Join Us in Creating a Cultural Plan for the Windham Region 

Culture, creativity and the arts are a fundamental part of our region’s identity and a driver of our local economy. The Towns of Brattleboro, Rockingham, and Wilmington, with assistance from the Windham Regional Commission, have come together to secure grant funding from the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a Windham Region Cultural Plan. It’s time for a plan that represents who we are today and reimagines how arts and culture can help us rebuild a more creative, more equitable, and more prosperous future.  
 

Why a Cultural Plan? 

The creative sector is Vermont’s third largest economic sector, and the Windham Region is abuzz with arts and cultural activity. However, there  is no collective tool that identifies the community and economic driving power of our local creative sector, nor is there a clear set of policies or goals for the sector’s role in the region’s ongoing and future development. 

We expect that this Cultural Plan will create ongoing and new opportunities to: 

• Recognize and activate the creative sector’s central role and creative capacity in community and economic development 

• Increase and organize collaborative capacity both among creative sector players (businesses, organizations, and individuals) and in cross-sector relationships 

• Strengthen, leverage, and coordinate energies and resources to address community needs 

• Serve as a resource for communities in the development and updating of Town Plans 
 

Project Team 

Steering Committee: 
Abdullah Hafizi, Artist 
Austin Rice, Independent Filmmaker 
DeDe Cumming, Green Writers Press 
Jenevieve Penk, Arthouse 
Jenna Struble, New England Circus Arts 
Kate Trzaskos, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance 
Kate Ullman, Jamaica Selectboard 
Keith Marks, Next Stage Arts 
Lynn Barrett, Primetime Concepts, Inc. 
Meg Staloff, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation 
Robert McBride, Rockingham Area Museum Project 
Susanna Gellert, Weston Theater 
Zon Eastes, VT Creative Network 

Staff:     
Sue Fillion, Planning Director, Brattleboro 
Gretchen Haverluk, Economic Development Consultant, Wilmington 
Gary Fox, Economic Development Director, Rockingham 
Matthew Bachler, Senior Planner, Windham Regional Commission 

Consultant:     
Martin Cohen and team, Cultural Planning Group 
 

Timeline