Informational presentation about new initiative to bring out-of-state creative professionals to Fox Cities, June 17, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Creative Professionals Talent Recruitment Initiative is a new partnership focused on economic development.
Consisting of three organizations, the state awarded the group with a grant of nearly half a million dollars to help attract and relocate 20 creative professionals — like musicians, filmmakers, artists and other entrepreneurs — to the Fox Valley. However, local artists have concerns.
Appleton Downtown, Inc., the Trout Museum of Art and gener8tor art make up the partnership.
“We know that creative professionals are building communities. They’re entrepreneurs, they’re creative thinkers. They’re creating the level of vibrancy and entrepreneurship in communities that are actually making change in growing economies,” said Jennifer Stephany, executive director of Appleton Downtown, Inc.
The partnership was awarded a $450,000 grant by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. The WEDC manages the grant in halves, so the group gets $225,000 right now and it can qualify for the second half of the money by recruiting 10 professionals within the next 18 months.
Recipients must currently live outside of Wisconsin and have a minimum household income of $55,000. If selected, they would receive $10,000 and a $2,500 moving stipend.
One application has already been submitted. Stephany said it came from a former Wisconsin resident who has a recording studio in Nashville.
Some of the money will go toward new gener8tor art programming in the Appleton area.
“We talk about budgets and taxes, and if they should be an LLC or a sole proprietor, and ‘What do those words even mean?’ Then, once we kind of cover that basic business know-how, then we dive deeper into the different creative industries and how you can be successful in the contemporary art market versus the music industry,” said Maureen Ragalie, gener8tor art’s managing director.
The core of our program is this accelerator program, where we work with a small cohort of creative professionals, and over seven weeks, we really help them build and scale their creative business. At the end of the accelerator, most of the creatives who go through it experience at least 20% increase in revenue.
Local artists said they’re not against collaboration with new artists in the community. However, they are concerned with the new initiative.
“We do believe that the time and effort of the organizations that are backing this in the local community could be put toward the vibrant existing local artists,” said Katrina Schlafer. “I understand these funds are available, but time and effort that we can put into our community is also valuable. We understand that these are governed, restricted funds, and we’re not here requesting something that is literally impossible.”
“I’m just a little nervous about how it will play out and if we’ll be brought back up later, or if this is just something they’re saying right now,” said Fallon Buchholz. “They’re helping with studio space. So, I want to know how much studio space is actually available if you bring in 20 out-of-state creative professionals, and they all get studio space. Is there any studio space left for the local artist that you want to help after that?”
The program is viewed as an investment in the cultural and economic growth of the region. The partnership said this could be a gateway to getting state funding helping local artists.
“Maybe there will be, our Legislature and other people in the state will be like, ‘Well, these creative professionals do bring economic impact,'” said Trout Museum of Art Executive Director Christina Turner.
Research shows right now, Wisconsin spends just 20 cents per capita on arts funding. That ranks 48th in the nation.
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