Long Beach Post: Mayor's Arts & Culture Blue Ribbon Commission Up For Approval Tomorrow

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Mayor's Arts & Culture Blue Ribbon Commission Up For Approval Tomorrow

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9:45am | On March 2nd, the City Council voted in favor of the creation, by the Mayor, of a 'Blue Ribbon Commission' that would explore alternate sources of funding for Arts and Culture. At tomorrow's Council meeting, the creative community will rally in the Council chambers in support of the Mayor's appointments to this new commission.

According to a document released by the Mayor's office on Friday, there will be seven commissioners. Each nominee brings a unique and valuable set of skills to the table.

From the document, here are

the nominees, with a brief bio for each:

Larry Black is owner and operator of The Varden Hotel, formerly known as the Dolly Varden Hotel, and currently ranked #1 on Trip Adviser. Mr. Black is active in his community and serves on the ICT Board of Directors and the board for the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Blair Cohn is the Executive Director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. Former race director of the International City Marathon, Blair has put his experience to work in Bixby Knolls, managing a bustling uptown with a modest budget and creative ideas.

Carina Cristiano Leoni is the Project Director of the Connected Corridor; a project of Leadership Long Beach transforming neighborhoods into one community by connecting stakeholders along Atlantic Avenue. She is a former K-12 teacher, and has developed social media curriculum for use by CSULB's Professional Development Services. Ms. Cristiano Leoni remains active with the day-to-day operations of Nino's Italian Restaurant, a family-operated business serving Long Beach for over 50 years.

Julie Heggeness is an attorney with a long history with the Long Beach Memorial Foundation. She is currently the Director of Trusts & Estates, serving Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital. As a Leadership Long Beach graduate, she remains very active in her community through several boards and commissions. Ms. Heggeness was recently appointed to the Redevelopment Agency board.

Antonio Ruiz is founder of The Creativity Network, a web based video channel showcasing segments on artists, art venues, performances, and discussions to promote arts, culture, and creativity. Mr. Ruiz is a graduate of the Leadership Long Beach Executive Quick-Start program. He remains active in the community, looking for ways to engage residents, artists, and stakeholders, and to preserve and advocate for the arts within the City.

Jan van Dijs is a Principal of J.R. van Dijs, Inc., a locally based building and development company. Jan is actively involved in the restoration of historical properties throughout Long Beach; past projects include the Art Theatre, East Village Creative Offices, and the Ebell Club.

Michele Wilson is an experienced trial attorney in the Civil and Criminal arenas. Ms. Wilson stays involved in her community by serving on local boards for Food Finders, Long Beach City College Foundation, and the Arts Council for Long Beach. She is also a member of CAMEO and past affiliations include the Long Beach Opera, Long Beach Museum of Art, and Musical Theater West.

The document released on Friday also included reports from two previous examinations of alternate arts funding. The first, from 2001, led to the creation of the '1 Percent for the Arts' measure that, for many years, has required developers in specific downtown areas to put 1% of their total project cost into a fund for public art. This program, managed in partnership between the Arts Council for Long Beach and the Redevelopment Agency, has had its critics but, has certainly created some successes.

An expansion of the program, outside the auspices of the RDA, to the entire City has been discussed for years, and could be a very straight forward and relatively painless way to greatly increase funding for the Arts. You can expect to see this as a recommendation from the 'Blue Ribbon Commission.'

The 2nd report, from 2004, produced a set of recommendations that were never implemented. Mostly, they focused on tax increases that required two thirds approval by voters.

Worse, many of the ideas that arose through community discussions were never included in the final report, even though they could have made significant improvements to the cultural landscape, and were far easier to implement.

I mention this because, looking forward, I believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from these past experiences.

First, unless the City Council and Mayor's office are willing to provide leadership in support of arts and culture, even the best ideas produced by this new 'Blue Ribbon Commission' will be of little value.

The best way to make sure our elected municipal representatives support the recommendations of the commission is to communicate with them directly. Let them know what your priorities and values are, and make sure they know you care about how they vote.

Speak with your neighbors and local business owners, brainstorm your own sets of ideas, and participate actively by sharing your ideas with the Commission and Council members.

