Our village enjoys many natural advantages when it comes to quality of life factors. The surrounding scenery is beautiful and there is no shortage of outdoor activities for people to enjoy. We are rich in tradition and history and within an hour's drive we have access to some of the finest cultural offerings available.

So why focus specifically on art in our community?

A community's capacity to create, validate and support art and culture as part of daily life is a measure of its health and vitality. Opportunities for creative expression are important to community—its part of what makes for a good place to work and to live.

Art offers outlets for human expression and creative impulses. Although they get taken for granted, arts and culture are central to the economy. They are catalysts for education, economic development, and civic participation.

It's not just the symphony, opera, galleries or ballet, when you hear the word "art." Many forms of art and cultural expression involve the average person in creative and artistic activities. Any community activity that has an aesthetic is important. It's people coming together with some kind of social or civic intention. What's important about this is the recognition that creativity is an economic commodity. That's what makes for a vibrant and diverse community, a community that supports the "literal" arts: theater, music, visual art – both contemporary and traditional and expresses itself openly in events and concerts banners and window displays.

We are fortunate to live in a place where there is both preservation and innovation. A place where there is a range of artistic expression, from amateur to professional and commercial to nonprofit.

I encourage everyone to take part in the art and culture in our community, whether it's as a spectator, participant, donor, sponsor or all of the above. Creative and artistic expression is a strength of a culturally vital community and remember:

• Art is a link to the past.
• Art helps us to understand and empathize with the others
• Art encourages imagination.
• Art provides a way to express our feelings
• Art teaches us to pay attention to symbolism, metaphor, and color.