CITY OF AKRON MAYOR HORRIGAN

In Akron, we have a distinct cultural richness that is derived from our world-class arts and culture community. The diversity of our city is brought to life, across all our neighborhoods, by both established and emerging institutions and artists. And Akron is in a tremendous stage of development, filled with makers and entrepreneurs looking to make this a stronger more equitable place now and into the future. Investing in our people means investing in the creative and resilient spirit that sets Akron apart.

Art isn’t just ‘a good thing if you can get it’—its essential fuel for a diverse, vibrant and engaged citizenry. We cannot simply invest in the arts when times are good, and resources are plentiful. Just like healthy public spaces, access to arts and culture is a fundamental right for those living in an equitable and free society. To forget art would be to forget ourselves.

The task of the Akron Cultural Plan was to understand our arts and culture landscape from those who know it best, the community members who live, work, and create in Akron. This Plan reflects the diversity and exceptionality of Akron. It takes stock of our current robust cultural assets and addresses how we can best ensure that the arts, culture, and environment we have here serve and benefit everyone.

Thanks to the incredible work of the Akron Cultural Plan team, Akron will not forget the arts. We now have an actionable plan to strengthen and elevate arts, culture, and environment for all Akronites, funded in a responsible way, leveraging private investments already happening in our community.

I want to thank the hundreds of people who took the time to infuse their vision and wisdom into this Plan. You have left your mark on our community, and we could not have done this without you. We hear you, and we’re working tirelessly to continue to make this place that you call home even stronger and more vibrant in the years to come. We will be accountable to the values and vision we have developed together.

Mayor Daniel Horrigan
City of Akron

GAR FOUNDATION

A commitment to arts and culture is part of our DNA at GAR Foundation; 60 years ago, there was no more passionate supporter of the arts in our community than our co-founder Ruth Roush. Today we proudly convey that commitment in our mission: to help Akron become smarter, stronger, and more vibrant. We value arts and culture for its ability to make this place more distinctive, special, and lovable. Even more importantly, we value it as a means for connecting us one to another, enabling a deeper understanding of our individual and collective human experience.

Greater Akron punches well above its weight in offering a breadth and diversity of arts and culture experiences. You don’t have to go far to find incredible live music, innovative dance, world-class visual arts, path-breaking theater, independent film, richly preserved historic venues, and amazing experiences in nature. The only thing we haven’t had is a comprehensive cultural plan that helps us understand our strengths, identify our needs, and appropriately steward our arts and culture assets for generations to come.

GAR Foundation is proud to partner with other key civic leaders to invest in this plan. We believe the plan is an investment that will protect and leverage all of our community’s collective arts and culture investments over a generation. Most importantly, we believe this plan captures the voices and values of those who live in, work in, and love this community. Our local arts convener ArtsNow has worked tirelessly to ensure that our cultural plan is the voice of Greater Akron.

The cultural plan will tell GAR Foundation what arts and cultural experiences are relevant to our community. It will help us to shape strategies that respond to community priorities. It will help us understand where we are weak and need further investment or different approaches. In short, the cultural plan will make us better — better informed, better connected to the needs and priorities that animate our community.

The plan that follows will tell you what we learned from this deep engagement with community. We hope that you will read the report and engage with us - with foundations, arts organizations, individual artists, community leaders, and fellow lovers of arts and culture everywhere throughout the community - as we build upon our collective history and develop an even brighter arts and culture future.

Christine Amer Mayer
President, GAR Foundation

KNIGHT FOUNDATION

Dear Akronites:

2020 marks Knight Foundation’s 70th anniversary—70 years of building informed and engaged communities, because we believe they form the basis of a strong democracy. It all started in Akron, home of the Knight Brothers.  Indeed, one of the first Foundation grants was made by Jack and Jim’s mother, Clara, to Tuesday Musical Association. That gift launched a long history of investments in the arts here and across other communities where the brothers published newspapers.  It seemed fitting to commemorate that rich legacy by supporting the creation of this 2020 Akron Cultural Plan. 

In 2014, Knight partnered with GAR Foundation to support an Arts and Culture Assessment for Summit County. That study took stock of the state of arts and culture and included high-level recommendations for future direction. Five years on and—for us—four Knight Arts Challenges and several million dollars of investment later, the time was ripe for a fresh look at Akron’s cultural life and a community-wide conversation about the future of the arts. That’s why we were pleased to partner once again with our long-time collaborator GAR Foundation to support the development of this community cultural plan, facilitated by ArtsNow with the consulting team of Designing Local, and generated and shaped by you.

For us, the process is as important as the product. It has been a privilege to witness and participate in community discussions prompted by this planning process. We hope these conversations continue and that the relationships strengthened through this experience continue to flourish.  Why, because it’s these relationships, the ongoing commitment and accountability to ourselves and to each other, that will be crucial to the successful implementation of this plan and the assurance that communities throughout Akron reap the benefits. 

As for the plan itself, its priorities mirror many of our own — a focus on authenticity, equity and inclusion, developing individual talent and organizations, and supporting transformation through audience engagement.  We look forward to working with you to activate this plan over the coming years.

With optimism,

Victoria Rogers
Vice President, Knight Foundation