Highlights & Accomplishments

ArtsPartners 2011-2012 Highlights & Major Accomplishments

SHOWCASING THE ARTS

• ArtsPartners.net. The ArtsPartners website served as a key resource for comprehensive, user-friendly, up-to-the-minute arts and cultural information about all the arts playing in the Peoria area. 

• ArtsPartners Calendar of Events. Published a hard-copy calendar of events, which is distributed to area hotels each month to ensure visitors are well aware of the arts playing in the area every day.

• Online Ticket Sales. Accessible at ArtsPartners.net, the sophisticated yet easy-to-use ArtsTix page continues to revolutionize individual buying for all of our ArtsPartners and their patrons. High-impact sales have attracted new and younger audiences whose purchasing habits and access to information are defined by the online culture. To date, more than 5.000 tickets have been sold, generating $150,000 for nearly two dozen arts groups.

• ARTSChecks. Increased use of ARTSChecks gift certificates as a method for building new audiences for the arts. For convenience, ARTSChecks are available on the ArtsPartners online ticket sales page and can be purchased with a credit card.

• ArtsPartner of the Year. Recognized Doug and Eileen Leunig as 2012 ArtsPartners of the Year, acknowledging his long-term, exemplary support and service to the local arts.

• Peoria City Hall: A Visitor’s Guide of Peoria’s Greatest Treasure. ArtsPartners’ latest, full-color catalog continues high visibility in key locations throughout the community. This stunning reference and tour guide, written by Dr. Peter Couri, photographed by Doug and Eileen Leunig, and designed by Nicole Blackburn, exquisitely showcases the rich art and history of Peoria’s City Hall.

• ARTS.Happening. Published and distributed this popular monthly e-newsletter that reaches over 1,000 ArtsPartners.

• What’s Playing in Peoria. This popular weekly e-newsletter to Friends of the Arts e-news and Facebook lists weekend arts activities playing in the Peoria area.

• ArtsPartners Educator’s Guide. Published and distributed to area teachers, the 2011-2012 ArtsPartners Educator’s Guide is a major K-12 resource used for planning arts-related field trips and extracurricular arts activities.

 
COMMUNITY BUILDING

• Art Works ArtsPartners continued to promote NEA Chair Rocco Landesman’s Art Works theme throughout 2010-2011, culminating in the creation of an Art Works poster collage of the Peoria skyline that was awarded to Rocco by Congressman Aaron Schock in the Spring of 2011. The poster consists of 2,700 arts images contributed by members of the Peoria area arts community.

• Sustaining Communities. ArtsPartners continued to serve as a regional partner for the Heart of Illinois Sustainability Consortium, a regional partnership created through a US Department of Housing and Urban Development planning grant program. The program aims to promote economic and environmental sustainability by crafting a long-range plan that investigates housing, transportation, workforce, land use, availability of food, arts and culture, and natural resources.

• Engaging The Underserved. ArtsPartners helps to expose the arts to new audiences by offering free performances and dress rehearsals by the Peoria POPS and Eastlight Theatre to children and underserved clients from various United Way programs.

 AN ECONOMIC INVESTMENT

Recognizing that a rich cultural environment is an economic benefit to the entire region, the City of Peoria and the Peoria Civic Center Authority have committed $75,000 annually to ArtsPartners as an economic investment.

ArtsPartners gratefully acknowledges our funders:

CITY OF PEORIA

Jim Ardis, Mayor

Beth Akeson

Clyde Gulley, Jr.

Dan Irving

Timothy Riggenbach

Gary Sandberg

Ryan Spain

William Spears

W. Eric Turner

Barbara Van Auken

Chuck Weaver

PEORIA CIVIC CENTER AUTHORITY

Dan Silverthorn, Chair

Patrick Roesler, Vice Chair

Laraine Bryson, Secretary

Robert Manning, Treasurer

Kenneth Goldin

Leonard Unes

Sylvia Hasinger

Harold Burdess

Ryan Spain