Mission | Vision | Values
Strategic Planning
In September of 2020, the Great Lakes Center for the Arts Board of Directors completed a strategic planning process that laid out strategic goals for all areas of the organization. This process also saw the development and adoption of the Center’s mission, vision, and values which guide all of its pursuits.
The Center's Mission
The Center's mission is to inspire, entertain, educate, and serve all in Northern Michigan year-round by presenting exceptional experiences across the full spectrum of the performing arts and offering impactful educational opportunities.
The Center's Vision
By 2025, the Great Lakes Center for the Arts will be recognized as a leading Midwest performing arts presenter and provider of broadened cultural opportunities.
Founding Artistic Director and lead consultant for all areas, including mission, vision, program planning, and leadership, Michael M. Kaiser, President Emeritus of the Kennedy Center in Washington and Chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, is providing expertise, knowledge, and experience to the Great Lakes Center for the Arts ensuring its sustainable success.
The Center's Values
Accessible
Centrally located in the five-county region of the Northwest Lower Peninsula, the Center cultivates an approachable, welcoming, and inclusive environment in all aspects from affordability to those with physical, cognitive, and emotional impairments.
Community
The Center strives to serve as a cultural and social hub fostering collaborative relationships with the Northern Michigan artistic, non-profit, business, and geographic communities, and the artistic community-at-large.
Diversity
The Center embraces diversity and inclusivity in all its forms within its leadership, service to all in Northern Michigan, and opportunities to experience events across the vast spectrum of the performing arts and intellectual discussion.
Exceptional
The Center delivers exceptional service to its artists and patrons and operates at a high standard of quality and excellence.
Integrity
In all its interactions, the Center and its representatives conduct themselves with professionalism, transparency, honesty, accountability, and respect.
Sustainability
The Center is a responsible steward of its community resources – both ongoing donor investments in its mission and long-term maintenance of its state-of-the-art venue – and continually seeks to optimize earned income and build broad, sustainable support to maximize its impact on the region.
