PARKERSBURG - Now that Wood County is the first county in West Virginia to be named a Certified Arts Community, local arts organizations and county officials are looking at the next step.
"When I went to Morgantown last Tuesday for the quarterly meeting of the West Virginia Committee on the Arts, I knew they were reviewing the applications for designation for the Certified Arts Community. I was initially told they wouldn't tell us that they had approved or disapproved it, but when I went up for the public forum to speak, before my turn, someone pulled me aside told me it was approved. We were very pleased, they included Marietta, Ohio, in it," said John Hoffman, executive director of Artsbridge.
Hoffman, along with representatives of the Smoot Theatre, the Parkersburg Art Center and the Actors Guild, met with the county commissioners Monday to discuss strategies for the next step in the process.
There are two other Certified Arts Communities in West Virginia. They are the cities of Berkeley Springs and Lewisburg. Wood County is the first and only county with that designation.
"There are four more applications pending which have not been completed or approved at this point," Hoffman said.
The commissioners agreed in July, after meeting with the same arts organizations representatives, to sponsor the request, and in early September officially signed off on the resolution. In October, the commissioners presented the arts community representatives with a list of 35 potential grant sources for area arts organizations.
"We can begin working with other groups and with your leadership now we can really come off the paper and get to work on this," Hoffman said.
"It a great thing, especially to be at the beginning stages. There is a lot of activity in Wood County, not only is it a quality of life issue for our citizens, but it's also about bringing in people from out of town," commission President Rick Modesitt said. "The designation draws attention to our area, we have so many sites and organizations. I used to manage the Smoot Theatre back in the 1970s, it's a lot nicer now," Modesitt said.
Abby Hayhurst, director with the art center, raised the issue of signage.
"You can determine what is appropriate, they may have a standard sign they use. The county is more limited, we only have a few welcoming signs, there are more restrictions. But if you all want to develop something, we can certainly add it to our existing signs and you could also contact the cities of Parkersburg, Vienna and Williamstown about their signs. If there is something you have from your logos that could be used, we could look at that," Modesitt said.
"I was thinking about where you cross the bridge, something there, it would be ideal," Hayhurst said.
"We hope from this designation we will be going to the head of the crowd where grant funding is concerned, I think that's the goal here. We have always known the arts here are good and we don't need a certificate to prove that. I think we are looking to expand our programs and this is a first step to doing that," Commissioner Blair Couch said.
"We'll keep this moving along," Hoffman said.
According to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the certification honors and recognizes communities that have shown commitment to expanding public participation in the arts, recognizing communities that have realized the benefits of cooperation between arts and humanities groups, business leaders and jurisdictional agencies. To be eligible, communities must support arts organizations by providing volunteer governance, financial contributions and audiences for arts programming; adopt a resolution indicating recognition of the importance of the arts to economic development, educational quality and civic involvement, and demonstrate successful collaborations between arts, humanities and heritage groups, business leaders and jurisdictional agencies.
