Continuing Education Receives Arts Build Grant
PLATTEVILLE - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Office of Continuing Education has received an economic development grant designed to offer assistance to local artists, artisans, and crafts persons interested in beginning or expanding their arts related businesses.
The main goal of this program is to offer business related assistance designed to increase the income of artists in Platteville and other communities in southwest Wisconsin.
The grant program is funded by UW-Extension Division of Outreach and E-Learning and is titled "Arts Build: Using the Arts to Foster Economic Development in Rural Southwest Wisconsin." This effort, in partnership with the Southwest Wisconsin Small Business Development Center, is designed to help build the economy of southwest Wisconsin through intensive assistance to art-related business people and entrepreneurs. This focus will be strengthened by increasing the professional and business capacity of arts workers in underserved rural communities - places and people that are especially ripe for new, area-specific models of economic development.
Southwest Wisconsin is home to many arts communities and hundreds of artists and craftspeople living in more remote areas. The project will concentrate services on those with lower incomes. As noted by Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton, art is fundamental to good living, and local art plays a crucial role in Wisconsin's economy. Wisconsin's arts industry has a $289 million impact statewide.
All local artists are invited to attend an informational, organizing meeting on Arts Build. The meeting will be held on Monday, May 24, at the Mound City Bank Motor Branch, 900 S. 2nd Street. Expect pertinent information, exhilarating conversation, and refreshments. Meeting times are 7 to 8:30 p.m. Anyone in the arts, who wishes to become part of this initiative, may call 608-342-1314 to register.
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