Dayton Ballet Association, Light (EXTREME BALLET), choreographer: Gregory Robinson, dancers: Emily Gotschall, Freddie Fourie

OAC Listening Tour

The Ohio Arts Council is hitting the road again this fall to find out what Ohioans value about the arts, creativity and their communities. The OAC’s Listening Tour will travel to seven more communities in fall 2009 and early winter 2010. This is in additional to the seven communities visited in fall 2008. The goal of the tour is to discover what the arts, creativity and imagination mean to elected officials, arts professionals and citizens in large and small communities across the state.

“The Ohio Arts Council wants to hear from Ohio’s citizens in order to improve the way we serve Ohio,” said OAC Executive Director Julie Henahan. “The Listening Tour provides an outlet for Ohioans to tell us how they think the arts and creativity can be a bigger part of their community.”

The Statewide Findings from the first half of the Listening Tour last fall helped illuminate the impressive accomplishments, driving aspirations and daily struggles of communities around the state. The meetings also provided an opportunity for Ohioans to share the vital role they believe the arts, creativity and imagination play in their community as they pursue a wide range of economic development strategies to retain and attract existing and new business, especially knowledge-based industries. To view breakdowns of findings by city for the 2008 Tour please visit the Listening Tour City Pages.

A small group of staff from the OAC will lead three meetings in each town to discuss the arts, creativity and aspirations for the residents’ communities. During the morning meeting OAC staff members will meet with elected officials and business and community leaders; the afternoon meeting will be held with members artists, arts administrators, other members of the arts community and educators; and the evening town hall will bring people from all backgrounds together to discuss the arts and creativity and the role they play in community.

Information gathered from this tour will provide the agency with a better understanding of a broad range of Ohioans’ needs, including communities that have traditionally been underserved by OAC’s public funding, and assist the agency in developing the 2010-2013 Strategic Plan and the State of the Arts Report II.

The final Listening Tour will be in Cincinnati on February 10. Please click on the city name for more informaiton information and registration details. Communities visited in the fall of 2009 included Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Kent, Mansfield and Wapakoneta. The findings from these cities will be posted by February 19, 2010.

Communities visited in fall of 2008 included: East Liverpool, Youngstown, Marietta, Coshocton, Archbold, Toledo and Chillicothe.

For a list of questions for the morning meeting click here.
For a list of questions for the afternoon meeting click here.
For a list of questions for the evening meeting click here.

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The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) has adopted a new regional structure to provide support for organizational applicants to OAC funding programs. The structure is based on the Ohio Department of Development�s 12 Economic Development regions.