BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
Imagine that the year is 2010 and Monmouth County is known statewide as an arts mecca that includes not just Red Bank and Long Branch, but Roosevelt in the western corner of the county and Freehold, the county seat.
In addition, there are thriving arts councils in Asbury Park, Long Branch and Belmar along the southern Monmouth coast and as far north as Keyport along the Raritan Bay.
In addition, imagine a full-color, glossy magazine full of information about the arts across the county.
According to Alison Doyle, Monmouth County Arts Council’s new communications director, people will not have to imagine that far into the future, because that magazine is about to become a reality.
“The State of the Arts newsletter will soon be a full-color, 16-page magazine that conveys a much more professional image,” Doyle said.
All of this and more are part of the Blueprint for the Arts 2005-2010, an ambitious five-year cultural arts plan introduced by the Monmouth County Arts Council on April 26 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
The Arts Plan was developed by MCAC in partnership with Monmouth University and the Monmouth County Planning Board, along with the expertise of Louise Stevens of ArtsMarket as well as input from about 75 people involved in the arts, education, tourism and economic development.
The presentation was very well attended, with many arts organizations represented, including the state arts council, Middletown’s arts council, the Belmar and Roosevelt arts communities, and the Jewish Community Center in Ocean Township, which is about to open a new arts facility.
The Monmouth County Arts Plan is a policy document intended to reflect priorities voiced by agencies and organizations directly impacted by the arts. The plan provides goals and benchmarks to guide agencies and organizations.
Among the goals are to develop strategies to strengthen audiences for local arts and culture, build strength in arts education programs, support local arts organizations and artists, and ensure that this is a culturally vibrant county in which to live and work.
Stevens said she told the board to get ready, because the plan for the arts has been fast-forwarded.
“It is a blueprint and a vision,” she said.
She explained that in 1999, MCAC became a freestanding organization.
“This is the next step,” she said, adding, “Most of the arts organizations in Monmouth County are very young and very small. This is an opportunity to grow all of them.
“Monmouth is arts rich. It’s kind of one of those best-kept secrets.”
Stevens also explained that it is important to put the arts into the center of community development plans. In the past, it would have been unusual to have developers and the arts sector talking together.
Stevens spoke about the importance of building funding support. Arts organizations need the stability of some paid staff, not just volunteers, she said.
Mary Eileen Fouratt, MCAC executive director, said that in 1999 there were 35 member organizations belonging to MCAC and today there are 74.
The plan identifies another 25 that are not active members.
Fouratt said that in 1999, when they last introduced a five-year plan, she thought it was very ambitious and she wasn’t sure they could pull it off. But they did, and she said that has given her the courage to go forward with this initiative.
MCAC Board President Peter J. Lyden agreed. He said, “In the first five years, we proved it could work. We were finding out who we were and building a staff.”
He said that in the future, MCAC plans to expand programs, build membership and development, build a donor base and spread the word in the community.
He mentioned broadening their community outreach to towns like Roosevelt, a thriving artists community in the extreme western part of the county.
Vaune Peck, of Monmouth University, said the university has centralized all of the arts areas on campus. She added that people are not aware of the number of arts programs.
She said that there is so much going on in the county, and everyone is competing for the same audiences.
“We all have the same problem. It’s that awareness thing. ‘How do we make ours the best one?’ is the question they all ask.”
ArtsMarket conducted an analysis of the likely market for the arts in the county. The analysis was based on demographic and consumer behavior statistics that included performing arts and museum attendance, the dominance of high education levels and high income levels in the county.
According to the plan, the analysis found a high reported incidence of cultural participation, but does not suggest that this interest translates directly into local participation, which is one of the major issues identified through the analysis.
Margaret Mass, of the Red Bank Visitors Center, said 1.3 million visitors come to Red Bank each year. “We have to work together for funding in order to get the image of Monmouth County out there.”
Maggie O’Brien, from the Middletown Arts Council, said they have a 30-member arts advisory group that was spearheaded by arts advocate and Deputy Mayor Rosemary Peters. “I’m very excited about the arts plan and working with other arts organizations.”
The development sector was represented by Jim Wassel, president of Sandy Hook Partners, the developer that won the bid to develop Officers Row on the Hook.
“Any developer who says they can’t include an arts plan in their project is a liar; don’t allow them to say no,” he said.
Alice Berman, MCAC board president from 1999 until last January, said, “Intuitively, I know this can’t fail. We lose nothing by going down this path. We have this blueprint that puts words to the vision.”