Stepping Off the Stage

How can our area fully engage the next generation of creative thinkers, workers, and talent?
Opportunity. I believe it really is that simple. Creative people come and go because of opportunities to fulfill their life goals. If you can’t find an opportunity in your area of interest, you look someplace else. So in order to retain creatives we must provide opportunities for them to engage the community, network with peers, and market their interests. Government agencies, banks, chambers, economic development corporations must send the message that small creative entrepreneurs are as important to economic development as big box distribution centers or production facilities.

At what level are you seeing the most investment in community arts organizations?
Local government support is dwindling under the misguided mantra of helping the taxpayer. If this continues long term, it will not only hurt the arts, but decimate the quality of life in the region. State support goes where the population density is highest, which means most of the funding stays in larger cities. This must change in order to provide growth for smaller communities. National arts investment is such an elitist quagmire that some days I think it would be better to downsize the National Endowment for the Arts and fund directly to state levels. To maintain both performing arts programming and facility operations, organizations such as the Mabel Tainter depend primarily on private support. In the intensely competitive world of grants and foundation subsidies, it will be the private contributors that keep the Chippewa Valley arts going over the next five years.

How do you perceive the Chippewa Valley's approach to community arts presenters and makers?
I don’t think the Chippewa Valley has a unified approach to the arts. There are certainly select organizations that, because of superb leadership and core audience support, make the region rich. In a small community those organizations always stand out and tend to be the measuring stick for everyone else. It is my opinion that the arts in the Chippewa Valley are appreciated and supported by a cultural minority. So if the region is lacking anything, it would be a greater appreciation for the work that goes into the arts. If you experience something firsthand you have a greater appreciation for the people who make a living doing it. Have you ever played a pickup game of basketball at the park, and then watched an NBA game? Your perspective changes, and you have a greater appreciation for the game.

What exactly are you going to do now?

About a year ago, I decided to reexamine my personal goals and going back to school was the first item on my list. Second is to get my mother’s children’s stories published. It would be a great moment for our family to see her stories on a library or store bookshelf. Third, open a small creative co-op that provides opportunities for emerging creatives to establish their work, and a life, in the Chippewa Valley.
So the plan is to attend Stout, sharpen the writing and design skills, start a small creative business, and then self-publish my mother’s most recent stories Rodeo Warrior and Gathering Magic. From there, who knows? Maybe a quarterly journal featuring writers and artists that have been neglected by mainstream publishing.