Atlantic Center for the Arts, Inc.

Atlantic Center for the Arts has established five strategic pillars to provide strength to the organization and has developed associated goals to guide it.

1. Funding – Increase long-term and operating capital with diverse funding sources to support ACA and its programs.

2. Communication – Use web, social media, and traditional media tools to promote ACA's position as a catalyst for artistic excellence and individual creativity.

3. Programs, Diversity, Access – To foster artistic excellence through residencies, community programs, and continuing artist engagement; ensure all of ACA’s work is reflective of our diverse population and accessible to all.

4. Facilities/Infrastructure – Maintain, improve, and leverage our most visible resources; support the systems that enable the work of ACA.

5. Thought Leadership – Establish ACA as a leading authority and champion for the arts regionally and nationally.

Strategies in support of Goal #1: Increase long-term and operating capital with diverse funding sources to support ACA and its programs

• Activate ACA constituents, the arts community, stakeholders, and the public to ensure strong support and secure additional financial
resources
• Diversify and increase grant/foundation support
• Increase endowments
• Increase smart-use, revenue, and creative partnerships

Strategies in support of Goal #2: Use web, social media, and traditional media tools to promote ACA's position as a catalyst for artistic excellence and individual creativity.
• Use technology to maximize accessibility
• Demonstrate history by archiving ACA materials, events, milestones and stories, past and present
• Keep lines of communication with constituents and stakeholders open

Strategies in support of Goal #3: To foster artistic excellence through residencies, community programs, and continuing artist engagement; ensure all of ACA’s work is reflective of our diverse population and accessible to all
• Enhance the Associate Artist experience and ensure that the program receives additional financial support
• Strengthen partnerships locally through interdisciplinary programming
• Provide caregivers and their loved ones with more substantive experiences with one another through the arts; reduce stress and other
benefits for the underserved and special populations
• Continue to highlight Florida artists and provide quality, engaging exhibition opportunities

Strategies in support of Goal #4: Maintain, improve, and leverage our most visible resources; support the systems that enable the work of ACA
• Ensure that organizational resources are inventoried and valued in terms of land/buildings each year
• Ensure that repairs at all facilities are “upgraded” to reduce carbon footprint and decrease expenses
• Ensure that technology is a help, not a hindrance, to staff and artists

Strategies in support of Goal #5: Establish ACA as a leading authority and champion for the arts regionally and nationally
• Champion the best work of artists and arts organizations and help to develop new avenues of support for innovative, impactful work
• Provide services to our constituents so that they will grow and thrive
• Use institutional knowledge and ACA’s widespread access to international, national, regional and local arts leaders to exchange
information and access new resources

Atlantic Center for the Arts has strong leadership, including an active board with members who have served for over 10 years, an Executive Director with over 24 years at the organization and two management staff members with over 20 years each at the organization. The staff is diverse in age and skills, allowing for collaborations that generate new ideas, best practices, and shared experience and history. This fuels the organization with innovation and creativity while maintaining institutional memory and a proud sense of history.

We are unique in having a National Council. This advisory board is comprised of world-renowned artists with deep roots in their disciplines. ACA seeks recommendations and guidance from the National Council Members for our Master Artists and input for our artist residency programs. In additional, the National Council Members introduce ACA to potential artistic partners, board members and supporters.

ACA builds long-term partnerships to collaborate, promote awareness, and engage as many individuals as possible in arts education and programming. Our partners include: University of Central Florida, Stetson University, Bethune Cookman University, Daytona State College, Council on Aging, Volusia County Schools, Volusia County Library System, Valencia College. Timucua White House, Enzian Theater, National Center for Creative Aging, and University of Florida, to name but a few.

Our facility was built expressly as an Artist-in-Residence community, allowing us to provide all artists the resources, materials, space, and equipment they need. All our buildings and walkways are ADA compliant providing access to the arts to all. Atlantic Center for the Arts was built on 68 acres, therefore, the ability to grow with the needs of artists is an opportunity we can seize for the future.

With its 43-year history, ACA has been in the forefront of innovative and culturally enriching programming, and we are very proud of our long track record of excellence.

ACA'S residency program, established in 1977 by artist Doris Leeper, brings together internationally acclaimed master artists with talented mid-career and emerging artists who are selected by the masters. The residency program is one of the world's most renowned. ACA officially opened in 1982 for the first residency. As of November 2019, 175 residencies have taken place, serving almost 5,000 artists from Florida, the United States, and around the world, including Master Artists who have been awarded: 26 Pulitzer Prizes, 9 Emmys, 142 NEA Fellowships, 108 Guggenheim Fellowships, 3 Grammys, 2 Oscars, 30 MacArthur "Genius" Awards, 28 Obies, 11 Bessies, 3 Poet Laureates, and 7 National Book Awards.

Throughout the years, we have increased the scope of our community programs. Over 250 creative activities, programs, classes, and workshops serve more than 72,000 people each year. We support 100+ artists in their research and development of new work and engage and pay over 50 local area artists to serve as community arts instructors.

Our diverse audience comes from all over Florida, the United States, and from countries around the world.

The most recent Americans for the Arts study, the Arts & Economic Prosperity Calculator indicates ACA provides nearly $3 million in total economic impact, generating 79.9 FTE jobs, $1,437,999 in household income, $104,207 of local government revenue and $123,992 of state government revenue annually.

ACA is located on 68 pristine acres, part of the original Turnbull settlement founded 250 years ago, and adjacent to an environmental preserve of 2,200 acres. Because of its unique location, ACA has become a destination for cultural, architectural, historical, and environmental tourists as well as business retreats, university programming, trade workshops, weddings, photo shoots, and film productions.

In 2017, the organization paid off its line of credit that had been outstanding since 2003. The endowment accounts continue to grow.
We are currently focused on raising funds for two new initiatives:
1. A matching gift opportunity for the unrestricted Buildings and Structures fund is a $250,000 challenge grant that will give us a total of $500,000 toward the sustainability of our physical physical assets, including the Leeper Studio Complex, the winner of 8 national architectural awards.
2. Chuck and Margie Pabst Steinmetz have offered $250,000 in matching funds to build a restricted scholarship fund so that we can reduce – and eventually eliminate – all fees for all Associate Artists accepted into a residency.

We continue to provide and expand our partnerships in the area of creative arts education and wellness for our local youths.

We encourage former Master Artists and Associate Artists to become leaders and advocates for the arts.

We establish partnerships with research universities to develop quantitative benchmarks and metrics for the Arts & Wellness program.

We inspire those who inspire the world.