Arts Alliance turns attention to Manchester

There is hope among the Washtenaw County Arts Alliance that the Manchester community will be included in its cultural enhancement plan.
Arts Alliance members Mark Palms and Deb Greer presented some of their hopes for the cultural plan during the Manchester Village Council’s regular meeting Feb. 16.
Palms, who is the director of the Riverfolk Music & Arts Festival, said that the Alliance’s cultural plan involves enhancing aspects of the community and seeing what value cultural arts have in communities.
“Each of the smaller communities in Washtenaw County participates and develops their own individual plan,” Palms said. “Riverfolk is initiating the leadership in developing a cultural plan in Manchester. We’d want to focus on the history of Manchester and what makes it unique.”
Palms also said that the Alliance will solicit opinions from residents to determine what types of artistic venues they’d like to see, then determine which direction to take.
Greer, who runs the River Gallery in Chelsea, has spent much of the past two years polling county residents on their thoughts of cultural activities and studying ways that the arts enhances communities.
In one of her polls, Greer found that 63 percent of the people in Washtenaw County live in the county because of its access to cultural arts, and that 75 percent of county business saw a “huge positive impact” by supporting the arts.
Another study showed that there are 823 students with degrees in music from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Eighty-eight percent of those were satisfied with the county’s accessibility to the arts.
Greer’s said that findings in regards to Manchester were unique to the county.
“People in Manchester don’t want to see any change,” Greer said. “They are proud of Riverfolk and its role as a ‘Mecca for music,’ and they’re proud of their other events like the Chicken Broil.”
She also reported that about half the artists in the county say that Manchester gives them a “strong base” for their art.
The cultural plan has six strategic areas it’s focusing on. The first is to make arts and culture significant parts of K-12 education in the county. Second, the Alliance hopes to provide services that support growth of creative economic development. It also hopes to increase the visibility of the cultural sector through collective marketing, and increase both public and private funding for arts and culture.
The plan also hopes to find ways to engage diverse populations into its programs and strengthen the Arts Alliances as a whole.
Greer is hoping that Manchester takes similar steps that surrounding communities took, such as starting an arts council and continuing its support of organizations like Riverfolk.“The arts can create fellowship in communities and bring the people to one another,” Greer said. “I love Manchester, and would like to see it be active with us.”