Austin, Minnesota, a town of around 23,000 located in Southeastern Minnesota on Interstate 90 is a small rural town on the plains. Out three biggest employers in town, Hormel Foods, Austin Medical Center Mayo Health Systems, and Austin Public Schools and many local citizens came out in mass of supporting the Vision 2020 Initiative a couple of months ago. This initiative to make Austin a more inviting place for businesses has as its core to raise the quality of life in Austin. A city wide meeting was held in the largest meeting room--the Grand Ball Room of the Holiday Inn--and was packed with people giving ideas to the Vision 2020 Committee.
After that meeting the committee had 4800 ideas to go through which are detailed online! David Albino, a young business professional on the Vision 2020 Committee and new Board Member to the Austin Area Art Center said, “We had a book from one older lady in town.” Her ideas alone were great he said but they read all of them!
The 4800 ideas are boiled down to 91 ideas of which over 20% relate to the performing and visual arts in Austin! The community of Austin now has to vote by December 23, 2011, on what they consider the top 5 items in the vision!
The art ideas are as follows:
- Downtown Power Plant Development A: art center, restaurant, studios, arboretum, SPAM Museum, condos, shops, brewery, theatre space
- Arts Row/Arts District Development: on 4th near downtown; include entertainment
- Downtown Development: Make downtown a tourist and locals destination with public gathering plaza, live entertainment, restore historical store fronts, arts events, more retailers, benches, park for kids
- Artist Relocation Program: draw artists to relocate to Austin.
- Art Center: in prominent location
- Downtown Power Plant Development C: Convert utilities plant into a place for the Hormel museum and arts center.
- Make the Riverland Theatre a state-of-the-art performance facility.
- Global Fest: As Austin is mirroring more of a global community, celebrate that factor with arts, concerts and more.
- Expansion of Historic Paramount Theatre
- Sculptures: Commission artists from around the country for sculptures placed around Austin
- Downtown Festival: Adaptation of Rochester's Thursdays on First Winter Fest:
- Develop a Wintertime Festival including the arts
- Overpass Art Center: Glass walled art and cultural center spanning one of the I-90 overpasses
- Develop a Plaza downtown for Farmer's market, arts and crafts fairs, carousel, popcorn cart, murals,
- New Art Center
- Annual Music Festival
- Theatre Training for all ages
- Summer music camps with Austin Symphony for youth.
- Create a summer Mexican festival
Austin citizens and other interested in Austin, please vote by December 23, 2011!
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