The Arts Action Plan II Planning Survey
Written by: Josh Blanc
The Arts District board is in the process of developing a new Arts Action Plan survey (AAP II) to help us all understand our arts community’s current status: who we are now and what our needs are as artists in today’s environment. This will be a two-step process: an initial survey to learn more about where artists, building owners, and Art & Culture groups stand in the current environment. The information from the survey will allow the Arts District to plan for future opportunities, grants, and challenges for the arts community. Part of this initial survey is to help the Arts District bolster our data about the arts community to apply for grants to fund the larger, more extensive survey like the one done in 2002.
The original survey done in 2002 cost $60,000. The Arts District Board is in the process of raising the funds for a full survey, estimated around $100k-$120k. The Arts District Board has hired Brenda Kayzar, PhD, of Urbane DrK Consulting, to begin updating the Art Action Plan.. A stakeholder meeting held on June 24th helped develop questions and the focus for an initial survey. This survey is expected to come out by mid August 15th.
It has been 23 years since the original Arts Action Plan (AAP) was written. That document, released in 2003, is arguably the most important artist document ever created in Minneapolis’s history. It was a survey and study of 443 people, including 136 artists, 83 businesses, and 224 community members living and working in what would become the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. The AAP spelled out for all how to develop into a successful arts district and community.
The Board encourages interested parties to read the original Arts Action Plan, which can be read at https://tinyurl.com/5bbkxr2b. The original questions start on page 136 of the plan.
In 2002, Jerry Allen and Associates completed the first Arts Action Plan. Once Jerry Allen and Associates completed it in January 2003, the City Council voted to create the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. The Arts Action Plan was a 15-year plan. We are now eight years past the first 15 years. It is time to update the Arts Action Plan and design a path forward for the next 15 years in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
The Arts Action Plan II will be the update. The Arts District community has changed dramatically since the early 2000s. There was no social media, cell phones were not widespread, and the internet was in its early stages. There were only six art buildings at the time; now we have seventeen. The need for accurate data on who inhabits, works, and plays in the Arts District gives the arts community strong tools to defend itself, help foster ideas by artists, and continue to thrive through the changes all around us.
Please be on the lookout for the survey by email, postcards, and posters that will be distributed throughout the Arts District in August.
