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Staff and local artists are formulating a strategic five-year plan for the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Frederick.

On Tuesday, a group of 13 local artists and community members gathered at the center on South Carroll Street to participate in the first of four focus groups discussing the center's exhibits, marketing and business development.

Two more focus groups on the future of the center's classes and operations and facility are scheduled for Monday.

The process of creating a new strategic plan for the 23-year-old arts center began in January, said Catherine Moreland, executive director of the Delaplaine, and the focus groups are the next step in that process.

The arts center's board of directors will discuss ideas generated by the focus groups and will send the ideas out for additional surveying and public comments, Moreland said.

"It's the best way to get the most intense input," she said.

"We want to do what [the community] wants."

The Delaplaine's board of directors will adopt a strategic plan in November and implement it in January.

During a nearly 90-minute round table discussion on Tuesday morning, the group of mostly local artists, teachers and members of the Delaplaine brainstormed and voted on five top priorities for improving the arts center's exhibits.

At the top of the list was the need for hiring a curator, followed by creating an emerging artists and national juried shows, hosting talks about the gallery's exhibits and reconsidering annual shows and exhibits.

Margaret Dowell, an artist and art professor at Carroll Community College, advocated for the Delaplaine to hire a curator to "take what is here and crank it up a notch," she said. "I think the center is ready for the next step."

Moreland noted that the group's ideas for the exhibits are reasonable, though the arts center is "maxed out" on staffing with four full-time employees and additional part-time staff. She estimated that it a curator's salary would cost a minimum of $500 per exhibit.

But Moreland noted the possibility of the arts center's volunteer exhibition selection panel fulfilling some of the duties of a curator.

The Delaplaine arts center doesn't charge admission to view its eight exhibit spaces and makes a small commission on exhibit sales, Moreland said.

The Delaplaine rents the Margaret Gardiner Pavilion inside its building, which "brings in a nice chunk of income every year," Moreland added.

The Delaplaine operates debt-free, she said, thanks to the foresight of its founders. "If we can't pay for it, we don't do it," Moreland said.

E-mail Katherine Mullen at kmullen@gazette.net.