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Beet Street Announces New Strategic Plan

Focus will be on fostering growth in the local arts and culture community.

The full strategic plan can be viewed HERE.

After months of research and community outreach, Beet Street has put together a plan to help Fort Collins become a nationally recognized center for arts and culture.

In fall 2009 Beet Street revisited its guiding principles, vision, strategies, and financial models, and determined a clear plan for the future direction of the organization. More than 500 leaders, stakeholders and community residents provided input that helped shape the new strategies for achieving Beet Street’s vision and goals.

Beet Street’s reason for existence remains the same as when the organization was established: to add to the economic vibrancy and development of our downtown by building arts and culture as a unique economic engine, and to lead Fort Collins to become a regionally and nationally recognized arts and culture center and destination. “Beet Street is exploring a new direction and adjusting our previous strategies to better meet the needs of the community,” said Ryan Keiffer, executive director of Beet Street. “We are shifting our focus to three areas: programming, economic development and facilities development.”

The Beet Street programming philosophy is to create ‘programming that draws people to downtown Fort Collins and keeps them coming back.’ Creating world-class experiences through exceptional programming is still the heart of the overall strategy. “Beet Street will continue to focus on developing and building anchor programming that draws people to Fort Collins from across the country and around the world, but the methods to achieving this goal will shift to working more organically with local talent and achieving these programming goals over the long-term,” explained Keiffer.

Because of the Lincoln Center’s closure from July 2010 through April 2011, Beet Street will focus in 2010 on developing on-the-street cultural activities that create a cultural vibe throughout downtown, reach a broad and diverse audience, and strive to create a unique and memorable creative experience simply by walking the streets.

Beet Street’s new economic development initiatives will focus on creating an environment where arts and culture groups, artists, performers, and the creative class can grow and thrive organically. Beet Street will work to help develop a strong arts industry that can thrive, grow, and become extraordinary. In 2010, Beet Street will work with the arts and culture industry to develop and market a centralized online calendar of activities, and to create realistic, long-term strategies that will create dedicated revenue streams targeted to arts and culture and professional development and educational opportunities for the industry. According to Keiffer, “The goal is to create an industry and environment where their financial future is secure, they operate at a professional level, and they’re encouraged to improve not only their art or craft, but their operations and strategy.”

The final piece of Beet Street’s new strategic plan is facilities development. Beet Street will be looking to encourage the creation of extraordinary venues and infrastructure that give these activities a home and support a growing and thriving cultural and creative scene. “As the City’s Cultural Facilities Plan highlights, Fort Collins is going to need the high visibility, high impact facilities such as a large outdoor venue and a new performing arts center,” explained Keiffer. “But also needed are a small black box theatre, a 350-seat venue to compliment the Lincoln Center mini-theatre, a 500-750 seat venue, and we’re going to need more ‘found spaces’ where culture and entertainment seem to naturally coalesce. Beet Street will work to create an implementation strategy that encourages focusing on the smaller venues first, providing the local arts community what it needs to grow and allowing the arts and culture industry to showcase its capabilities and build a case for the community that the large venues are worthy investments.”

“We are feeling very inspired at the new direction Beet Street is headed, and are excited to make an immediate positive impact on the Fort Collins arts and culture community,” said Keiffer. “We firmly believe that Fort Collins has the foundation and talent needed to build a nationally recognized center for arts and culture, and we are looking forward to doing what we can to support and foster that growth.”

Only in Fort Collins. Only with Beet Street.