Advocacy

Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council (PLRAC) believes that the arts are essential to the creation and sustenance of thriving, vital communities, and that the arts should be supported by the participation of many people in arts activities and organizations, and by public and private funding. Therefore, we consider advocacy an important part of what we do; but arts advocacy isn’t something that can be done for you—it requires your involvement to get these important messages out!

How to get involved

Arts Advocacy Day

PLRAC works closely with Minnesota Citizens for the Arts to support the annual Arts Advocacy Day at the State capitol and ongoing advocacy efforts. Every year, hundreds of art advocates gather at the capitol for Arts Advocacy Day to show their legislators that arts funding is important to their communities. This is an opportunity to meet and network with artists and art supporters from around the state while showing your passion for the arts to legislators; watch for upcoming dates and sign up to join hundreds of your fellow arts supporters at the capitol.

Contact your Legislator

While Arts Advocacy Day happens only once a year, legislation and important events that can affect arts organizations happen throughout the year. Here is a contact list for Legislators from the 9-county area. Feel free to contact them anytime with your support or concerns.

Legislator list (PDF)

CreativeMN

Creative Minnesota and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts have released studies indicating that Minnesotans strongly believe the arts and culture are important to their quality of life, and that Minnesotans attend and participate in the arts at a rate exceeding the national average.

Public funding for the arts is very important for south central Minnesota residents. Non-profit arts groups like community bands, choirs, theaters, and art centers strengthen the economy of small towns and promote tourism. Arts availability in a community enables local employers to attract and retain higher skilled employees. State arts’ funding is distributed to the eleven Regional Arts Councils geographically located throughout the state of Minnesota, and they provide grants to artists, small arts organizations, community groups, and schools for artist residencies.

The Region 9: South Central Minnesota report, which covers the Arts and Cultural community in the PLRAC region, listed the following information in the 2019 Creative MN Report.

The report found that the combined economic impact of nonprofit arts organizations, their audiences and artists and creative workers in South Central Minnesota is over $36.9 million annually. This includes $8.6 million spent by nonprofit arts organizations, $17.3 million spent by 879,364 attendees, and the direct spending of artists in their communities, on things such as art supplies and studio rental, of $11 million. There are 139 nonprofit arts and culture organizations in South Central Minnesota served 879,364 attendees at arts and cultural events in 2016.

The report found that there are over 3,161 artists and creative workers in South Central Minnesota. Creative workers are defined as people who make their living wholly, or in part, by working for for-profits, non-profits, or self-employed, in 40 creative occupations. The most common creative worker jobs in the region are photographers, graphic designers, and musicians and singers. The results for the 9-county region are summarized in a document, click the button below to learn more.

Investigate all the research at the website: http://creativemn.org/