The Arizona Commission on the Arts, an agency of the State of Arizona, is officially launching Next50, a statewide planning initiative designed to empower communities to activate creative assets and co-create ideas to fuel Arizona’s next 50 years.
Coinciding with the state agency’s 50th anniversary, the Next50 initiative will comprise a range of activities in service to Arizonans, including focused research, meaningful community collaborations, targeted grantmaking, professional development, and inventive cross-sector partnerships.
In a letter posted today to the Arizona Commission on the Arts website and addressed to Arizona’s residents, the Arts Commission’s leadership team emphasized the central role Arizonans will play in Next50.
“This planning initiative and its programs focus on listening to your stories, your triumphs and aspirations; learning about your unique talents and your community’s challenges and opportunities; and leveraging – lending our creative and collaborative skills to help Arizonans, and Arizona communities, achieve their most significant goals.”
“We believe Arizonans possess boundless creative potential. We think creativity should join other valuable resources on Arizona’s 21st-century list of ‘5 Cs.’ We know that creativity thrives here, and that together we can put that creativity to work in support of Arizona’s most prosperous future.”
Alongside the initiative announcement, the Arts Commission launched the first public component of the initiative, Next50: Creative Spark, a crowdsourcing experiment inviting Arizona residents to submit original images, poems, testimonials, audio or video clips representing the power of creativity in their own lives and communities.
“Arizonans’ stories, talent, and dreams drive the Next50 initiative. We want to learn from and with you. Your creative spark submissions help us to better understand your perspectives and aspirations, and consider changes to our service in response,” stated Jaime Dempsey, Deputy Director of the Arts Commission.
Original submissions can be shared via an online form at www.azarts.gov/next50/creative-spark or mailed to the Arts Commission’s office at 417 West Roosevelt Street, Phoenix, AZ 85003, and may be featured on the Next50 website and in a variety of program materials.
“Your creative spark could be a photo of your grandma’s upright bass, an audio recording of your church choir, or a video clip of your son’s dance squad performing at school,” suggests Dempsey. “One person’s creative spark might be an original haiku while another’s might be found in our wondrous Arizona landscape, perhaps in the calm after a monsoon storm. We can’t wait to discover what inspires you.”
For more information, visit www.azarts.gov/next50 or contact Steve Wilcox at (602) 771-6536 or [email protected].
