March 2013
4 posts
Arts Day 2013: Educating the World
Arts Wisconsin tells the stories of the arts throughout Wisconsin. Andrea Kreuzer understands the importance of sharing our stories. But, not every time we tell them, do our stories come in the form of a tale, or a vignette Andrea presents stories through research and data. She tells the benefits from the arts through methods more common among policy and data analysis. This case shows how the...
Arts Day 2013 Story: Jake's Cafe Revitalizes...
Arts Wisconsin tells the stories of the arts throughout Wisconsin. Tryg Jacobson, founder and owner of Jake’s Cafe, will be featured on a panel discussion regarding development of the creative economy on Arts Day, March 13! Tryg’s inspiration comes from his past and future; he uses what he learned working with his father and solves problems for our next generation of artists. Read...
Arts Day 2013 story: Waunakee Creative Economy...
Arts Wisconsin tells the stories of the arts throughout Wisconsin. Todd Schmidt, Administrator for the Village of Waunakee and a featured panelist at Arts Day 2013 on March 13, tells the story of the Waunakee Creative Economy Initiative, an innovative economic development program to grow the village’s creative sector and opportunities and brand Waunakee as a creative place. Read on!
On a...
About the Cable Hayward Area Arts Council
The Cable Hayward Area Arts Council (CHARAC) works to connect and create networks of artists in the surrounding northern Wisconsin area. Creating a network expands community with the regional artistic community, as well as creating a vibrant and flourishing outpost for creative expression; it “creates a conduit,” said Pat Ruddle Dooley,CHARAC President. Artists are able to “encourage each other...
February 2013
1 post
Arts Alliance of Portage County speaks up for the...
As Arts Alliance of Portage County Co-Director Elizabeth Aguillera says, “art is universal.” The word itself, ‘art,’ is difficult to define, and can bedifficult to create; but what we do know is that art is everywhere. Art is beauty - however you want to define that. Art “enhances our quality of life, self-expression, and communication. It challenges our thinking,...
January 2013
2 posts
Arts Wisconsin - by the numbers 2012
Years in existence: 20
Member organizations/businesses/agencies: ~ 250 nonprofit arts and community organizations, corporations and businesses, economic development organizations, educational institutions (preK-12 to higher ed).
Member individuals: ~ 225 artists, arts supporters, business leaders, educators, community-based activists
FaceBook fans: 4,130
Twitter fans: 2,436 (66%...
Thanks to Arts Wisconsin's outstanding board of...
President - Debra Karp, UW-Parkside | Racine VP - Ben Richgruber, Eau Claire Regional Arts Council | Eau Claire Treasurer - Kate Rericha, Birch Creek Music Festival | Sturgeon Bay Secretary - Carole Spelic, Green Lantern Studios | Mineral Point Brad Anthony Bernard, Mt. Mary College/Community Arts and Funk Festival | Milwaukee Caitlin Fitzgerald, Bolz Center for Arts Administration,...
November 2012
3 posts
What's it really like to work in the creative...
For a look at how Wisconsin’s creative sector really lives and works,Wisconsin film industry leader Michael Keeney of Madison’s Key Media Entertainment recently sat down with three creative industry workers for a series of questions and answers. The interviewees are:
Dawn Marie Svanoe, Madison, WI (DMS) Co-Owner, Glitter to Gore, LLC www.glittertogore.com
Dawn Emanuele, Milwaukee, WI...
Racine’s Main Gallery program provides high school...
Racine’s Main Gallery program provides high school students with arts and work opportunities By Julia Jacobson, UW-Madison student and Arts Wisconsin intern
While most teens head out to their first summer jobs in fast food, retail or babysitting, some Racine high school students receive a rare opportunity during these months: to work as paid artists.
Supported by Racine Parks and Recreation, the...
August 2012
8 posts
1 tag
Stories of the arts across Wisconsin
Arts Wisconsin has been telling the story of the arts throughout Wisconsin for 20 years. Enjoy these great stories from communities across the state.
NE Wisconsin:
Rhinelander: Art Start!
Madison area:
Create Madison
SW Wisconsin:
ArtsBuild, UW-Platteville
Milwaukee
African-American Children’s Theater
Creative Alliance Milwaukee
NW Wisconsin
Arts in Burnett County
Central...
Beaver Dam Area Arts Association
Beaver Dam is a small, picturesque city on the shores of Beaver Dam Lake, surrounded by the rich farmlands of south central Wisconsin. According to the Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce website, “quality of life has always been one of the chief themes of city officials, civic leaders and the business community of Beaver Dam.
The creation of the Beaver Dam Area Arts Association (BDAAA) in...
Arts in Burnett County
“In the small towns, villages and along the rustic roads of northwestern Wisconsin are some of the state’s most valuable assets: creative human beings who nurture beauty, value nature and share their heritage through places, objects and edibles that are
Burnett Area Arts Group members
handmade and homegrown.” This excerpt from a press release announcing the publication of...
