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Supporters tell council VidWest (Midwest Studios) yields outsized training value; ask city to continue funding
Summary
Residents and volunteers told council that VidWest (Midwest Studios) provides practical audio/video training and public access equipment with a small municipal subsidy. Speakers urged the budget office to maintain funding so community members can continue to use equipment and training resources.
Jonathan Asher of Ward 3 told the council the city should continue support for VidWest (also referred to in testimony as Midwest Studios), a publicly accessible media center that offers training, equipment checkout and workshops for the community and city employees.
Asher said the center provides career‑applicable skills in audio, video and photography taught by volunteer professionals. He said VidWest makes roughly 900 pieces of equipment available to the public — "many of those pieces of equipment are city property" — and he recounted a rough estimate that the rental market value for the center’s checked‑out equipment could be on the order of ten times the city’s annual subsidy. Asher said the city's funding in recent years was about $30,000 and argued that the program delivers substantial return on investment through training, workforce pathways and supported public access.
Asher asked council to direct the budget office to keep VidWest funded and to view continued support as stewardship of city‑owned resources and an investment in workforce development. No council action or vote followed the comment; staff accepted the request for the budget office to consider the matter during budgeting discussions.
Why it matters Small arts and media centers often rely on a mix of city support, grants and volunteer labor. City funding can keep equipment and studio time affordable and preserve access to production tools that residents and small businesses otherwise cannot afford.
What was said "We have about 900 pieces of equipment in our inventory that people can check out and use out in the world... the city's funding for Midwest was about $30,000," Asher said. "The market value if people had rented the equipment... would cost $300,000 to rent. So I find that 10 to 1 return pretty impressive." (Public comment transcript, Oct. 20, 2025.)
