Brucemore was voted the Best Cultural Attraction in the Corridor Business Journal’s 2019 Best of the Corridor competition. Nearly 3,000 people participated in voting for their favorites across 50 categories, ranging from the best professional firms to the best retailers.
Director of Community Engagement Tara Richards said, “Brucemore has an ambitious mission. Preserving this site at the highest professional level, expanding its impact in creative ways, and finding enough revenue to do both is an enormous challenge.”
In the last year, Brucemore has continued to increase opportunities and provide new ways for people to learn the community’s history and experience the site. Richards said, “we’ve also embarked on major preservation work of the mansion, which provides a new opportunity to learn about our community’s heritage, to watch the work in action, and most importantly, to be part of ensuring Brucemore continues to be a treasure for eastern Iowa for the next 100 years.”
Brucemore welcomes tens of thousands of visitors annually, including over 5,000 students from more than 20 different schools. The organization’s events and programs celebrate and foster a vibrant local arts scene while generating important revenue for the local economy. Brucemore is a community partner, resource, and accelerator for other local, non-profit organizations and businesses.
Brucemore is recognized nationally as an example of how a historic site should engage a community. Executive Director David Janssen said, “Preserving our shared history and offering unique events to make it accessible reminds us of who we were, who we are today, and who we strive to become.”
Additionally, events like the Classics at Brucemore, A Modern Salon, Cabaret in the Courtyard, and Outdoor Children’s Theater, have become part of the fabric of the Corridor. Richards said, “It’s hard to imagine living in this community without all that Brucemore offers.”
The winners were presented in two consecutive issues of the Corridor Business Journal.
View part II (coming soon)