VERMILLION VISIONING SESSIONS
One of the best things about living in Vermillion is how many arts organizations we have that enrich, entertain, and educate us. From dance classes to mending circles and movie nights to community theater, there’s always something to be part of or a production to attend. In fact, it can be hard to keep up!
Arts stakeholders are holding a series of visioning sessions to help us all think about the future of Verm as a town known for its arts scene and how to strategize that. The goals of this series are (1) refine what our needs are as a community, (2) identify an arts communications body or structure that can best address those needs, (3) create that body/structure.
The next meeting is Sat, Oct 14, 10am upstairs at The Bean!
Everyone who enjoys, supports, creates, or employs the arts is welcome! To keep the conversation moving forward, please consider reviewing the session summaries provided below prior to the meeting.
Arts Hub Session I
The first session was part celebration of what’s already happening in Vermillion and part exploration of ways an arts communications body (what we’re affectionately, if temporarily calling an “arts hub”) might help amplify what we do. There’s so much to love! And so much to communicate!
Click on the image to or here to view the full PDF report. This report is a harvest of ideas about opportunities participants saw for collaboration and the possibilities open to Vermillion if we created an arts hub.
Arts Hub Session II
The second session was an exploratory conversation around three main themes:
1) Definition of arts & culture / communicating purpose, relevance to community
2) Who are the beneficiaries / how do represent everyone
3)Who are the hub participants
A synopsis of the discussion around these questions can be found here or by clicking on the image to review the full PDF.
Arts Hub Session III
Lots of progress was made at this session! The group identified Arts Hub goals and objectives, created a working mission statement and logo, and resolved to create a test website as a home for an arts & culture calendar and directory of orgs.
It was also determined that the Arts Hub will continue to exist as a collective of arts org leaders and supporters who attend quarterly meetings to coordinate and collaborate. The idea to create a formalized structure (such as a city commission) has been tabled for the time being.
A synopsis of the discussion around these questions can be found here or by clicking on the image to review the full PDF.
ARTS & CULTURE LIGHTING THE WAY
Lanterns decorated with answers to “what lights you up about Vermillion?” hang in the Pocket Park, October 2022.
Over Dakota Days weekend in October 2022, the VCA hosted an art installation of nearly 300 paper lanterns in the Pocket Park downtown. It was the culmination of a summer of pop-up arts engagements led by artist Amy Fill, where folks painted the lanterns with designs that represent what “lights them up” about Vermillion. The full display created a celebration of Vermillion voices, what we love, how we live, and who we hope we can become together.
The first “Lighting the Way” Vermillion visioning session in November 2022 was an outgrowth of this hands-on community art project. It was led by Jamie Horter, a rural advocate, artist, and facilitator based out of Lyons, NE. She invited us to celebrate what we do and what we love about Verm and provided some thought-provoking questions for breakout sessions.
The lantern project and first visioning session were supported by the South Dakota Arts Council's Residencies for Recovery Grant. Residencies for Recovery aims to involve artists as creative problem solvers, able to build community bonds.