TPAC Faces New Challenges

Pasting the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s (TPAC) most recent email news update.

TPAC STRATEGIC PLANNING REQUEST: PLEASE RESPOND TO OUR SURVEY BY JANUARY 26

Shelley Cohn has been contracted to work with TPAC on its strategic planning process. As the former director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, she has a long history of working with the arts community in Tucson.

These are definitely challenging times for the arts, particularly knowing that the TPAC budget for the next 18 months has been substantially reduced. The budget changes are so deep, they will profoundly affect the way that TPAC connects and supports the community.

The board and staff are revisioning the organization in light of these changes. Please recognize that these budget changes will change the face of the organization in drastic ways. Please help us identify what programs and services you value most.

Please take about ten minutes to respond to the online survey so that the TPAC board and staff have a deeper understanding of what programs and services you use and what services you value. Your guidance will instruct TPAC as they move forward with the most challenging strategic and programmatic decisions it has ever had to make.

In this brief survey, be sure to rank BOTH what programs you use and what programs you value.

TO RESPOND TO THE SURVEY, GO TO THIS LINK: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZG8KG3Q

If you have any questions contact 520-624-0595 ext 18 or email reuben@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

2010 GRANTS FORUM: The Future of Grantmaking for the Tucson Pima Arts Council

Thursday, January 28
4–8pm
The Rogue Theatre in the Historic Y Building
300 E. University Blvd. (Just west of 4th Avenue)
Please RSVP to reuben@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

On January 12, 2009, Tucson’s City Manager, Mike Letcher, recommended a 60% reduction in the City’s allocation to outside agencies to the Mayor and Council for the remainder of FY2009/2010. The City of Tucson, like all other municipalities across the state, is experiencing tremendous budget challenges and this is affecting staffing, programs, and services at all levels. This measure was approved by the City Council and the impact on TPAC’s resources is a loss of approximately $150,000 for the remainder FY09/10 with the certainty of further reductions in funding in the coming year(s). In order to address the challenges and opportunities of these changes in our allocation, TPAC is developing new strategies to refocus our vision for the future.

We cannot do this without your guidance ….

Please join us and your fellow grantees in revisioning the future of this program. As stakeholders in this process, we encourage all grantees* to contribute to this discussion. Recommendations taken from this process will provide direction for this program in the immediate future and in the coming years. A vision for the course of this program can only be crafted with your participation in this process. Facilitation will be lead by consultants Vicky Stromee and Elizabeth Burden.

*I think any interested parties and individual artists should be present at this forum.