The Creative Professionals Talent Recruitment Initiative is a new partnership focused on economic development in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley. The partnership, consisting of Appleton Downtown, Inc., the Trout Museum of Art, and gener8tor art, was awarded a $450,000 grant by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to help attract and relocate 20 creative professionals to the area.

Program Details

The program is designed to bring in creative professionals such as musicians, filmmakers, artists, and entrepreneurs. To be eligible, applicants must currently live outside of Wisconsin and have a minimum household income of $55,000. If selected, they would receive $10,000 and a $2,500 moving stipend.

One application has already been submitted, from a former Wisconsin resident who has a recording studio in Nashville. The partnership plans to use some of the grant money to fund new gener8tor art programming in the Appleton area, including an accelerator program to help creative professionals build and scale their businesses.

Local Reaction

While some local artists have expressed concerns about the initiative, they are not opposed to collaborating with new artists in the community. However, they are worried that the time and effort of the organizations backing the initiative could be better spent supporting existing local artists.

“We do believe that the time and effort of the organizations that are backing this in the local community could be put toward the vibrant existing local artists,” said Katrina Schlafer. “I understand these funds are available, but time and effort that we can put into our community is also valuable.”

The partnership views the program as an investment in the cultural and economic growth of the region, and hopes that it will help attract state funding to support local artists. Wisconsin currently spends just 20 cents per capita on arts funding, ranking 48th in the nation.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.