Innovation keeps Waupaca Community Arts Board going strong
Submitted Photo
Two weeks into the Waupaca Community Arts Board’s annual fundraising campaign, the Waupaca community has doubled its contributions to it compared to the same time frame last year.
The Friends of WCAB Campaign continues through November.
“We are so grateful for this unprecedented support,” said WCAB President Marci Reynolds. “We pivoted our events at the beginning of the pandemic and worked hard to bring Waupaca safe activities and projects when so many things were being cancelled. These early contributions tell us that we’re on the right track for 2021.”
Forced to cancel its summer events, WCAB brainstormed new covid-safe events like the 10-week Summer Craft Café that provided residents with five different art project kits they could do at home.
Out of the Craft Café, two community made Covid Quilts were born, which will be on display in early 2021.
In addition, WCAB went ahead with the Drawn Together by Kindness community art project that first began last October.
Hundreds of kindness flags – made by Waupaca residents before the pandemic – became kindness hearts filling the city square with messages of compassion, empathy and love.
WCAB also lined Main Street with colorful family-made banners representing human connectedness.
“We never realized how timely this community art project would be when we started in October of 2019,” said project chairperson Laura Reynolds. “But by August, the project felt like the balm we all needed.”
This fall, WCAB sponsored the creation of the 100-foot-long Union Street mural on the Antiques on Main building.
The board hired mural artist Leif Larson, whose whimsical representation of the Waupaca community is now a showstopper in the center of downtown.
“We are already busy planning for a challenging 2021,” Reynolds said. “We are committed to keeping Waupaca safe. But that doesn’t mean ‘cancel,’ it means more creative planning, just like we did this year. The amazing generosity of Waupaca is helping WCAB make this happen. We are deeply grateful for that support.”
Donations are being accepted through WCAB’s secure online payment system at www.waupacaarts.org/friends-of-wcab-annual-campaign-2020.
Checks may be mailed to WCAB, P.O. Box 88, Waupaca, WI 54981.