Comments by Larry Meeker,
Board President and Chairman for Arts Business Plan Committee

Johnson County, KS is a county that not only brandishes it own banner arts and culture venues, but also provides nearly half the audiences for the major Kansas City metropolitan arts venues. In this context, it’s perhaps no surprise that producing an Arts Business Plan for the County was not an easy task.

In 2002, the Board of Directors for the Arts Council of Johnson County first considered how to approach the planning process. Do we look to the arts community for the answers? It’s a traditional approach and one with good rationales. Clearly, the arts help define who we are, creating a lasting mark of our culture. They also help bridge cultures, enhance learning and actually improve our children’s test scores…you know the arguments and they’re virtually undisputed.

Or, do we embrace an even more inclusive approach and reach out to the broader public—business leaders, educational leaders, political and community leaders—to get their take on the issues? After all, increasing evidence suggests the arts are influencing a world beyond their own boundaries by revitalizing neighborhoods, attracting tourists and creating environments that attract new generation workers and 21st century companies. This latter argument speaks to a case for supporting the arts even if you’re not personally interested in participating.

In the end we opted to do both and the public part of the process began this past winter with a symposium on “The Arts and Economic Development” and two forums on “Suburban Arts In A Metropolitan Context.” Over 500 people registered for these events, many coming from other parts of the metropolitan area and a few from beyond that! Our speakers and facilitators included economic development experts, arts experts and even the President of the American Bankers Association! But our audiences were the key participants, putting new information on the table, voicing opinions, testing new ideas and suggesting even more partnerships and continuing discussions on these vital topics. We truly found an audience hungry for the conversation.

From a suburban—Johnson County—perspective, two major themes emerged from these public events and the numerous conversations, meetings and public comments to follow: the need for greater accessibility to and excellence in the arts. Simply put, people wanted to see more arts opportunities closer to home and they wanted them of high quality.

The result of this process is a business plan, complete with a vision, anticipated outcomes, strategies for getting there and measurements for evaluating success. The vision itself is simple: “Johnson County becomes a nationally recognized suburban region for using the arts to attract tourists, define its culture and sustain the County’s national economic leadership in attracting people, families and businesses.”

By 2015, we expect recognizable changes. For example, we expect “Johnson County will be recognized as the first truly suburban community to make arts and culture an axis for economic development.” And we’ll measure our progress. For example, we’ll know we’re getting there when “By 2010 Johnson County Government is the Americans for the Arts recipient of the National Award for County Arts Leadership.”

1. First comes creating an environment that keeps the County at the forefront as a place of choice to live and work. This includes creating arts districts, establishing an arts incubator and perhaps creating a regional or national arts event.
   
   
2. Next is an arts education strategy focusing on learning opportunities for everyone from kids to senior citizens.
   
   
3. There’s a capital strategy for creating new local and region-serving institutions that raise not only Johnson County’s arts profile, but also that of the metropolitan area. This makes sure no Johnson County resident is more than 15 minutes from an arts facility and with world-class architecture creates another symbol of the quality we are seeking. Imagine up to three new cultural centers serving the families of Johnson County and another region-serving institution such as a national museum on suburbia or a first-class American Indian museum, both areas where Johnson County has deep roots and close ties!
   
   
4. A public art component furthers this accessibility to the arts and is yet another opportunity to signal our commitment to excellence.
   
   
5. Then there is a funding strategy. It’s a strategy that would welcome passage of County Question #1, or Bistate II as many refer to it. Participants in our many discussions put Bistate II at the forefront of funding sources. Equally important, however, our strategy recognizes that whether or not Bistate II passes, much additional funding will be required to create the kind of arts environment this plan envisions.
   
   
   • Passage of County Question #1 would be a tremendous boost to this plan. It would readily allow Johnson County to strengthen existing arts venues and programs as well as create many new ones. It would provide funding for us to address the access and quality issues identified by our many participants head on and much sooner than we would likely be able to do otherwise.
     
     
   • At the same time, Bistate II cannot be viewed as a sustainable source of funding even though it would likely run for 12-15 years; and sustainable funding is essential to the long-run health of the arts in Johnson County. Hence the need for many funding sources and partnerships to both create and sustain new and existing arts venues.
     
     
6. Finally there is a strategy for leadership, the key ingredient to making all things happen. We will be reviewing our own organization to see if we are optimally positioned to see this plan through. We’ll also be sponsoring more forums, symposiums and conferences to raise knowledge levels, build more dialogue, create more partnerships and attract new leaders. A great example of those partnership possibilities came last week when the Kansas City Rep partnered with H&R Block to put a second theater venue in their new downtown headquarters. We can do that kind of thing in Johnson County, too!

It’s a substantive plan that will make the arts an integral part of Johnson County’s future economic development, and we’re ready to begin. Next year, for example, we’ll be building on the growing interest in public art in the County by hosting a conference on public art, asking how both arts interests and public interests can come together to create a world-class public art collection. We’ll be exploring the feasibility of a new regional or national arts event in the County. We’ll be expanding our flagship Shooting Stars program that recognizes outstanding high school seniors in the arts. And, perhaps most important, we’ll be exploring many new private and public funding mechanisms to support the strategies in this plan. A plan that improves everything from home values to business opportunities requires nothing less.

We understand the scope of this plan is beyond any one organization. However, in the months and years ahead we will be continuing the conversations we began last January. We will work with others through public processes, building new relationships, more leaders and a stronger commitment to the arts. Leadership is not easy, but the more inclusive and broad-based it becomes the easier it is.

> The Arts Business Plan (52 K PDF)
> Arts Business Plan Committee Members and 2006 ACJC Board of Directors