Leaders from around Rochester gathered at the Eastman School of Music on Wednesday to learn about new ways to synchronize arts efforts downtown. Arts leaders from Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburgh and Nashville shared their expertise at the Eastman School of Music as part of the Arts in the Loop symposium.
Jim Doser brought them here. He's the director of Eastman's Institute of Music Leadership.
"Today is to learn more from some colleagues from around the country who’ve activated their cities to be that 'learn, play, work, and joy environment' in their downtown areas using arts as the foundation for that work," Doser said. "The title of our group, Arts in the Loop, is a concept that things emerge from the center of downtown and then loop out and eventually engage the entire city with this type of activity."
Arts in the Loop is a new collaboration of leaders in Rochester’s art and business scenes. They're combining forces to make downtown more vibrant by bringing more art, music and expression to the streets.
"One of the wonderful things that we know about Rochester but don’t talk about is that we have the goods: we have the cultural artistic assets right here in our community much more than our colleagues from around the country," said Doser.
They discussed activating public spaces, collaboration, and driving economic development through art. Doser hopes these lessons can sharpen Rochester’s budding Arts in the Loop efforts downtown.
The symposium concludes Thursday with a session on using the creative economy to energize economic development.
