Sioux Falls Has a Plan for Its Arts. Now Comes the Hard Part.
Last week, I sat in a room with artists, administrators, arts commissioners, and community leaders. Alex Keen of Keen Independent Research flew in as an out-of-state consultant to present something the city has been working toward for nearly a decade.
A 196-page Arts and Cultural Master Plan for Sioux Falls.
Ten months of research. Fifty-six stakeholder interviews. Ninety people at a public kickoff meeting. Six hundred and forty-nine survey responses. A 10-year roadmap.
That is a serious piece of work. And Sioux Falls deserves to know what's in it — and what it asks of us.
What the Plan Says
The research confirmed what most of us already feel: Sioux Falls has something real here.
Ninety percent of survey respondents support the city allocating public funds for arts and culture. Eighty-nine percent want more dedicated arts spaces. The city has 371 creative businesses. Arts and culture organizations generated over $126 million in total economic activity in 2023 alone.
That's not a city with a struggling arts community. That's a city with momentum.
The plan identifies five strategic priorities to build on it:
Elevate Sioux Falls's Cultural Identity — city-wide wayfinding, integrating arts into tourism, public art at our gateways, and exploring a major destination attraction that could put us on the national map.
Expand Cultural Spaces and Assets — address facility gaps, affordable rehearsal and studio space, a shared makerspace, and public art in every corridor and neighborhood.
Steward Public Cultural Investment — better contract management, clearer reporting, stronger coordination between the city and the institutions it funds.
Increase Access — a centralized arts calendar, free and low-cost events to remove barriers for new and underserved audiences.
Support the Creative Workforce and Economy — connect creative industries to economic development, expand mentorship, and support emerging organizations through microgrants and technical assistance.
These are the right priorities. Every one of them connects to what I believe about this city.
My Honest Take
I brought some questions into the room — not as skepticism, but on behalf of constituents who asked me directly what this plan means for them and where their seat is at the table.
The plan itself takes those questions seriously. It acknowledges that ninety-one percent of survey respondents identified as white and that "participation did not fully capture the range of communities and cultural experiences in the city." That kind of honesty in a public document matters.
When I raised it, Alex Keen gave a thoughtful answer: the most effective approach is to partner directly with cultural communities and empower them to curate their own programming. That principle is embedded in the plan — and implementation is where it can really come to life.
Sioux Falls public schools are 45% non-white. Our city speaks over 100 languages. The word "culture" in this plan's title naturally invites those communities in. That's not a reason to slow things down — it's a reason to be intentional about who we bring along.
As implementation begins, here are a few things I'd love to see us build on:
A cultural equity lens woven into implementation — a data-backed look at who is underrepresented in our arts funding, board seats, and public spaces, with measurable goals to reflect our full community over time.
A plain-language public summary, translated into the city's most spoken non-English languages. The communities this plan hopes to reach deserve a version they can actually access.
Dedicated engagement pathways for underrepresented communities — not just ways to hear about what's happening, but real opportunities to give input and shape what comes next. Whether that's neighborhood listening sessions, partnerships with cultural organizations, or multilingual feedback channels, every community that calls Sioux Falls home deserves a seat at the table — not just a seat in the audience.
These aren't critiques of the work that's been done. They're invitations — rooted in what the plan itself is already pointing toward.
What Comes Next
A long-time community member reflected on 30 years of growth in our arts scene. From a symphony once rumored to be failing — now thriving. From debating whether to allow murals — to the city actively commissioning them.
He didn't tell that story to make us comfortable. He told it to make us ambitious.
The plan is good. The momentum is real. The opportunity is to treat this not just as a document to adopt — but as a promise to keep together.
A Vibrant Community isn't just the institutions that anchor our downtown. It's the Vietnamese restaurant owner's kid who grew up watching Sioux Falls become something. The East African artist who doesn't yet know the city has space for her. The working family that deserves to walk through the doors of a world-class cultural institution and feel like it was built for them too.
That's the Sioux Falls I'm running to build.
It's always been our city, and now is our moment.
Let's rise together. ☀️
— Vince Danh
Candidate, Sioux Falls City Council At-Large | June 2nd, 2026