Press Room

Press Release
July 10, 2007

Public Forum

We offer you an opportunity to participate in the process to review the eight months of cultural planning and its documentation before generating the final plan. Please join the Tucson Pima Arts Council & Cultural Planning consultant Bill Bulick to review the DRAFT Pima Cultural Plan.

Pima Cultural Plan DRAFT Review
Date: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Time: 4:30 to 7:30pm
Location: 101 N. Stone Ave, Main Library, Lower Level
Agenda: Forum Agenda
DRAFT: Pima Cultural Plan DRAFT.pdf (630kb)

The Pima Cultural Plan process kicked off in October, 2006 with a goal to involve as many residents, stakeholders and leaders as possible in developing the plan. This was done by offering a diverse array of “ports of entry”, including community meetings, interviews, task forces, web surveys and media coverage has allowed the Pima Cultural Planning to be an open civic process.

The Pima Cultural Plan presents a “big picture” overview of a vast landscape of cultural resources, challenges, opportunities and strategies. The purpose of the Plan is to describe Pima County’s cultural assets, identify why they are important and what must be done in order to fully realize their potential contribution to the cultural vitality, livability and economy of the region. The Plan reflects a strong commitment to integrated cultural planning and development with other community building efforts such as the Southern Arizona Leadership Councils’ Town Hall, TREO and Rio Nuevo.

This plan provides strategies to preserve, enhance and strengthen Pima County’s cultural assets and integrate them more thoroughly into overall community and economic development.

“The Pima Cultural Plan is a blueprint for action that foregrounds our region’s cultural assets and established strategies that will advance the ways we work and fit together -  as a cultural community, a civic community, a community invested in being responsible stewards to the ways of imagination. It will strengthen our vitality and enliven Tucson and Pima County as a rich and distinctive cultural hub.”
-- Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director, Tucson Pima Arts Council

Preliminary goals of the Pima Cultural Plan include:

• Southern Arizona's unique arts, culture, nature and heritage resources are strengthened, enhancing sense of place
• Resources identified to assure a sustainable creative industry/cultural economy.
• Creative people are attracted to stay in and/or move to Tucson, Pima County and can find meaningful jobs.
• The Culture, Nature and Heritage sector is fully integrated into the economic development agenda.
• The Culture, Nature and Heritage sector is recognized as vital to the future of the region's prosperity.
• Nurturing creativity, protecting and passing on traditions, preserving the community's heritage and protecting and conserving the environment are values that are fully integrated into all segments of Tucson, Pima County’s development and strategic planning.
• A sustainable local culture, nature and heritage business development plan is in place and resources identified to implement it.
• The creative economy is strengthened through the generation of new jobs, new markets & audiences.
• A cultural tourism plan is developed and culture, nature and heritage tourism is stimulated.

Primary contributors include: Mt. Auburn Associates; Dr. Maribel Alvarez of the U of A Southwest Center; Annabelle Nunez; a Cultural Plan Leadership Coalition comprised of City and County elected officials and major cultural stakeholders; the Nature Arts Culture and Heritage Organizations, The Tucson Pima Arts Council and Task Force participants representing civically engaged arts, nature, heritage and cultural professionals, community members and artists.

The Tucson Pima Arts Council, City of Tucson, Pima County and the Nature Arts Culture and Heritage Organizations support civic review of the Pima Cultural Plan Draft Document.

For more information questions or concerns contact:

Leia Maahs
Community Arts Development Coordinator
Tucson Pima Arts Council
(520) 624-0595 x19
lmaahs@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org