The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is spearheading the County’s first comprehensive cultural planning initiative in over two decades, which includes a public community survey that will directly influence how AHCMC and the County prioritize and invest in creative and cultural expression. AHCMC is thrilled to announce the Cultural Plan Community Survey is now live and accepting submissions in seven languages: English, Amharic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, French, and Korean. Residents are invited to lend their voices, share their experiences, and help shape the future of arts and culture in Montgomery County by taking the survey! All survey participants will be entered to win $100.
“This is not just a cultural plan, it is a collective act of imagination,” says Suzan Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. “We’re inviting every resident to help shape a future where arts, culture, and creativity are not only accessible, but essential to belonging, resilience, and civic life in Montgomery County.”
Launching the Planning Process
The Cultural Plan initiative, led by nationally renowned Metris Arts Consulting, officially launched in October 2024 at Strathmore, setting the tone for a community-centered approach to the planning process. Keynote speaker Roberto Bedoya, former Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland, CA, shared insights from Oakland’s groundbreaking cultural plan, Belonging in Oakland: A Cultural Development Plan, emphasizing its focus on equity, community cohesion, and belonging.
During the launch, Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, founder of Metris Arts Consulting, co-author of Creative Placemaking, a white paper for the National endowment for the Arts’, and a lead for the planning process, discussed the importance of developing a cultural plan for the health and future of Montgomery County’s Creative Sector. Nicodemus emphasized how this plan would prioritize community engagement and resident needs to foster a sense of inclusion for all county residents. She then outlined AHCMC’s values and priorities for the plan, which were identified through two years of preparatory work, including a cultural asset mapping project, reflective conversations on arts and culture, and the Setting the Stage synthesis. Our goals include broadening our understanding of arts and culture, expanding the intersectionality of arts and culture with county government, advancing racial equity, increasing access to creative and cultural experiences, and addressing ongoing stability and capacity challenges stemming from the pandemic.
“We’re turning the traditional planning model on its head by starting with community voices and lived experiences,” says Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, founder of Metris Arts Consulting. “Montgomery County residents know what their communities need to thrive culturally. This community-first approach allows us to leverage arts and culture as catalysts to address the county’s most pressing needs, from building more inclusive neighborhoods to strengthening economic development and deepening civic engagement.”
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Photos by Sed Gary, Dream Story Productions
Innovative Engagement Puts Residents in Driver’s Seat
Instead of relying solely on conventional methods of gathering community input, AHCMC and Metris Arts Consulting implemented creative engagement strategies designed to meet residents where they are, offering a variety of ways for community members to participate in the planning process.
In March 2025, AHCMC partnered with Councilmember Natali Fani-Gonzalez to host a Youth Town Hall, to gain insights into the specific interests, needs, and ideas of young residents. Middle and high school students earned community service hours while learning about cultural planning and providing their input on pressing issues facing their communities. Through creative activities and guided group discussions, they shared how art, culture, and creative expression might provide solutions to these challenges.
“Young people see solutions that adults cannot because they’re not constrained by the way things have always been done,” says Councilmember Natali Fani-González. “The Youth Town Hall was more than an exercise in gathering input, it was about building the next generation of civic leaders. When we give students a seat at the table and show them that arts and culture are tools for community change, they can become invested in shaping their own neighborhoods and futures through incredibly creative ideas.”
Another innovative element of the planning process is the Cultural Preserves Pop-Ups, an imaginative community engagement project created and led by local artist Holly Bass.
These pop-ups appeared at festivals and community events across all seven council districts, inviting residents to document and respond to thoughtful questions, such as “What makes this community home?” on rice paper “preserved” in mason jars.
“When someone writes ‘my weekly sewing group’ or ‘the smell of injera baking’ or ‘Saturday morning at the farmers market’ on rice paper, they’re not just answering a question. They’re preserving memories and telling us how they connect to their communities” says local artist Holly Bass. “These responses show that home isn’t just an address; it’s the small, everyday moments that make us feel like we belong somewhere.”
