GOSHEN — A new city website aimed at promoting the arts and local artists within the city of Goshen could be ready to launch as early as next month, according to officials close to the project.
Amy Worsham, the newly hired creative arts coordinator for the city, provided a brief update on the website project during a meeting of the Goshen Redevelopment Commission Tuesday afternoon.
A local artist and entrepreneur, Worsham was selected as the city’s new creative arts coordinator this past spring with the goal of helping to implement initiatives from the Mayor's Arts Council. As coordinator, Worsham has been tasked with overseeing the implementation of various tasks that will boost local artists, one of the first of which involved researching and creating a database for online browsers to map Goshen’s arts and culture resources in a user-friendly manner. Also on Worsham’s plate initially was the task of developing a model for a sustainable local art market.
However, during Tuesday’s RDC meeting, Worsham noted that she has since sidelined the art market project in favor of focusing exclusively on the new artist database website.
“At this point, we have actually pivoted from creating an actual artist market and worked on solely developing a very functional website,” Worsham said of the change in focus. “The website is actually soft and live at this point. We’re not telling anyone what the actual URL is while we work out just a couple kinks and bugs, but we have five different pages, and we’re really focusing on artists, the community and the resources that we’re developing for artists.”
The website
In describing the various pages of the website, Worsham noted that one of the pages will include an overview of the Mayor's Arts Council, complete with a description of how the council was formed and what its goals are.
Founded in the fall of 2016 by Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman, the council is made up of a team of 12 local artists and patrons tasked with serving as a collective voice for the arts and advancing the city by delivering resources, developing innovative collaborations, fostering creativity in the community and recognizing the arts as an economic driver while improving quality of place.
“We tell about our story, and just that we’re a tremendous art community,” Worsham said of the page. “It has really been a very organic process, which makes my job pretty easy. But it’s a fun story to tell.”
According to Worsham, a primary component of the new website will be the development of what she called a “Field Guide to the Goshen Arts,” which is where the actual connection between local artists and their supporters will take place.
“With that we have our contact page that will allow people to become a part of our field guide for the arts on many different levels, whether you’re a stakeholder in the community, you’re an art educator, or you’re an artist,” Worsham said. “Currently our list is at about 500 and growing, so we’ve really got a pretty expansive list. And the results we’re capturing for the contact page, we are capturing not just people’s names and their actual contact information or any message they have, but we’re also capturing who they are in the community, whether they’re an artist, an art lover, a community member, if they’re traveling to Goshen, or if they’re interested in volunteering.”
Through the site, visitors will be able to sign up to become a part of the field guide, as well as sign up to receive the council’s monthly news letters, Worsham explained.
Fundraising
With the new website’s launch, Worsham said the council will also be launching a new fundraising campaign aimed at supporting the group’s current and future initiatives.
“We are working through a grant program, a grant match through Patronicity,” Worsham said of the campaign. “We’re looking at raising approximately $30,000. We’re still double-checking our figures there, but it will be $15,000 from the community and $15,000 matched. And there are ways to donate directly on the page. That’s actually why we’re keeping the website quite while I build the Patronicity page. We’re going to launch everything altogether we’re hoping in November.”
In addition to the website, Worsham said the group is also currently working on putting together a flier promoting the new artist field guide and fundraiser with the hope of generating more local interest, feedback and funding for the group’s efforts.
“This will be kind of a grassroots way to raise money,” Worsham said of the fliers. “That way we can have a lot of individual conversations and see where people are comfortable giving.”