Tucson adopts new plan to celebrate culture and heritage

Tucson has adopted the ¡Somos Uno! Cultural Heritage strategic plan that celebrates its history, arts, and culture through community-driven initiatives.

Tucson adopts new plan to celebrate culture and heritage

Tucson has a new cultural heritage strategic plan intended to celebrate what makes the city unique and foster an appreciation for its history, heritage, arts and culture.

Tucson’s mayor and council unanimously adopted the plan last week, and Mayor Regina Romero said the “¡Somos Uno! Cultural Heritage Strategy” was a long-held aspiration for her tenure as mayor.

“The first few days that I came into the mayor's office, I put a little note on my grease board that said, ‘Dream a little dream,’ and this strategy was part of that dream,” she said. “So it is really a labor of love.”

“Somos Uno,” which translates to “we are one,” was launched as an initiative in 2023 and was shaped by extensive community engagement, which consultant Holly Shen detailed during the meeting.

A defining feature of the ¡Somos Uno! strategy, Shen said, is its commitment to public involvement. The planning process was launched with an open house at Tucson Meet Yourself and included more than 2,000 individual participants.

The plan was guided with the help of a steering committee that included representatives from local art, business, tourism and cultural communities.

The planning team, which was made up of representatives from the city and local art community and employees of Lord Consultants, reviewed nearly 1,750 survey responses and conducted 35 one-on-one interviews with community and opinion leaders. It also hosted 12 community engagement workshops, three pop-ups and three virtual office hour sessions.

This high volume participatory approach ensured that the strategy reflects the voices and needs of Tucson residents, Romero said.

“It really is about giving the proper and appropriate attention to heritage, history, arts, and culture in our community,” she said.

In September, the city released its State of Culture report, which helped provide a broader understanding of the current cultural ecosystem and provided a foundation for the plan.

The report included an analysis of existing data and plans related to Tucson’s heritage, history, artist and culture; key findings from community engagement; an inventory and map of cultural assets; an examination of funding and governance in comparable communities; and an analysis of the economic impact of the the arts, culture and creative sector.

The cultural asset inventory found more than 3,175 establishments that fit the criteria, making up 17% of the businesses in Tucson and 11% of the city’s overall employment base.

Collectively, Tucson’s arts, culture and creative industries provide more than 50,000 jobs.

They also bring in big bucks.

Each year, the local arts and cultural economy directly generates nearly $50 million in tax revenue for the city, while cultural tourism generates roughly $431 million in out-of-town visitor spending.

And the overall arts and cultural economy contributes $8.4 billion in business revenue in Tucson.

“These are truly impressive numbers and something that Tucson should really be proud of,” Shen said. “(They’re) also something that Tucson can leverage, can lean into to have impact in other areas. Arts and culture not being its own pillar, but being a tool that other sectors can avail themselves of to increase impact overall and improve the quality of life.”

The final plan approved by Mayor and Council includes four priority areas guided by 19 strategies and 97 actions:

  1. Creative Placemaking – Revitalizing public spaces to reflect Tucson’s cultural heritage.
  2. Belonging and Cultural Equity – Ensuring fair and inclusive access to cultural resources.
  3. Governance and Policy – Implementing municipal frameworks to protect and promote cultural assets.
  4. Cross-Sector Collaboration – Encouraging partnerships between public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

The update came at a crucial time, as recent federal actions targeting Hispanic communities raised concerns about cultural preservation and representation.

Cultural plans are road maps that cities and counties and even states use to take stock of cultural assets to generate additional economic revenue by leveraging those assets, deepening social cohesion and really amplifying the creative communities by focusing on the qualities that make those communities unique,” Shen said.

Samantha Callicutt is a Tucson Spotlight reporter and graduate student at the University of Arizona. Contact her at Scallicutt@arizona.edu.

Tucson Spotlight is a community-based newsroom that provides paid opportunities for students and rising journalists in Southern Arizona. Please support our work with a paid subscription.

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