The Cultural Preserve Pop-Ups appeared at high-traffic events, including MoComCon 2025, the VisArts Rockville Arts Festival, Taste of Wheaton, the Sandy Spring Museum Strawberry Festival, the Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival, SummerFest in Gaithersburg, and others ensuring broad geographic and demographic representation.
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Left: Cultural Preserves Pop-Up
Right: Youth Town Hall
Photos by Sed Gary, Dream Story Productions
Meeting Communities Where They Are
Understanding that traditional engagement methods can exclude marginalized voices, AHCMC and Metris Arts Consulting implemented Community Conversations, a program that empowers community leaders to host their own cultural planning conversations in comfortable spaces with familiar faces. Hosts are trained to facilitate and discuss important topics, focusing on issues such as creating a community where everyone belongs and utilizing art, culture, and humanities to help address community challenges. Community hosts are paid to host and record the conversation within their community. This approach is specifically designed to engage high-priority stakeholder groups that might be missed through conventional outreach methods.
Additionally, focus groups bring together core cultural sector stakeholders – artists, cultural practitioners, arts educators, nonprofit organizations of various sizes, and creative businesses – to discuss their experiences, needs, and how their work intersects with the work of the County. AHCMC has increased awareness of the cultural planning process by presenting to several groups and boards throughout the county including urban partnership boards, arts and entertainment district boards, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery County Planning, Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, all the Office of Community Partnership Advisory Committees, nonprofit arts and humanities organization boards, and others.
Community Survey Now Live
The Cultural Plan Community Survey invites individual voices to join the broader community conversation and planning process already underway. The survey questions are designed to capture diverse perspectives from residents across the county regarding their priorities for local arts, culture, and heritage. Survey participants are eligible to win $100, and their responses will directly inform funding and policy recommendations, facility development, use of public spaces for cultural programming, and more.
The survey remains open at creativemoco.com/cultural-plan/, with updates and additional information about the other engagement opportunities available on the same website. Completing the survey is the easiest way to ensure every voice is heard and every individual and community has a seat at the table.
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Left: Diverse Voices Event Series at Glen Echo Park. Photo by Eddie Arrossi
Right: Women Who Gallery Chat hosted by Dr. Sharon Minor King at Odd Fellows Hall
Looking Ahead: A New 10-Year Cultural Plan
The new Cultural Plan will serve as a framework to identify priorities, guide investments, and inform policies concerning local arts and culture in Montgomery County. It will help guide how the County supports arts and humanities practitioners, organizations, and cultural institutions county-wide. It will also help the County create a community where everyone belongs and can lead culturally rich lives.
Metris Arts Consulting will continue community engagement activities throughout 2025 and present a draft of the plan for adoption in February 2026 to the Montgomery County Council, Montgomery County Planning, M-NCPPC, and AHCMC’s board. The finalized plan will work in conjunction with Thrive Montgomery 2050, Montgomery County’s thirty-year general plan.
For more information, please visit: https://www.creativemoco.com/cultural-plan/
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About the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County
Established in 1976, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is the county’s designated local arts agency. Our vision is to provide leadership that sustains arts and humanities organizations, artists, and scholars and inspires participation in Montgomery County’s rich cultural assets. The Public Arts Trust is AHCMC’s central program for managing, commissioning and conserving all public art on County-owned property, as well as supporting other public art projects throughout Montgomery County. Today, the County’s public art collection includes 258 outdoor sculptures and murals as well as more than 500 works on paper. For more information about AHCMC, visit www.creativemoco.com or connect with AHCMC on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About Metris Arts Consulting
Metris Arts Consulting’s mission is to improve and measure cultural vitality. We believe in the power of culture to enrich people’s lives, help communities thrive, empower communities, and cultivate belonging. Our clients span the country and globe. They include government agencies, community and arts nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, and developers. We help them equitably advance cultural vitality (planning), fill knowledge gaps so that they can effectively incorporate arts and culture into their work (program development), and understand the difference their efforts make, why, and how (evaluation). We use a range of research and communication skills to advance understanding (research for field building). Our work in the realm of creative placemaking launched our practice. In our sixteen years in operation, we’ve grown and diversified our services. Our team’s experience spans government, municipal arts, nonprofit arts administration, research, evaluation, and planning.