Island Artists: Time to Make Yourselves Known

You don’t have to spend much time on Martha's Vineyard to know that it is covered from end to end with creative talent. Painters, jewelers, storytellers, poets, singers, dancers, and actors—they’re coming out of its pores. Never mind the metal smiths, novelists, glassblowers, filmmakers and photographers.

But just how many of them are there? The actual number of artists who live and work on the Island has remained unknown.

The newly formed Martha’s Vineyard Arts Collaborative has set out to change that. On February 23, the collaborative held its first official meeting, dubbed “An Arts and Cultural Collaborative for Martha's Vineyard: Lessons from Cape Cod.” From that meeting a census survey was developed.

The survey, targeted at all Island organizations, businesses, and individuals directly involved in arts, will give the collaborative a better picture of the artists located on Martha’s Vineyard and what needs they have.

“Four percent of the Cape Cod economy is made up of artists and we don’t have that kind of information,” said Ann Smith, executive director of and committee chair of the collaborative.

“The aim of the census is to create an inventory of those involved in arts and culture on the Island, and to get your ideas about what initiatives could offer the greatest benefit to you,” according to a letter recently sent out by the collaborative. “It is important that everyone be counted, so we can better understand and demonstrate how important arts and culture are for our jobs and economy, to support planning and funding efforts.”

“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of what is to be a long-term project,” said Smith. “Once we know who is out there, we can advocate for housing, studio space, insurance. We can encourage people to come to the Island as a destination for an event or festival.”

A copy of the census is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T2XX37B. The collaborative is hoping to have as much data as possible by April 4, but will continue to collect data for as long as possible.

The arts and culture collaborative itself is the product of a plan to coordinate arts resources on Martha’s Vineyard, as was suggested in the 2009 regional planning document the Island Plan.

This past October, more than 30 representatives of the Island’s arts and cultural community met at a roundtable sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Donors Collaborative to undertake that task.

The mission of the newly formed arts collaborative is “to support and promote arts and culture on the Island; to increase awareness of Martha's Vineyard as a year-round, arts-rich community and to stimulate related economic development.”

The organization leverages resources and opportunities for the arts and cultural community, and supports local arts education.

Four committees were charged with beginning to address planning, marketing, technology and events at that October meeting. Smith was named committee chair.

The collaborative has since been awarded a $5,000 Adams Arts Program Planning Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council that was matched by a Permanent Endowment of Martha's Vineyard grant of $1,250.

The next event is scheduled for Monday, April 25, with time and place to be determined. The plan for the upcoming meeting is to go over the data from the survey and give artists a chance “to voice what they want to the collaborative to do,” said Smith.

“It is open to everyone. It is so exciting that we have a forum where we can get everyone together to dialogue and talk about how to position ourselves going forward. We want everyone who wants to be involved to get involved.” 

Participating organizations in the initial efforts of the collaborative include ACE-MV, ARTFARM, Featherstone, Island Community Chorus, Island Theatre Workshop, Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, Martha's Vineyard Commission, Martha’s Vineyard Donors Collaborative, Martha's Vineyard Independent Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard Museum, MVOL, Oak Bluffs Arts District, Tickets MV, Troubled Shores (IMP) and Vineyard Voice.

For more information, visit: www.marthasvineyardarts.org.