Programs

Creative Community Champion Awards

The Wisconsin Creative Community Champion Awards (formerly Arts in the Community Awards) are presented by Create Wisconsin in partnership with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. These awards honor civic leaders as champions and communities in Wisconsin focused on creativity as integral to economic, educational, and community vitality.

CREATE WISCONSIN PRESENTS 2023 CREATIVE COMMUNITY CHAMPION AWARD

TO LEAGUE OF WISCONSIN MUNICIPALITIES

Create Wisconsin is pleased to announce that the 2023 Creative Community Champions Award has been awarded to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.  The award was presented to League Director Jerry Deschane at the League’s annual conference on October 19, 2023, in Green Bay.  Create Wisconsin has presented these awards to civic champions of the arts and creativity - individuals, organizations, businesses, and local government agencies - since 2009.

Create Wisconsin and the League have partnered for many years on creative community development and civic engagement through the arts, culture, and creativity.   This ongoing collaboration has served the state through advocacy support, research reports, technical assistance programs, and promotional initiatives.  The League understands the essential importance of the arts as a means of human expression and as a driver of economic, workforce, and civic success.   In addition to the two organizations' ongoing partnership and collaboration, the League’s Chief Operating Officer Zach Vruwink serves on Create Wisconsin’s Board of Directors.

Create Wisconsin, the state’s community cultural development organization, advocates for access to the arts and creative opportunities for everyone,  everywhere in the state, and promotes the arts and creativity as essential to Wisconsin’s economic, educational, and civic success.  The League of Wisconsin Municipalities is the statewide organization that helps Wisconsin cities and villages share ideas and learn from one another,trains and provides information to the people elected and appointed to govern those cities and villages, and advocates on their behalf with the Wisconsin Legislature, Governor and state agencies. 

“The League understands that our state’s arts and cultural assets are more important than ever as the state and its communities seek to attract and retain talent, particularly young working age adults,” says Mal Montoya, President of the Board of Directors.  “The League Is encouraging creative economy development from the ground up, to help Wisconsin compete with other Midwestern states which are investing heavily in this kind of 21st century development.”

Create Wisconsin congratulates the League on 125 years of engagement, advocacy, and friendship, and look forward to many more years of work together to make sure Wisconsin is a great place to live, work, and play.”

The awards are sponsored by the League of Municipalities, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and Heid Music.

 

Presenting Organizations

Create Wisconsin is Wisconsin’s community cultural development organization, bringing people together through creative experiences and activating and strengthening Wisconsin’s creative economy, workforce and communities. 

The League of Wisconsin Municipalities is a nonprofit and nonpartisan association of cities and villages that acts as an information clearinghouse, lobbying organization, technical assistance provider, and legal resource throughout Wisconsin.

 

Previous Honorees

  • 2022: City of La Crosse Public Arts Commission

  • 2021: Wisconsin’s civic Poets Laureate and Writers-in-Residence, from Amery, Bayfield, Eau Claire, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Racine, Sheboygan, and Wausau.

  • 2020:  Zach Vruwink, Administrator, City of Rhinelander and former Mayor, City of Wisconsin Rapids

  • 2019:  the City of Waupaca and the Waupaca Arts and Culture Coalition for ongoing partnership on the city’s first-ever cultural plan, and Altoona Mayor Brendan Pratt

  • 2018:  Ken Juon, President, Board of Directors, Artstart, Rhinelander, and Ryan Heise, Village Administrator, Village of Egg Harbor

  • 2017:  Mark Elliott, Executive Director, Northwest Passage, Webster; and Stephanie Samarripa, Anti-Graffiti Program Coordinator, City of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services

  • 2016:  Creative Downtown Appleton, led by Josh Dukelow, community activist, and Paula Vandehey, City of Appleton Public Works Director; and Alan Nugent, civic leader and a founder of the Widespot Performing Arts Center in Stockholm

  • 2015:  the City of West Bend, for long-term commitment to promote the visual and performing arts in West Bend; and the Waunakee Creative Economy Initiative, a village-led, ongoing effort to grow Waunakee’s creative economy.

  • 2014:  Circuit Court Judge Joseph Boles and Pierce County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, based in Ellsworth, WI, for using the arts to improve law enforcement training in de-escalating mental health crisis calls; and Reedsburg Mayor Dave Estes, Reedsburg City Administrator Ken Witt, and Reedsburg Chamber of Commerce Director Kristine Koenecke for support of Fermentation Fest – A Live Culture Convergence and the Farm/Art DTour. 

  • 2013:  Rice Lake Main Street Program, Rice Lake; and the Sheboygan Performing Arts Association, Sheboygan

  • 2012:  State Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, River Falls; State Sen. Bob Jauch, Poplar; Marlene Doerr Kreilkamp, Founder/Former Director, SHARP Literacy, Milwaukee; and Anastasia Shartin, Visual Arts Director, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson

  • 2011:  Bill Schierl, President, Arts Alliance of Portage County, Stevens Point; and former Mayor Jeff Scrima, Waukesha

  • 2010: Lois Smith, founder of “Walls of Wittenberg,” Wittenberg; Julia Taylor, President, Greater Milwaukee Committee, Milwaukee; the Green Bay Neighborhood Leadership Council’s Beautification Committee, Green Bay; and The Hometown Gazette newspaper, Clayton

  • 2009: Carol Kratchowill, Vice President, Sauk County Art Association, Merrimac; and Former Menomonie Mayor Dennis Cropp and former Dunn County Board member B. Jane Hoyt, for the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts, Menomonie.