ArtsBuild Archives
ArtsBuild continues with SmART Communities project
In April, 2005, Arts Build was awarded additional funding from the UW-Extension Outreach and E-Learning Continuing EDvantage grant program, for the next stage of the project: Arts Build SmART Communities. This is the third grant award Continuing Education has received from UW-Extension, for its arts-related economic development initiative.
Throughout the Fall of 2005, the SmART Communities project - an extension of ArtsBuild - began working with local community leaders to promote the arts as a valuable economic asset. The project successfully formed a 17 member ArtsBuild Regional Committee and five area task forces with 40 additional individuals working to plan, promote and facilitate SmART Community sessions throughout the region. Over 150 people attended the four SmART Community sessions held during the Spring of 2006, including artists, civic leaders, business owners and area youth.
Through brainstorming sessions, participants discussed the role of the arts, historic preservation and cultural activities on community and economic development - identifying:
- existing arts assets & resources
- partnerships & collaborations that could be formed & expanded
- resources needed to support future activities
The results were distributed to regional organizations for use in their economic development planning:
- Platteville brainstorming session results - 3/07/06
- Shullsburg brainstorming session results - 5/11/06
- Prairie du Chien brainstorming session results - 5/24/06
- Monroe brainstorming session results - 6/21/06
- SmART Community Planning Taskforce
- ArtsBuild SmART Community Activity 5-05 to 5-06
- PROGRAM IMPACT REPORT Arts Build SmART Communities