Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo

Understanding that the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo exists to infuse arts and culture, our main focus is to be able to provide those access and connection point for artists and members of the community. By referencing our core values, ACGK is able to place what we are trying to accomplish into five broad categories, the first of which being access. ACGK believes that by putting access of the arts at the forefront of our values, we are able to open the doors and start the conversation for cultural participation in and around Kalamazoo. Creating these broad points of access, Kalamazoo can advance in inspiration amongst all forms of art. A large step in seeking inspiration is to start the conversation and dialogue that allows for the exchange of ideas and opinions to push Greater Kalamazoo for equality, understanding, and the ability to address challenges. It is in creating this dialogue that we value empathy as an organization for the genuine appreciation and awareness for these issues. Lastly, following this guide will leave Kalamazoo with a sustainable art scene that is not being damaged or depleted from the ACGK's efforts.

As stated before, access in the arts is key to everything the Arts Council stands for. Our strategies to do this is to provide access to a broad range of artistic and cultural opportunities through grants, promotion, advocacy, and free programming.

The Board of Directors along with the Executive Director and organizational staff dedicated itself to writing a five-year strategic map using the SMART approach. That is, each goal, objective, strategy, and success measure was written to be: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

In using this approach, we also dedicated ourselves to achieving ten finite strategies per fiscal year, leaving open two potential strategies a year for unplanned options. In total, then, this plan is built to handle sixty strategies over the course of the plan. This is both achievable and realistic. Having a full staff dedicated to the success of our mission and vision creates for a positive and driven environment.

In the first two years of the developed strategic plan, the largest accomplishment was the restructure of the organization, With a new mission, a new vision, and new core values as well as a new physical office space, the Arts Council was able to jump in head-first to the new strategic plan. Some of the key items that have been accomplished are long-term planning in the sense of staffing and equipment enhancements. There was a focus on clarifying documents such as rubrics for Community Arts Awards, grant proposal rubrics, as well as internal employee handbooks. The current focus is on the re-branding of the ARts Council as a whole organization. In a few months, an app specifically for Art Hop will be released in order to work towards our value of sustainability. The logo and overall image of the Arts Council will also be taken a look at.