Local artist and entrepreneur Amy Worsham has been selected as the  Creative Arts Coordinator to help implement initiatives from the Mayor’s Creative Arts Council (CAC). In 2016 the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, created a Live/Work/Play Capacity Grant program to assist communities in increasing the success of downtown initiatives by helping create strategies to improve quality of life. The City of Goshen was awarded funding through the Redevelopment Commission for three years, with subsidizing for the first year going to Goshen Theater Inc., to support their fundraising efforts. For the remaining two years, the grant would be used to hire the Creative Arts Coordinator.

Mayor Stutsman said the CAC received several quality applications for the position, and though it was hard to narrow down the list–let alone pick a candidate– he was honored to announce Worsham as Goshen’s Creative Arts Coordinator on March 15. “While this project is still forming and growing, I think we will see some great things happen over the next two years,” he said.

Acting as Coordinator, Worsham will oversee the implementation of various tasks that will boost local artists. One of the tasks will be to develop a model for an art market that can be sustainable in the future. Another task will be to research and create a database for online browsers to map Goshen’s arts and culture resources in a user-friendly manner.

“By primarily focusing on equipping artists with the right tools for creative business growth, we will strengthen our community and further encourage the arts,” Worsham said. “I am excited for the opportunity to work with a collection of emerging and highly skilled artists among all disciplines and engage our community to enhance our civic life.”

Speaking on behalf of the CAC, Carrie Lee Bland-Kendall, said she is confident the new Creative Arts Coordinator position will help further shape our community as a visual and performing arts destination. “I’m thrilled that Mayor Stutsman realizes the value of arts and culture and has taken measures to foster its growth over the past decade in our community,” she said. “The Goshen community has been supporting and organically building an arts scene through an amazing team of mostly volunteers over the years.”

ABOUT THE MAYOR’S CREATIVE ARTS COUNCIL

In the fall of 2016, Mayor Jeremy Stutsman assembled a team of 12 local artists and patrons of the arts to form Goshen’s first-ever CAC.

The Mayor’s Creative Arts Council is a collective voice for the arts, advancing the City of Goshen by delivering resources, developing innovative collaborations, fostering creativity in the community and recognizing the arts as an economic driver while improving quality of place.