Next Steps

It's been many months since I posted about the cultural planning process. I apologize for my absence, but I've been so busy writing content for our local papers and managing the process itself that it's been very difficult to keep up another form of communication! But it has been an amazing few months, and we are thrilled with our process so far.

During three weeks of September and October, we held six "town hall" planning meetings, designed to get public feedback and hear from the community at large. The meetings were very well attended, with artists, business owners, local governmental representatives, educators, arts administrators, community members, and more. The greatest and most gratifying thing I learned from these meetings was the love of place that folks who live in Napa County share. Everyone who spoke about their city or town did so with love and passion and it's a beautiful thing to witness.

I'm torn between suggesting that six meetings in two and a half weeks is not advisable, and saying that the momentum it builds is worth numerous new gray hairs. Regardless, it was an inspiring process. Detailed meeting notes, as well as summaries and evaulations can be found at www.artscouncilnapavalley.org/cp/minutes.shtml. Whether or not you attended these meetings, this site provides some compelling reading and I suggest that everyone who also loves this place read up on their neighbors' thoughts.

What's next? Well, after ten months of data collection and discovery, it's time to start crafting the plan. The first meeting of our Strategy Team is in the beginning of November. It is that Team's charge to analyze all of our data, pull out the common themes and threads, and begin to draft the plan itself. We've been able to put together an amazing A-Team of passionate thinkers and I'm very excited to see where all of this leads.

At ACNV, we are also in the midst of finalizing the Napa County Arts & Culture Commission, as well as continuing our work on creating a percent for art program for the City of Napa, so our work continues as the planning rolls along.

More soon...