If that doesn't work, begin to look for people in your neighborhood that share your values, and have leadership qualities. Encourage them to run for public office. After all, there's always another round of municipal elections every 2 years.

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9 Comments so far.

Disappointed
Really bummed this decision-making process was not open to the public! Also bummed it took this long - This was passed March 2 and only now is the committee announced? I don't think the Mayor or his staff really care about the arts, or understand how the arts matter...what frustrates me most is, I'm skeptical they picked the optimum mix of people to do this job. If this group is meant to re-think everything from scratch, they should be the most visionary and most competent people in our community... For example, where's Brian Ulaszewski???? (please note: I am not Brian Ulaszewski. There are plenty of other people I could mention too!)

Lindsay
Thank you Sander. Having been through similar processes in the past, it matters not the vision unless the council can actively and fully support the arts. We have creative genious in this City that is never fully appreciated.

Sander
Disappointed, I have to admit that many in the community were feeling challenged by the selection process, both the time it took and how the selections were made. Still, I feel hopeful that this group will not be insular, and strive to reach out to the best and brightest minds our City has, so that they can present a viable set of funding alternatives to the Council and Mayor. We, too, must not be insular, and reach out beyond the comfort of our personal silos to connect with, educate, and activate neighbors and community groups. If our elected leaders feel broad-based support, they'll be more likely to take political risks.

Sander
Lindsay, how can we be more effective in helping the Council to actively and fully support the arts?

Another Commission!
I hope this commission understands that in a recession the city has no business placing arts responsibilities on the taxpayers. If the public wants arts as private citizens they must support and pay for same. Many of us are fed up with political types mandating costs we can not afford.

Sander
We can all agree, I hope, that certain things are best handled through public entities, and funded through taxes. As a society, we've agreed that public safety is a service we all need, and should all pay for equally. There are certainly many people who, because they can afford it, live in gated communities, or employ private security services to protect themselves and their property. Is this justification enough to eliminate funding for public safety? If you look at our municipal budget, a huge percentage goes to police and fire, specifically pensions. If we eliminated all the current jobs now, we'd at least stop ourselves from sinking further into debt. We can't afford these costs and yet it is we, the residents of Long Beach, who have insisted we continue paying for them. There is always a necessary balance needed between spending and services. Facts plainly show that every municipal dollar invested into Arts and Culture returns tenfold in improved quality of life, safer streets, smarter and more socially aware kids, tourism, and the list goes on. I don't think the return on our investment into pension funds is nearly as rewarding.

Brian
Wow, I am quite disappointed as well. I would have loved to have been one of the nominees, or at the very least been a part of the whole process. I agree with everyone, that it should have been an open bid. I love my city, but am a little down about this one.

WHERE ARE THE ARTISTS?
Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe what I feel about what I am reading. Where are the artists? From what I see there is only one artist and one art district person on the board!!! The PCA was a great little place to lose money now the city is creating another? Sander why aren't you on this board??? No one has been as consistently involved in the art movement of Long Beach as you. People come and go but you're still here. These business types stay on as long as it looks like they will control some money. Once the money runs out or can't be found they disappear.

Michele Wilson
@Disappointed, I was not privy to the process by which we were selected but would love to sit down with you and hear what you have to say regarding preserving the Arts in Long Beach and finding innovative ways to fund them. Give me a call and we will meet for coffee. I would love to sit down with you. (562) 433-7718 Office

Sander lives with his wife, step-daughter, dogs, and cats. He's an avid photographer, and enjoys creating close-up images of flowers and plants, and capturing urban landscapes. He's been involved in music production since the early 80's, and worked professionally as an audio engineer, live sound mixer, and producer.

Sander Roscoe Wolff is a musician, artist, and was co-founder and Executive Director of LongBeachCulture.org, the City's first comprehensive, and free, arts calendar and registry.

He has served on the boards of the 2nd City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space and the East Village Arts District, curated a 6 month gallery exhibition in the Long Beach World Trade Center, and produced Songs For Bethune, a CD of original and traditional holiday songs by local artists, to raise funds for the Arts Council's Passport to the Arts program.

His work has been featured in local gallery exhibitions, in SoundWalk, and L.A. Siggraph's Photon Ballet.

His current music project is Ain Soph Aur, a systems based improvisational performance duo and studio team.