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Creative
Montgomery:
A Vision for the Arts and Humanities in Montgomery County, MD May 2001 Prepared
by for Arts
and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Foreword April 2001 Dear Members of the Arts and Humanities Council: Jerry Allen and Associates is pleased to transmit “Creative Montgomery: A Vision for the Arts and Humanities in Montgomery County, MD.” This plan represents the efforts of more than 200 Montgomery County citizens who worked over a period of 18 months. Creative Montgomery contains 48 specific recommendations that will shape the development of the arts and humanities in the county over the next five years. The plan explores new and increased funding sources and proposes new cultural facilities. It emphasizes positive responses to the county’s growing ethnic diversity and suggests strategies for enhancing arts education in the public school system and in the community. The plan promotes the integration of the arts and humanities in the county’s cultural life and contains new systems of support for individual artists and humanities scholars. Creative Montgomery suggests improvements in the public art program and recommends marketing and audience development efforts. It also identifies how planning for cultural facilities can be consistent with solutions to the significant transportation issues facing the county. Creative Montgomery has been shaped in all of its aspects and has benefited enormously from the many thoughtful meetings of the Cultural Plan Steering Committee. The 35 members, representing all segments of Montgomery County, transformed the cultural plan into a genuine community effort. They served as both a mirror to, and voice for, the people of the county. The result has been a high level of consensus about the cultural path ahead. The completion of this planning document and its recommendations is not an ending point, but a beginning point. Now the hard work commences. And, in a very real sense, now the fun begins, as the community witnesses the implementation of the plan recommendations. With the energy and activism the consultant team witnessed during our work in Montgomery County, we have little doubt that the plan will be fully realized in the next five years. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this process.
Sincerely,
Jerry Allen Jerry Allen and Associates
The development of this plan has been an arduous process, involving scores of meetings, hundreds of interviews with key persons in the community and the active participation of Montgomery County citizens in thoughtful and valuable ways. This plan, like all successful cultural plans, has been “written” by the community, through their input, criticism and consensus. The planning process, while always moving forward, was marred by the prolonged illness of the lead consultant. In many communities, that might have been fatal to the plan. In Montgomery County, however, the forbearance and the determination of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) kept the process moving ahead and resulted in the implementation of the recommendations as early as last spring. Two people in particular deserve recognition. Theresa Cameron, Executive Director of AHCMC, brought her vision and intelligence to the planning process. She must receive credit for the degree to which this plan zeros in on the essence of the county’s cultural needs. She brings an unmatched level of energy and commitment to this community. Fran Abrams coordinated the day-to-day aspects of the plan. It moved with seemingly effortless style. For that, she deserves all the accolades. Her hard work, her unvarying goodwill and her keen insights into the community shaped the plan in many ways. The consultant team is deeply grateful for their assistance and support. This planning process was blessed with a singularly involved and thoughtful steering committee that sculpted the plan and its process from the very beginning. Never at a loss for new ideas and reflections, these 35 citizens guaranteed that this plan would not represent the consultants’ views, but would mirror the community’s values and aspirations. Wendy Susswein and Larry Pignone, co-chairs of the Steering Committee, discharged their responsibilities with the enthusiasm and intensity needed to ensure that the process moved with the smoothness that true leadership affords.
We are deeply grateful to the members of the Steering Committee:
The other members of the consultant team made important contributions to the plan’s development. My thanks to Margie Reese, Michael Marsicano, Marete Wester, Steve Friedlander and Jim Smith for their expertise and insights. Thank you, also, to Stefan Toepler and Randy Cohen for their oversight of the two research studies that helped to support the planning process. Special thanks go to County Executive Doug Duncan and the members of the County Council. It was their foresight that made this planning process possible. Committed to the full cultural maturation of their community, they provided the resources and the impetus to plan for the future of the arts and humanities in Montgomery County. In so doing, they have advanced and accelerated the cause. In addition, our gratitude goes to the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, the Pew Charitable Trusts and Americans for the Arts whose financial underwriting helped to make the plan possible. We also thank the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies for their important participation in the preparation of the plan. Finally, the citizens of Montgomery County must be acknowledged. The consultant team has worked with many communities across the country over the past twenty years. Never have we encountered a more active and involved citizenry. We admit to being astonished that local residents would show up in numbers for community meetings to discuss topics that did not make them angry. Rather, they were simply interested and came to share their ideas. It restores our faith in participatory democracy!
Jerry Allen and Associates April 2001 |
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