Among ArtsWave’s many civic partners is Agenda 360, the region’s action plan related to nurturing talent, increasing jobs, and building economic opportunity for residents.  ArtsWave and Agenda 360 work collaboratively on research, strategic initiatives, and advancing collective action with other nonprofit service organizations.

This month, Agenda 360 invited ArtsWave to be part of its Diverse by Design discussion around opportunities for employee leadership development. ArtsWave’s BOARDway Bound board training program, which has placed nearly 300 business professionals on arts boards over the last decade, was featured in a new publication aimed at local human resource professionals.  Over 80 HR representatives in attendance learned about programs like BOARDway Bound, and how they add a level of employee retention being sought by many executive leaders. Many of them had never before considered utilizing these types of programs for this purpose.  

ArtsWave has collaborated with Agenda 360 on other projects, as well.  In 2012, the two organizations commissioned the region’s first Arts Engagement Index, designed to provide baseline data around public participation in a variety of creative pursuits and activities. 

“We partnered with ArtsWave on ‘Snapshot 2012’ to better understand the relationship between arts participation and quality of life,” said Mary Stagaman, Agenda 360 executive director. “What we didn’t know before this project got underway was how clear the correlations were between arts involvement, civic engagement, and social connectedness. In the future, we want to dig deeper into the exciting implications of these findings to be sure we are fully leveraging our arts and cultural assets in realizing Cincinnati’s potential as a world-class region in which to live and work.”

Thank you, Agenda 360, for your partnership in creating community through the arts!