The Villages Folk School should be the foundation for a new cultural center that has the space to host the majority of the current Folk School Classes; neither Keosauqua nor Van Buren County has the capacity to support two similar yet independent organizations. The cultural center should expand the offerings beyond the more traditional classes, though. Based on community input, additional classes should focus on cooking, technology, crafting, and dance to begin.

Keosauqua benefits from outstanding outdoor recreation opportunities and historical sites. It also enjoys easy access to a wide variety of classes through the Villages Folk School. The School offers experiences in traditional arts and skills in rural settings. While the rural settings of the classes allow participants to experience village life in a simpler time, the dispersion of classes – currently numbering over 50 – creates challenges and sometimes limits participation.

The programming at the center should include a mix of offerings throughout the year and should vary in duration to accommodate all lifestyles. Some classes should be single sessions, while others should span multiple weeks. Sometimes, it will make sense for classes to be conducted as drop-in sessions, whereas others will require participants’ presence for a designated time frame. It should be noted that some existing fire arts offerings currently are slated to remain at their existing locations given the equipment needs for these classes.

In addition to offering classes throughout the year, the center also should offer summer camps. As laid out in the business plan in Appendix B, the camps should be offered multiple times over the summer to maximize participation. The camps should give participants a taste of the other classes offered at the center throughout the year, spurring interest and generating participant leads for these other offerings.

Of course, as the programs unfold and center staff better understand the demand for each offering, the classes and camps should be modified. Cultural center leaders should analyze the class frequency, duration, and participation as a baseline. These should be supplemented with participant feedback. It will be imperative to continually modify and add new offerings if the center is to be successful in the long run.

The cultural center should be located downtown, ideally in a currently underused building. By locating downtown, more people will be drawn to Keosauqua’s main street, ultimately boosting existing businesses in the immediate area.

The space should include a couple of offices available for rent. A culinary space should be available for community use, and a classroom should also be available for rental when not in use by the center itself. The cultural center should be designed to host larger events, too, filling another expressed community need. Taken together, these rental opportunities represent nearly $9,000 in revenue for the center.

With nearly 60 classes and almost 10 camps, it will be essential for the center to have full-time staff members, including a managing director and administrative assistant. Cultural center officials and the Villages Folk School must work collaboratively to determine how existing staff transition to the cultural center and how any gaps are filled. The cultural center also should hire a marketing director on contract to assist on an as-needed basis.

The full programming slate and business plan for the cultural center can be found in Appendix B.