YOUNGSTOWN — The Cultural Alliance announced its mission Friday to promote area arts and culture and to use those elements to promote the region as a whole.

Representatives from Ballet Western Reserve, Butler Institute of American Art, JAC Management Group, Youngstown Playhouse and Youngstown State University have been meeting for about 18 months to discuss ways to promote both eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

“A regional effort allows us as a bigger organization to attract more attention to this area to support not only the arts but the economy of this area,” alliance President Dr. Charles Amedia Jr. said during a news conference Friday at the Covelli Centre’s Community Room.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said companies looking at where to locate their businesses don’t focus on one city’s boundaries.

“They look at regions and what that region has to offer,” Franklin said. “This is a perfect example of us coming together, united as one, to sort of brand and brag about what we have in terms of our culture and arts.”

Ken Bigley, vice president of JAC Management, said the group operates under the philosophy that “All boats rise in a high tide … The idea is not to wash away anyone’s individual identity but to enhance the overall appeal” of the region.

The Rev. Lewis Macklin, who is on the Youngstown Playhouse board, echoed those sentiments, comparing the alliance to a pot of chili.

“They’re added to the whole, but their uniqueness, it’s not compromised,” Macklin said. “What we contribute to that process, that gives it its flavor and its beauty. The Cultural Alliance represents the beauty and essence of this community.”

The group is working with an outside consultant who crafted a similar plan for Nashville, Tenn. And while many of the alliance’s members are traditional arts organizations, Amedia said The Cultural Alliance is “everything we think of as our heritage in this community,” and that include the arts as well as athletics, county fairs and ethnic festivals.

One of its first tools unveiled is a website, theculturalalliance.org, that includes a calendar of participating organizations’ activities. In addition to being a source for visitors, the goal is to avoid the scheduling conflicts that force arts organizations to compete with one another.

The alliance is in the process of applying for 501c3 non-profit status. Phyllis Paul, dean of YSU’s Cliffe College of Creative Arts, said once that status is granted, the alliance could help member organizations acquire funding and apply for larger grants and donations the individual members might not be able to attract on their own.

YSU President Jim Tressel said more people worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic and realized they didn’t have to live in the same location as their employer.

“In order for us to have that culture so people want to live here, raise their families here and grow here, we have to have activity,” Tressel said. “Activity is so critical.”

Alliance membership is open to nonprofits, businesses, organizations and individuals who support or are involved with cultural or artistic venues, presentations, festivals and other activities that are intended to engage the public and enrich the artistic or cultural life of the region.

agray@tribtoday.com