Wisconsin Arts Board Stretches Arms Toward Superior -- Update on Tuesday Visit

I continue to be impressed by the arts activity taking place in Superior, bringing together disparate groups for the betterment of the community. Tuesday morning Karen Goeschko and George Tzougros of the Wisconsin Arts Board and Travel Wisconsin's Drew Nissbaum drove to Superior on the coldest of days to meet with 21 local leaders in the Superior arts community. At 9:00 a.m. the temp was -16. Big shout out to textile artist and Phantom Galleries Superior director (who is stepping down) Erika Mock for the meeting notes which I share here. Here's what came out of the meeting:

1) Calling all advocates! The State Legislature is now considering a bill establishing a grant program to support Wisconsin’s creative industries, job creation and economic development throughout the state. Click this link to ask your legislators to support this important initiative.

It's important you act before Friday Jan 31 deadline. (EdNote: Tomorrow) The proposed amount is $500K. When/if this passes the Wisconsin Arts Board (WAB) will be developing the program. Special thank you to Representative Nick Milroy for already signing on to support this bill.

 2) Creative Community Grant Applications are now open. Phase 1 deadline is Feb 7.

3) The WI Arts Board is looking for community input on their draft strategic plan (2014-2017) Here is a draft of the plan and email address where you can send feedback.

4) WI Arts Day is March 12 in Madison.

5) America's Creative Economy report is out and can be found here.

6) How does the Department of Tourism intersect the arts?  The WAB is an agency within the Department of Tourism. Drew Nussbaum, Regional Tourism Specialist, outlined that the tourism budget for Wisconsin is $13 million but they work diligently to stretch the money as well as its impact. As a result they receive $63 million in earned media -- stories at no cost that reach national and international audiences. Tourism was up by 5% in 2013.

What does a Tourism specialist offer to arts groups? Business consulting, marketing. How do they connect to the right people? The Arts Board develops. Tourism markets... to communities and beyond.

7) Douglas County Historical Society now connects to the Humanities Council. The Arts 'do it'..... the Humanities Council 'talks about it.' There is grant and partnership opportunity for our region.

8) Twin Ports Stage launched their fundraiser campaign this week to raise the funds necessary to create a theater and community art space in downtown Superior. The John D. Munsell Theatre will help transform and revitalize the downtown by giving the arts a place to "play." If you would like to help, here's a place where you can find more information about this project: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/be2n6

9) Susan at Habitat for Humanity sent this today, asking to spread the word: See the attachments for Twin Ports Habitat's Re-Store Art-Tastic Social. They are looking for artists to come find something in the Re-Store to repurpose and then auction off at their fundraiser Feb 28. Fun!

Special thanks to Erika Mock once more for giving time to assembling the above notes. Of this last item more will be shared in an upcoming blog post. 

A few closing notes about the vastness of our Net universe. The stats come from an infographic I found at Domo.com....

Every Minute of Every Day:
~Apple receives about 47,000 App downloads
~Brands and Organizations on Facebook receive 34,722 Likes
~Consumers spend $272,070 on Web Shopping
~Instagram users Share 3,600 new photos
~Twitter users send over 100,000 Tweets
~YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video
~Facebook Users share 684,478 pieces of content

Kinda makes your head spins.

After this blog entry gets posted I Tweet it, which automatically posts it to my Facebook page. Feel free to share it.

What a world we live in. Let's stay in touch.
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