Regional arts plan launched

The region was awarded $35 million through a state initiative in 2024.

A branch of that initiative was added to support arts and culture throughout the state.

Forge ECI publicly launched its Regional Arts & Culture Plan last week after unveiling it to those who had been part of the planning process early this month.

The planning process was funded through a grant as part of Lilly Endowment’s $250 million initiative that focuses on blight elimination, redevelopment of vacant properties and public arts/cultural projects that was announced in 2024 alongside the Regional Acceleration and Economic Development Initiative (READI) 2.0. It is intended to provide a roadmap for expanding arts and culture in the region and is a step toward potentially earning additional grant funding for projects through the Lilly initiative.

The plan highlights arts and cultural assets across the region — Jay County’s list includes Arts Place, Redkey Blacksmiths and Jay County Historical Museum, among many others — and lays out big ideas, priorities, goals and steps toward implementation.

“East Central Indiana has always been a place where people create — where innovation, craftsmanship, and creativity are part of who we are,” said Caitlin Hancock, president and CEO of Forge ECI, in a press release. (Forge ECI is leading the regional initiative for READI 2.0 and related programs.) “We Make Things Here is more than a tagline; it’s a reflection of our past and a commitment to our future. This plan gives our communities the tools to invest in arts and culture not as amenities, but as essential drivers of economic vitality, talent attraction, and community pride. It’s a roadmap for the next decade, built by the people who call this region home.” 

The full plan, and a shorter executive summary, are available at grow.forgeeci.com.

The process

Forge ECI worked with Sara Peterson Consulting of Bloomington to develop the plan, including visits to all of the counties — Jay, Randolph, Blackford, Delaware, Fayette, Grant, Henry and Wayne — in the region.

Those involved in the arts, economic development, education, health care and a variety of other areas were invited to be a part of the process and develop strategies for how they can move forward together. Outreach included eight community sessions, 18 focus groups, more than 50 interviews and two public surveys.

Jay County was well-represented in the process, accounting for 14% of the participants despite having just 5% of the region’s population.

Peterson and fellow consultant Paige Sharp used feedback from across the region as well as their own research to develop the plan.

“At Arts Place, we’re excited about what it means,” said Carolyn Carducci, executive director of Arts Place, this week. “Obviously, working together as a region brings people in to all of the areas. I think for Arts Place being in rural communities, that’s important. … It’s important that we work together because we’re all in it for the love of the arts and we all want to share the arts together.”

The big ideas

The plan — it spans nearly 150 pages — lays out three big ideas:

•Amplifying communities with cultural districts

•Development of a shared regional marketing strategy

•Partnering across regions to develop an “Indiana Music Corridor”

The cultural districts would be unique to each community but connected to provide a framework for downtown revitalization across the region.

“Every county in the region has at least one city that has either a plan to create part of its downtown into a cultural district, has done work in that direction or has a base of assets that it could use to start moving in that direction,” said Peterson.

For marketing, the plan pushes for creating a regional brand based on arts and culture icons, industries that drove growth (gas and glass, for example) and unique attractions.

Peterson noted the deep music history of Richmond — it involves Starr Piano Company and Gennett Records, which recorded jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong — and other areas that could be used to showcase the region.

Beyond the big

The plan goes beyond the big ideas, with priorities of placemaking, creating connection and opportunity, and expanding leadership and collaboration.

Goals toward reaching those priorities include:

•Activating downtowns by creating walkable environments, activating public art and programming year-round, and restoring downtown assets

•Connecting communities through celebration of cultural heritage 

•Generating business opportunities by growing creative capacity

•Mobilizing, collaborating and communicating through county and regional networks

•Building a strategy and securing sustainable funding

A key, Peterson said, will be involving arts and culture throughout economic and community development processes.

“How can we put those policies in place at a local level that make sure that arts and culture don’t come in to make things pretty at the end but are partners along the way?” she asked during the presentation.

Jay County

In addition to the overarching ideas, goals and priorities, the plan also features information from each county.

“That’s included in there for a couple of reasons,” said Peterson. “One is to make sure that as you’re looking at this you’re able to say, ‘Yeah, I see where we fit in this larger plan. It’s not just about another part of the region. It’s about us too.’

“And more importantly, it should be a starting point for taking the larger plan and adapting it for local needs.”

Assets highlighted include Dunkirk’s identity as the Glass Capital of Indiana, Arts Place as an arts leader alongside Jay County Civic Theatre and Harmony Players, and informal and non-traditional arts activities. It notes the importance of festivals, including the Jay County Fiber Arts Festival, Glass Days and the National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture Powwow.

Jay and Blackford counties already have 10-year Art and Culture Master Plans in place, developed through Arts Place via a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant. (Peterson said the goal is that other counties will develop similar plans to work in partnership with the regional plan.) Goals in that plan include downtown placemaking, building  opportunities for art-related businesses, youth engagement, strengthening existing events and initiatives and sustaining programs through collaboration, leadership and long-term funding.

“‘Advancing creative economy embedded in local history, heritage and people’ emerged as a guidepost early in the engagement process revealing a core strength of drive and ambition continuously emphasized through ongoing input,” the plan says.

What’s next?

The first steps toward implementing that plan focus on communication locally and throughout the region. It encourages arts organizations, creatives and leaders at the community and county level to meet together and engage with others such as community foundations, tourism groups, the chamber of commerce and Main Street organizations. 

Arts Place and Purdue Extension are already in place to lead the plan specific to Jay and Blackford counties, as was recommended through their planning process. The organizations will pull in other key individuals and organizations to discuss implementation, with those efforts logically flowing into the regional framework as well.

Forge ECI will work to support the implementation across the region.

“We’re really excited to have this launched,” Hancock said during the presentation. “I think next year will be an exciting year to really start to implement some of these things and as the regional organization starts to look at how we can continue to promote the arts in east central Indiana.”

Miah Michaelsen, director of Indiana Arts Commission, noted that there will be $65 million in grant funding provided through the Lilly Endowment available for arts and culture projects throughout the state beginning in 2026. She encouraged interested parties to be thinking about initiatives that would make sense for funding with an eye on advancing goals and strategies in the plan and a focus on sustainability.

Ultimately, she said, success will come down to the individuals in each community who take action.

“You are the people you have been waiting for as it relates to implementation,” Michaelsen said. “This plan, regardless of whatever region in the state I’m talking to, is entirely incumbent on the folks in the region to make this come to pass. … It’s the passion and the energy and the commitment of the region and the folks within it and the organizations within it and the creatives within it and the others within it to make a plan come to life.”