Phoenix Unveils Strategic Plan to Enhance Arts and Culture Landscape by 2028

In 2024, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture (POAC) unveiled a comprehensive strategic work plan to guide its operations from 2025 through 2028. This plan introduces a new mission, vision, purpose statement, and six strategic goals aimed at enhancing the city's arts and culture landscape.

Mission, Vision, and Purpose:

  • Purpose: To enhance Phoenix residents' and visitors' quality of life through meaningful arts, cultural, and educational experiences.

  • Vision: Phoenix's arts, culture, and educational sector is vibrant, sustained, diverse, and connected to the communities it serves.

  • Mission: The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture supports, champions, and promotes the City's arts, culture, and educational community, making Phoenix a great place to live, work, and visit.

Strategic Goals:

  1. Increase Resources and Infrastructure: Assume greater leadership as an advocate for Phoenix’s arts and culture sector.

  2. Lead with Equity: Identify and eliminate barriers preventing marginalized groups from fully participating in programs and engage underserved communities.

  3. Strengthen Communications: Enhance ongoing communications and increase opportunities for networking, information sharing, convening, and professional development.

  4. Position Phoenix as an Arts Destination: Promote economic development and uplift neighborhood and cultural identity.

  5. Advance Departmental Capacity: Collaborate and model best practices to ensure stable and effective management.

  6. Ensure Success Amid Expansion: Support the department as it adds new programs, facilities, projects, and staff.

Development Process:

The strategic work plan was developed in collaboration with Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Their comprehensive assessment involved nearly 100 stakeholder interviews, including agency staff, commission members, city leadership, cultural institution leaders, grantees, local artists, and community members. The assessment highlighted the department's strengths, such as capable leadership and dedicated staff, while also identifying areas for improvement, including the need for increased arts funding and enhanced advocacy efforts.

Key Findings from the Assessment:

  • Strengths:

  • Capable leadership and dedicated staff offering crucial support during vulnerable times.

  • Areas for Improvement:

  • Insufficient monetary support for the arts outside public art funding.

  • Need for a comprehensive strategy for long-term support.
  • Strengthening advocacy efforts to secure more arts funding.
  • Enhancing communication, professional development, and convening opportunities.
  • Addressing the need for cultural infrastructure like performance, rehearsal, and studio spaces.
  • Emphasizing equity in agency programs and public art ordinances.
  • Improving internal and external promotion and recognition of the agency's work.

Recommendations by Bloomberg Associates:

  1. Achievable Projects: Focus on consensus projects achievable in the next 18-36 months, such as sustaining professional development programs, organizing quarterly convenings of grantees, and enhancing communication with the field.

  2. Collaborative Projects: Identify projects suitable for interagency and public-private collaboration to advance shared goals.

  3. Long-Term Aspirations: Define signature aspirations for longer-term planning and investment in areas like infrastructure, funding, programming, and workforce development.

Implementation and Future Planning:

Following the assessment, POAC staff held multiple retreats to discuss the findings and created a work plan to meet the agency's objectives for the next 18-36 months. The department is at a pivotal point, especially as relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic are set to be expended by December 2024. The agency's annual grants program for nonprofit cultural organizations will revert to pre-pandemic levels, and the department will need to rely on the City's general and Capital Improvement Program (CIP) funds to support ongoing and new work. Additionally, the department is taking on the management and operations of the City’s Youth and Education Office, the City’s Archaeology Office, the S’edav Va’aki Museum and Archaeology Center, and five new cultural facilities from the Parks and Recreation Department.

Social and Societal Implications:

The adoption of this strategic plan signifies a concerted effort to enhance the cultural landscape of Phoenix, aiming to make arts and culture more accessible and equitable. By focusing on increasing resources, leading with equity, and positioning Phoenix as an arts destination, the plan has the potential to stimulate economic development, foster community engagement, and strengthen the city's identity.

Background on POAC:

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture is the designated local arts agency for the City of Phoenix. Established to champion, promote, and sustain the city's arts and culture community, the department manages the city's public art program, administers grants, oversees cultural facilities, and offers programs, resources, and research to demonstrate the economic, social, practical, and educational benefits of the arts. The department's annual budget is around $6 million, with a five-year CIP budget of over $20 million.

This comprehensive strategic plan marks a significant step in Phoenix's commitment to fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable arts and culture environment for its residents and visitors.

Tags: #phoenix, #arts, #culture, #strategicplan, #bloombergassociates

📚 Read more in Arts & Culture