call to action for our community. We are committed to leveraging our creative resources to address our community’s greatest challenges and capitalize on our greatest opportunities, including the call for racial equity. This plan calls for an intentional investment in organizations and artists of color.”
The hope for Imagine Greater Louisville 2025 is three-fold. First, by connecting the dots between the arts and culture sector and the community’s priorities, this plan will spark greater collaboration and engagement of arts and culture as a meaningful partner in community solutions. Second, the plan encourages artists and organizations to ask themselves how they can best support the shared vision for a stronger community. And lastly, the plan hopes to inspire greater investment in the creativity and diversity of the arts and culture sector to realize a common aspirational vision.
Over six months, this community-based plan was created under the leadership of a cross-sector, 15-person Steering Committee. Nearly 500 people, through interviews and surveys, brought their voice to its creation. Their voices are reflected throughout this plan which includes: 17 strategies and 52 recommended actions organized under five key priorities.
- Access – providing more art for more people in more places
- Cultivation – supporting and cultivating artists, creative professionals, and arts and cultural organizations
- Education – Ensuring that every child has the opportunity to experience and participate in arts and culture through schools, out-of-school programs, and with their families
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – fostering cultural equity to lead the way to a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive community, improving the social equity and cultural vitality of the region
- Promotion – showcasing arts and culture to ensure that Greater Louisville is recognized nationally and internationally as a leading city of arts and culture
Strategies identified in Imagine Greater Louisville 2025 include: building a dynamic public art program with investments downtown and in neighborhoods; addressing space challenges for rehearsal, performance, studio, and office space; expanding out-of-school programming to reach every child; developing and supporting arts incubators for emerging organizations and artists of color; and expanding the market share for Louisville’s arts and culture locally and nationally.
Imagine Greater Louisville 2025 will be led by a Steering Committee of arts and culture and cross-sector individuals. This committee will have governance responsibility, provide feedback, direction, oversight, and report, at least annually, to the community. The Arts & Culture Alliance (ACA) will serve as a primary liaison to engage arts and culture organizations in all aspects of the plan implementation and the Fund for the Arts (FFTA) will provide administrative support to the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee includes:
- Kat Abner, Fund for the Arts
- Shannon Wooley Allison, Looking for Lilith and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
- Kim Baker, Kentucky Performing Arts and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
- Regina Blake, Owsley Brown II Charitable Foundation
- Dave Christopher, Amped
- Jomaris DeJesus, Teatro Tercera Llamada
- Gwendolyn Kelly, Local Artist
- Sarah Lindgren, Louisville Metro and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
- James Lindsay, Local Musician and Elevator Artist Resource Board
- Gladys Lopez, Norton Healthcare and Fund for the Arts Board
- Todd Lowe, Parthenon LLC and Fund for the Arts Board
- Alonzo Ramont, Redline Performing Arts and Creatives of Color Collective
- Kirk Randolph, IUS Ogle Center and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
- Scott Schaftlein, EY and Fund for the Arts board
- Nicole Twigg, Louisville Tourism and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
- Matt Wallace, Kentucky Shakespeare and Arts & Culture Alliance Board
“The responsibility for the implementation of this cultural plan is a shared one,” said Nicole Twigg, Vice President of Tourism Development at Louisville Tourism and ACA Board member. “Partners such as Louisville Tourism, GLI, Louisville Metro, and others have an important role in the collective action of the plan.”
“Imagine Greater Louisville 2025 will help our community focus on the many ways that a healthy culture and arts sector makes our community stronger,” said Barbara Lynne Jamison, Board Chair of the ACA and General Director/CEO of Kentucky Opera. “Most importantly, this strategy deliberately focuses on ensuring everyone can fully participate in the wide variety of arts and culture experiences we have at our fingertips in the Greater Louisville area.”
###
