The Cultural Congress and Confab, a 3-day conference hosted by Washington State Art Alliance with support from the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) brought together art educators, advocates, students, non- and for profit art groups to address some of the most relevant issues affecting the arts in Washington state. This year's conference ran from October [...]
More than 60 people gathered in the Aspen Room at City Hall on Sunday, Feb. 25, to review and provide feedback on Vancouver’s new Culture, Arts, and Heritage Plan, expected to be adopted by the City on April 16. Attendees included members of the arts community, arts organizations, and those who participated in Arts of [...]
Optimism with a realistic view of the work ahead After the recent Arts and Culture Summit, we surveyed participants to learn a bit about what people think may be the path forward. The Summit's theme was arts infrastructure north of the Columbia, with a focus on downtown Vancouver in particular because of its potential as [...]
Last week’s Arts and Culture Summit was, in some ways, an indicator of our community’s readiness for investment in arts infrastructure. The big take-away for us is that we remain optimistic but have much work to do. It’s clear that for Vancouver and Clark County, there are both awesome opportunities and stubborn challenges. At last [...]
Registration is now open for Arts of Clark County's second Arts and Culture summit to be held on Saturday, September 23, at the Artillery Barracks building at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Reserve. Those wishing to attend the all-day event may register for $35 per person. Like the first summit, held in 2012, this will [...]
We were so delighted last week to have Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) Executive Director Karen Hanan stop by Vancouver for a visit. She had a whirlwind tour with local leaders, catching up on arts initiatives here and also sharing her vision for the certified creative district program now passed into law. (On May 8, [...]
In trying to understand what’s possible, we at Arts of Clark County have been looking at what other cities have done, and we’ve met and talked with arts leaders there. We’ve revisited the past—the jumbled mix of fleeting efforts and false starts that has been our community’s history with the arts. And we’ve come away [...]
Not an arts center—an art center. We need both in our community. An economically viable visual art center that fulfills the need for exhibition space, studios, and classrooms has been a topic of conversation in Vancouver for decades. Past attempts and plans often patched a visual art component on to a performing arts facility. This [...]
Across the country, cities of Vancouver's size (or much smaller), close to larger urban centers, are opening performing arts and visual arts centers. Satellite cities like Lone Tree and Parker outside of Denver, now each have their own performing arts centers successfully cultivating audiences in their local communities. And rather than competing with existing venues, [...]
In March 2012, we held the first Clark County Arts and Culture Summit, a gathering of arts organizations, business leaders, local representatives, and individuals wanting to see a greater focus on the arts in our community. Now, five years later, we are planning our second summit on September 23 in the Artillery Building at the [...]