Madison Cultural Plan 2011 - City of Madison, Wisconsin

Madison’s
creative sector
lacks connective
tissue. It’s just too
hard to get
plugged in.
III. Findings
III.A. Connectivity
Madison’s burgeoning creative sector lacks connective tissue. It’s just too hard to
get plugged in, whether one is a member of that sector or a consumer looking to
interact with it. Individuals from all corners of the creative community emphasized
this problem and itemized the costs of disconnection. Examples include:
• Limited experience with, and unsatisfied hunger, for mechanisms through
which to plan and implement collaborative programming;
• Great variability in connectivity among individual artists, historians, and scientists
practicing in the various disciplines with concomitant isolation for many;
• Lack of cohesiveness among arts and cultural workers, leaders, donors, and
institutions;
• Reduced ability to effectively engage the public in the creative conversation,
especially with regard to children, communities of color, and impoverished
residents;
• Minimal penetration of arts and cultural education and outreach activities into
the broader community;
• Inability to harness the creative community as a major resource in advancing
civic discourse and the identification of innovative solutions or directions;
• Inability to conceptualize, design, and execute community-wide arts and
cultural collaborations at a scale consistent with Madison’s size and energy;
• Wasted efforts and duplicated costs spent searching for fundamental information;
Madison Cultural Plan Findings
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