Wisconsin Arts Board committee finalizes one-pager materials, reviews legislative cover letter

The External Relations Committee of the Wisconsin Arts Board reviewed draft one-page summaries and a legislative cover letter on Tuesday, agreeing to finalize materials for distribution and to publish district and statewide one-pagers on the Arts Board website.

The committee’s public relations and logistics specialist, Vivian Timchenko, said she had compiled one-pagers for the state, 99 assembly districts and 33 senate districts and asked the group for a final review. “I can go ahead and open these 1 pagers up,” Timchenko said during the meeting, describing work to consolidate data and update wording based on staff feedback.

The committee discussed the data sources and how they are presented. Committee members noted that the economic-impact figures in the packet come from different years: Arts & Economic Prosperity (AEP) edition 6 (reporting 2022 data) and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) figures that reflect 2024 dollar totals. George (staff member) clarified that “those statistics, on the economic impact, that's from, the arts and economic prosperity edition 6 … but everything else is 2024.” The committee agreed the one-pagers should make the mixed data years transparent in the small print so readers understand the provenance of each figure.

Members also reviewed a draft legislative cover letter intended for legislators and discussed tone and content. Several committee members urged concise, nonpartisan language aimed at legislators who prioritize numeric and economic data; others recommended inserting a concise affirmation that the Arts Board is a state agency that “serves the people of every culture and heritage in our state.” One member suggested including an explicit offer to connect legislators with arts organizations in their districts. The group agreed to lift concise language from prior letters where appropriate and avoid expanding the cover letter with the full mission statement in order to preserve limited space.

On distribution, Timchenko said a public Canva link currently exists and that the plan is to make the one-pagers available on the Wisconsin Arts Board website for easy access by staff and the public. “The plan will be to put them out on the website, actually,” she said. The committee also discussed an email template and printing copies for an upcoming conference roundtable so the generic one-pager could be handed to attendees.

Action items from the discussion include final edits to the one-pagers and legislative letter, publishing the one-pagers to the Arts Board website, preparing printed copies for the conference roundtable, and circulating the finalized email language for outreach. Committee members were asked to send Timchenko any additional edits or suggested language.

The committee closed the discussion by thanking staff and contributors who helped develop the materials and agreeing to continue refining distribution strategy by email and in a short offline subgroup.

The committee members emphasized transparency about data years, nonpartisan language, and clarifying the Arts Board’s status as a state agency in materials sent to legislators.