Creative Alliance Milwaukee
“You just never know where creative talent and wealth generation will spring from but it is best to encourage them both wherever and whenever they seem to be trying to blossom,” writes David Hawkins in his three part essay on the creative economy. The Creative Alliance Milwaukee, Inc., launched in 2011 from its parent organization the Cultural Alliance, is a leader in researching,...
Local Arts Spotlight: ArtsBuild
Creative economy development in SW Wisconsin
by Rachel Demitrios, Arts Wisconsin Program Director
Like so many stories I have heard since I have moved to Wisconsin less than one year ago, there are artistic and creative ventures happening everywhere in Wisconsin. That includes rural areas such as Platteville and southwest Wisconsin. Like many communities in Wisconsin, I am learning, the arts...
Local Arts Spotlight: Create Madison
Emerging Arts Leaders and Wisconsin’s local Creative Economy
by Breanne Sommer, Arts Wisconsin Communications Intern
It started as a bus tour across the country for 5 months, stopping in different states to provide mobile spaces to inspire all forms of creativity, such as painting, writing and musical expression. This was the idea behind the non-profit, 7cees, originating in Madison,...
Art Start
ArtStart: A New Center for Cultural Growth in Rhinelander
by Breanne Sommer, Arts Wisconsin Communications Intern
What does one do with an old abandoned Federal building in the center of town? Turn it into an art gallery of course! This is just what Ken Juon, President of ArtStart and the other leaders behind the non-profit accomplished in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. ArtStart’s webpage...
Americans for the Arts and the Wisconsin Arts Board have recently announced the fourth study of the economic impact of the national and state nonprofit arts sector: Arts and Economic Prosperity IV. The study uses “findings from 182 regions representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, an input-output economic model is able to deliver national estimates.” The data you...
July 2012
4 posts
3 tags
Small Town Forums coming up in August. Be there.
Wisconsin Rural Partners (www.wirural.org) is pleased to be hosting the 2012 Small Town Downtown Forums in conjunction with UW-Extension, Wisconsin Downtown Action Council, Wisconsin Economic Development Council, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and USDA Rural Development.
Arts Wisconsin is a partner in these sessions as well, facilitating discussions about the importance of...
Revitalizing the Creative Sphere: Emerging Young...
By Ryan Hurley, Arts @ Large Program Manager
I’ve been lucky to stumble into a career in the arts. More importantly, I’ve been lucky to work with people and organizations that allow for the consistent redefinition and expansion of what the arts can encompass.
As Program Manager for Arts @ Large, which provides comprehensive, curriculum-based arts and creative experiences for...
From the Arts Wisconsin Interns: What Has...
Breanne Sommer, UW-Madison: My life has been shaped by the made-up fairytale bedtime stories my dad imagined to lull me to sleep and the midnight songs my mother would attempt to make melodic. This was my childhood: stories, songs-in one word-creativity. I strongly believe any musical ability I possess today was environmentally molded by the melodies and fairytales that carried me to sleep in my...
From the Interns: Gaining Confidence through the...
As I struggle to hit the high B flat as the role of Carlotta in Maury Yeston’s Phantom, I feel the blood rush to my chest and head as my hands get shaky. I almost feel like I’m going to die – or at least pass out. I know the bright red blotches are creeping up my neck, big enough to be seen by the farthest person in the house (at least that’s what I think in the moment). I can thank my Irish...
June 2012
5 posts
1 tag
3 tags
Thoughts on "Funding for the Arts Sometimes...
I’m not sure how I feel about the recent opinion piece, “Funding for the Arts Sometimes Benefits All of Us,” by Aaron Dorfman, in The Huffington Post.
On the one hand, the author commends the new national Arts and Economic Prosperity IV research from Americans for the Arts (in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Arts Board has sponsored additional comprehensive research on the impact of the...
2 tags
Arts Action Alert 6-13-2012: Statewide and...
Americans for the Arts and the Wisconsin Arts Board have released the findings from Arts & Economic Prosperity IV, the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted. Click here for more information on the regional, statewide and national studies, and watch for info soon about ways to use this information to make the case about the power, benefits, and public value of the...
Call for Submissions!
Are you an active advocate for the arts in Wisconsin? Are you part of an organization working to enhance the creative economy in our state? Are you an artist or artistic person contributing to the economy in creative ways? Then help us further advocate for the arts by sharing your stories and experiences in the art world in our July newsletter! Email Rachel at rachel@artswisconsin.org with a draft...
1 tag
Announcing: www.artswisconsin.tumblr.com
Over the past few years, Arts Wisconsin has embraced social media as a critical means of communication with our wide ranging and diverse constituency. I have a lot of mixed feelings about how people over-share intimate details of their personal lives through this medium (Please! Must we hear the details of what you ate for breakfast in the morning and how you feel about running into your...
