Yes, Like the Seasons, Things Change
Hello, all poets and lovers of poetry. Greetings from the Loveland Poet Laureate (LPL).
We are starting a blog of all things poetry. Today I want to discuss what is changing in the Loveland City Budget, but first recap what these last two and a half years have brought to us while I have been Poet Laureate.
The Loveland Poet Laureate is endorsed by the City Council and appointed for a two-to-three-year term. This is an unpaid position, not a City employee. The City has provided a tremendous amount of support by allowing the LPL to use the Museum and Library for free several times a year and provided the Devereaux Room and the Rialto for minimal costs once or twice a year. City staff has been a great resource.
With the support of the City of Loveland we have held many events. In collaboration with the Loveland Library we have brought you sixteen fabulous workshops, with the Loveland Museum we have held four ekphrastic shows and ten seasonal celebratory poetry performances.
With the Rialto Theater we have hosted a reading by the incredible poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in 2023 along with her workshop, and in 2024 we hosted Carolyn Forché for both a conversation with Evan Oakley, a reading, and a reception.
In short, we have had a long, continuous, and fruitful relationship with the city of Loveland since our inception when the Veronica Patterson Loveland Poet Laureate Program began in 2019.
Due to budgetary constraints and concerns related to the removal of the food tax in Loveland by voters, the City’s budget is projected to be reduced and budget cuts will greatly affect the arts. As an entity that has benefited from in-kind funding from the city, we too will feel the squeeze.
For more than two decades, we have been committed to keeping our programs free or affordable so that everyone in the community can attend. Your donations at the door have helped make that possible.
We hope to obtain our 5013c tax exempt status making the Poet Laureate Program eligible for grants to continue our work.
For now, our events will continue, but they will need your support more than ever before. Our plan is to continue to hold the workshops and readings that we have in the past while continuing to make plans for our future. We hope to keep the costs very low for our programming, but in 2025 we will have to begin charging a very small fee for our workshops. Scholarships for hardships will be made available.
As we go into this autumn and begin our search for the 2025-2027 Loveland Poet Laureate, we hope that our selection will yield a visionary who will advance our efforts and carry on our excellent programming which would not be possible without your support and without the dedicated work of our Poet Laureate Advisory committee members who have tirelessly advanced the appreciation and knowledge of and for poetry in our community.
Warm Regards, always.
Lynn Kincanon
Loveland Poet Laureate 2022-2025
We are starting a blog of all things poetry. Today I want to discuss what is changing in the Loveland City Budget, but first recap what these last two and a half years have brought to us while I have been Poet Laureate.
The Loveland Poet Laureate is endorsed by the City Council and appointed for a two-to-three-year term. This is an unpaid position, not a City employee. The City has provided a tremendous amount of support by allowing the LPL to use the Museum and Library for free several times a year and provided the Devereaux Room and the Rialto for minimal costs once or twice a year. City staff has been a great resource.
With the support of the City of Loveland we have held many events. In collaboration with the Loveland Library we have brought you sixteen fabulous workshops, with the Loveland Museum we have held four ekphrastic shows and ten seasonal celebratory poetry performances.
With the Rialto Theater we have hosted a reading by the incredible poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in 2023 along with her workshop, and in 2024 we hosted Carolyn Forché for both a conversation with Evan Oakley, a reading, and a reception.
In short, we have had a long, continuous, and fruitful relationship with the city of Loveland since our inception when the Veronica Patterson Loveland Poet Laureate Program began in 2019.
Due to budgetary constraints and concerns related to the removal of the food tax in Loveland by voters, the City’s budget is projected to be reduced and budget cuts will greatly affect the arts. As an entity that has benefited from in-kind funding from the city, we too will feel the squeeze.
For more than two decades, we have been committed to keeping our programs free or affordable so that everyone in the community can attend. Your donations at the door have helped make that possible.
We hope to obtain our 5013c tax exempt status making the Poet Laureate Program eligible for grants to continue our work.
For now, our events will continue, but they will need your support more than ever before. Our plan is to continue to hold the workshops and readings that we have in the past while continuing to make plans for our future. We hope to keep the costs very low for our programming, but in 2025 we will have to begin charging a very small fee for our workshops. Scholarships for hardships will be made available.
As we go into this autumn and begin our search for the 2025-2027 Loveland Poet Laureate, we hope that our selection will yield a visionary who will advance our efforts and carry on our excellent programming which would not be possible without your support and without the dedicated work of our Poet Laureate Advisory committee members who have tirelessly advanced the appreciation and knowledge of and for poetry in our community.
Warm Regards, always.
Lynn Kincanon
Loveland Poet Laureate 2022-2025