Goals and Strategies

Goal 1: Ensure our staff, board and programs are positioned to strengthen our local, regional and national reputation

1. Create studios that are world class
2. Plan and implement a creative curriculum that distinguishes us from other arts centers
3. Become an organizational thought leader in the field of arts education
4. Maintain the high caliber of our exhibition program
5. Further define and expand our artist residency program
6. Recruit and retain talented and engaged board and junior board members who will become passionate advocates for the organization
7. Recruit and retain talented and engaged teaching artists who inspire students to do their best work
8. Recruit and retain talented and engaged staff and give them the tools to be successful
9. Collaborate with leading organizations to create innovative programs
10. Enhance our customer experience
11. Build our brand

Goal 2: Reduce barriers and expand inclusive practices to ensure we are accessible to everyone in our community

1. Identify and implement recruitment and retention strategies that increase the diversity of the center’s teachers and staff
2. Train teachers, staff and studio volunteers on best practices for creating inclusive spaces
3. Ensure that we’re communicating our message to diverse audiences
4. Maintain the strength and quality of our existing community partnerships
5. Establish new community partnerships that target audiences that currently lack access to adequate arts programming
6. Adopt practices that welcome people who do not speak English as their primary language
7. Address geographic and transportation challenges that keep people from reaching our building
8. Ensure that people of all income levels can access our programs
9. Offer or alter programs to meet the needs of people with a variety of schedules

Goal 3: Maintain and improve our current facility and work toward a future in which the Visual Arts Center of Richmond is not a single building but an urban campus

1. Engage in the regular and ongoing maintenance of our historic property
2. Improve our existing building to grow our programs, maximize revenue and ensure the safety and well-being of all students
3. Lay the groundwork for growing our campus

Goal 4: Increase our annual income and endowment to ensure the sustainability of our future

1. Grow our current earned revenue
2. Pursue new models for generating earned revenue
3. Increase individual contributions
4. Grow our membership program
5. Grow our corporate membership program
6. Increase events revenue
7. Increase the revenue we receive from corporate, foundation and government grants
8. Build a reserve fund that is equivalent to one year’s operating expenses
9. Grow current endowments and create new ones to sustain operations and programming
10. Establish and fund a Real Estate Fund to allow the organization to make real estate acquisitions when deemed prudent
11. Define and launch a capital campaign that aligns with the organization’s strategic plan