The vibration was upbeat, the energy high, the ideation rapid fire! The Cultural Arts Alliance of York County meeting four weeks ago held at the Eichelberger Performing Arts Center was expressly aimed at local artists to share their thoughts about cultural programming in Hanover. The open forum was part of the seven month planning process to create a Community Cultural Plan for York County.
Diane Mataraza, former Deputy Chief of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and executive director of the Grammy Foundation, facilitated the meeting. Musicians, actors, conductors, directors, writers, singers, artists, and dancers offered ideas for initiating or sustaining or strengthening programs.
Participants discussed positive points and drawbacks about working in Hanover and York County. They commented upon possible ways that the arts could be made more accessible and that information on the arts could be disseminated more readily. Also proposed were wish lists for combining programs, having a community calendar available online, and advertising of events and programs.
The Alliance is also compiling a database of artists to be made available to the community to ensure organizers of programs a vehicle to get in touch with local artists. Artists can use the database to contact people in their respective field in order to network.
According to a September press release, “in order to hear from every sector in York County, Mataraza is planning meetings with as many groups and individuals as possible. She has already met with more than 200 people in York and hopes to reach more than a thousand, either in person or with surveys.” Let us not be passive or apathetic when it concerns our community. Remember that poet Robert Frost once quipped with caution, “The world is filled with willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”
Mataraza intends that the Alliance’s plan be informed by as many people who have a stake in seeing that the arts play a central role in the development of our community. To that end she is meeting with as many people as possible and asking them to complete an artists’ survey before December 31. Also the general community will be asked to complete a survey in January. It will be available on the Cultural Alliance’s web site <www.culturalalliance-york.org>, as is other Community Cultural Planning information.
It might be helpful to recall cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead’s words “Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Hanover has a unique opportunity to speak and have our words be put into action.
The Cultural Alliance is a united arts fundraising organization that has raised nearly $8.5 million in cash and in-kind donations in the past nine campaigns. This coming year marks their 10th anniversary. The mission of the Cultural Alliance of York County is to improve the quality of life in York County by: leading an arts and culture plan in collaboration with others that transforms our community; raising increasing funds for arts and culture; making arts and culture an essential part of life; and, strengthening our members.
It seems that the Alliance is taking a big step in providing an opportunity for each of us to heed the words of former President Jimmy Carter whose guiding credo is: “my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.” Add to Carter’s wisdom one-time chaplain for the U.S. Senate Edward Everett Hale’s call to action, "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
The formula for success seems to involve some of the easiest things to do but never making the time to do them. Let’s keep the arts alive and thriving in York County! Fill out a survey and do our future a favor!