Lawrence Arts Center Strategic Plan

Mission Statement

The mission of the Lawrence Arts Center is to create meaningful arts experiences with and for the community through education, exhibitions, and performances.

Vision Statement

Be the multi-disciplinary hub for creative excellence in the Midwest.

Core Values

• Everyone deserves to cultivate their imagination.
• Diversity of participants, art forms, and perspectives enriches our community.
• Artists are essential to our success.
• More can be achieved by working collaboratively than individually.
• Fiscal stewardship and artistic risk-taking simultaneously strengthen our organization.
• The highest level of quality permeates everything we do.
• Honesty, integrity, and respect form the cornerstone of our culture.

Goals and Strategies

Goal 1. Create and deliver high-quality, relevant, and participatory arts education experiences.

• Support, enrich and engage adult learners at every ability, interest, and level of expertise through participatory arts classes and workshops.
• Use the transformative power of art to engage children and families from our community through experiential practice.
• Annually evaluate programs; plan accordingly for next fiscal year.

Goal 2. Cultivate, challenge and engage audiences through extraordinary art exhibitions and related programming.

• Produce and promote a diverse array of exhibitions that expand and affirm the definition of artistic excellence and represent the work of local, regional, and national artists.
• Coordinate exhibitions designed to engage with community members in the celebration of creativity and the power of imagination.
• Animate and contextualize the arts through imaginative, engaging, and relevant programming.
• Annually evaluate programs; plan accordingly for next fiscal year.

 
Goal 3. Enrich our community by creating opportunities to participate in and attend exceptional performing arts programming.

• Present and promote a dynamic array of performances in theatre, dance, and music that expand and affirm the definition of artistic excellence and represent the work of local, regional, and national performing artists.
• Produce a diverse mix of performances in theatre, dance, and music that enables community members to experience the joy of performance and production and hones their skills through working with aspirational peers.
• Animate and contextualize the performances through imaginative, engaging, and relevant programming.
• Annually evaluate programs; plan accordingly for next fiscal year.

 
Goal 4. Excel operationally as a non-profit arts organization.

• Develop a strong and sustainable financial position.
• Improve LAC’s reputation as a relevant, impactful and trustworthy partner with public agencies and other nonprofit organizations in Lawrence.
• Engage in fundraising activity that is professional, profitable, sustainable, and serves our mission.
• Expand awareness of LAC through effective marketing at the local, regional, and national level.
• Attract, retain, and develop exceptional staff and volunteers to ensure the right people are on the bus in the right seats.
• Aspire to board excellence through thoughtful engagement, informed leadership, and participatory experiences at the Arts Center.
• Ensure LAC’s physical location is fully operational and houses required equipment.

 
Goal 5. Support artists by providing artistic and professional opportunities.

• Maintain and grow professional development, business training, and teacher training opportunities for artists.
• Provide meaningful residencies, fellowships, and teaching positions to outstanding local, regional, and national artists.
• Create opportunities for critical discourse, mentorship, program advising, networking, and community amongst artists.

 
Goal 6. Embrace all members of the community in order to create a more dynamic and inclusive arts organization.

• Engage in thoughtful research, reflection, and dialogue with those inside and outside the arts in order to better understand how to build a more comprehensive culture of inclusion.
• Collaborate with diverse organizations and communities to form transparent, respectful, and mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Expand access to the arts by engaging in genuine and committed relationships with underserved communities.