Setting The Stage – The Road to Developing a Cultural Plan in Montgomery County Maryland
Participants at this case study session will leave with a sense of our journey, along with an understanding of the various resources – fiscal, physical, human, philosophical – needed to conduct such a plan, along with other key steps and learnings that we believe would be informative and helpful to county leaders across the state as they consider cultural and strategic plans tailored to their residents in these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times.
Montgomery County’s thirty-year general plan, Thrive Montgomery 2050, approved in October 2022, recommended the creation of a new cultural plan for Montgomery County. After more than 2 years of gathering information and laying the groundwork for a new plan, in 2024 the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) selected Metris Arts Consulting to lead the cultural planning process. In 2025 AHCMC and Metris began spearheading the County’s first comprehensive cultural planning initiative in over two decades and now, following the conclusion of the data-gathering “Discover” phase, the agency is entering the “Envision” phase to synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into a draft cultural plan with policy recommendations. A full draft is expected in mid 2026, followed by a “Confirm” broad public review phase with finalization by late summer to fall, 2026.
Participants at this case study session will leave with a sense of our journey, along with an understanding of the various resources – fiscal, physical, human, philosophical – needed to conduct such a plan, along with other key steps and learnings that we believe would be informative and helpful to county leaders across the state as they consider cultural and strategic plans tailored to their residents in these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times.Suzan E. Jenkins
Suzan E. Jenkins is a mother, Nonna, daughter, sister and wife, and a leader in the non-profit arts and culture sector. Jenkins has served in senior executive positions at the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the Recording Industry Association of America and as the CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD since 2008.
A Peabody Award winning producer of the radio series Let the Good Times Roll for Public Radio International, Suzan Jenkins has been recognized for her leadership and entrepreneurial endeavors, including by the Gazette of Politics and Business, Women Business Leaders of Maryland, Jazz Alliance International, the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, Howard University Jazz Ensemble, the Black American Heritage Foundation and Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture. As co-founder of the Nonprofit Energy Alliance, Jenkins is the winner of the Washingtonian Green Giant Award.
Jenkins serves on the Board of Maryland Citizens for the Arts; as a mentor for arts administrators; as Past President of the County Arts Agencies of Maryland and on the Montgomery County MD Remembrance and Reconciliation Commission.
Jenkins holds an Honorary Degree in Public Service from Montgomery College, MD; a BS in Psychology and Management, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Suzan Jenkins is a International Coaching Federation Certified coach and is dedicated to anti-racist and equitable work that is both organizationally and individually bound.
Todd W. Bressi
Todd W. Bressi is a public art and cultural planning consultant and urban designer based in the Philadelphia area. He has managed an independent arts consulting practice since 2008.
Todd consults with public agencies, community groups, arts and culture organizations and developers throughout the country. He has worked on more than thirty public art, arts district, cultural and placemaking plans, managed complex public art commissions, teamed with artists on design and community engagement projects, and provided on-call consulting to public art organizations.
His public art consulting has resulted in plans, policies, guidelines, ordinances and other essential underpinnings of public art programs, and has inspired more than twenty projects recognized by the Public Art Network “Year in Review.” His broader arts and culture planning experience has focused on community-based processes that focuses on people’s experience of a creative life, particularly in the service of strengthening their cultural identity, in addition to a traditional focus on arts organizations and facilities. In Maryland, he has worked with the Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Council, Frederick Arts Council, Prince Georges County Arts and Humanities, City of Salisbury, Town of Leonardtown, and the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
Bressi has a Master of Science in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s in urban studies from Columbia University. He is a member of the the Public Art Exchange and the American Planning Association’s arts and culture division.
Joe Frandoni
For the past fifteen years, Joe Frandoni has advocated for increased equity, opportunity, and efficiency in the arts and humanities; helping cultural organizations and individual practitioners develop innovative values-based business solutions that expand their community impact and support the achievement of their strategic goals. A graduate of both the Master of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Public Policy and Management and the Master of Innovation and Organization of Culture and the Arts program at the University of Bologna, Bologna Italy, he brings a global perspective focused on data-driven decision making and community-first programming to his work. In his current position as Deputy Director of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC), he leads new program development for AHCMC including cultural planning, advocacy efforts for the creative community, and capacity-building initiatives for constituents. Previously, he held positions with the Kennedy Center’s DeVos Institute of Arts Management, the Center for Arts Management and Technology, and The Requiem Project, a nonprofit dedicated to the restoration of the historic Emory Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.