Celebrating our Partners: DCED and PA Council on the Arts
- by Tataboline Enos
- June 14, 2022
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Today’s Great Outdoors Month gratitude post goes to the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), and the PA Council on the Arts (PCA).
DCED is a foundational investor in the PA Wilds effort to grow the region’s outdoor rec economy. DCED’s State Tourism Office worked closely with the region’s local visitor bureaus to establish the PA Wilds Brand Principles in the mid-2000s.
If you’ve never read them, do! The Principles are as true today as they were 15+ years ago when they were written.
They guide everything from how we brand and market the region as an outdoor rec destination, to products we sell at our gift shops, to our approach to partnerships, to hiring (we include the Principles in our hiring packets; you’d be amazed how many candidates remark on them).
As one of DCED’s official tourism regions, we also benefit from promotion on visitpa.com, and from the Tourism Office’s annual Tourism Economics reports that are compiled on tourism regions. The business development side of the DCED’s house helped seed and guide the early work of the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship and its precursor, the Small Business Ombudsman position, while its low-interest loans have been used by numerous businesses participating in the region’s rec industry.
On the community side of the house, DCED has invested time and talent in our largest and longest-standing stakeholder group, the PA Wilds Planning Team, for many years, and funded regional façade and signage grant programs for rural communities that promote use of the PA Wilds Design Guide for Community Character Stewardship.
Arts have always played a key role in growing our region’s outdoor rec economy. Public art is central to place-making and telling our region’s story, and local artists, with their authentic handcrafted products, have provided a way for visitors to “take home a piece of the PA Wilds” while giving a boost to the local economy.
The PA Council on the Arts has been with us every step of the way, investing in community-driven art projects through their PA Partners in the Arts program, inspiring rural youth with their Artists in Education residencies, and by supporting creative entrepreneurs in the PA Wilds through a variety of projects with the PA Wilds Center.
Thank you DCED and PCA for investing in the PA Wilds!
About the Series:
To celebrate June being Great Outdoors Month, we are highlighting partners throughout June who are helping grow the outdoor recreation economy here in the PA Wilds to help revitalize rural communities. Our 13-county region is the only outdoor rec industry cluster to make it to the final round of the national Build Back Better Regional Challenge competition, where we are now competing for $50M in federal investment from the US Economic Development Administration. We couldn’t have made it this far without our incredible partners!
Learn more about the PA Wilds and the BBBRC competition here.
