LBCreative! arose from a series of discussions and meetings with several individuals and groups who were looking to discover and create new opportunities for collaboration, exhibition, and advocacy. Tanya Quinn, a dancer since the age of 6, is a member of the belly and fire dancing troupe Sirena Serpentina. One of the early organizers of LBCreative!, Tanya took some time to talk about the group, and its efforts.

Sander: For those who don't know, can you explain what LBCreative is?

Tanya: LBCreative! is a collaborative community that strengthens The Arts in Long Beach. We identify the needs of our creative community, cultivate opportunities and implement solutions to meet those needs. Through strategic outreach, building relationships and development of project driven action teams we connect, empower and inspire the community at large.

Sander: Let's break that down. Talk about how you identify the needs of the creative community. Can you share some needs you've identified, and what has the group done to address them?

Tanya: We began all this with a connections meeting back in July. We asked the community what their visions were and what they would like to see happen here in Long Beach. We took those vision statements and broke them out into the top six and from there we developed our action teams.

The creative community wanted to see more events where they could collaborate with other artists. Hence our events team was formed. They are currently hosting Creative Mixers that showcase a variety of artists from different mediums, but the main point is for the artists to get to know each other and collaborate on other projects. We currently have members of the community coming to the events team to help them host events. They are currently working on a charity event for next year.

The community also wanted more spaces to showcase their work. So in addition to the creative mixers, the creative spaces team has begun to identify places in the city and build partnerships/relationships with the owners of the spaces to make them available to artists.

Sander: That's fantastic! As you've moved through these various processes, what have you learned about the City, and the Creative Community, that you didn't know going in?

Tanya: Well, the "City" if meaning government seems to be disconnected to the needs of the artists and to the values that they serve to our community. I feel like that is beginning to change. The community at large is much more supportive of the arts than I imagined. It seems like the public, business owners and the like want to support the arts in anyway that they can. This is why I think it is so important to make art accessible at all levels.

In terms of the Creative Community... there is this deep need to connect, feel supported and valued. Creative people, professional artists & upcoming artists really want to give back to the community, they love Long Beach and want to feel valued and supported. The way I see it there is a need to cross pollinate and mix everyone up across the board. We get a lot of feedback and support regarding the work we are doing.

Sander: Have you encountered any specific roadblocks that you have plans to tackle in the coming year?

Tanya: As an organization we would like to start looking through the lens of art advocacy. We want to continue to work with different organizations and individuals to discover how we can find more ways to support artists in what they do and inspire people to create and express themselves. We would like to look at city policy in terms of permitting issues, we would like to garner more support from the arts council and we want to find ways for artists to get paid for their contributions to our community and demonstrate that Long Beach values its artists.

Sander: Let's talk about arts organizations for a moment. We've got lots, big and small. As you may know, the municipal government slashed funding to the Arts Council by half, and that will be directly impacting the grants given to these organizations. How do you think this will impact the creative community?

Tanya: Of course, everyone is affected by these cut backs yet at the same time I think this is a chance to become more active and creative. I would like to see the Arts Council leveraging the relationships they have fostered over the years with government officials and the "movers & shakers" to really show us what they are about, and advocate for the creative community at large.

Areas the creative community have continued to talk about is finding affordable artist housing, and art centers that stimulate collaboration and contribution. There is much the Arts Council could do to continue to help the creative community that doesn't just have to do with grants.

When we source out artists for murals and public art, why not use local artists from our community and help make them great? They can help us change policy. They can help with marketing. They can help us build relationships with artists from surrounding cities for collaboration. Use the money that they do get to provide more resources that benefit more people in our community, not just a few. I am hopeful and happy with Craig Watson at the helm, and look forward to seeing some positive growth with the Arts Council.

Sander: Well, one of the challenges the Arts Council has faced, as an institution, is its inability to bring specific issues to the council. Primarily, their interactions with government relates directly to funding, and less so to policy. In fact, one past board member told me that they were poor advocates because they were dependent upon the City for funding.

If that is, in fact, the case, then groups like LBCreative could play a significant role in the political side of things. One of the challenges I feel we, within the creative community, must address is this 20% participation in municipal elections. We have a huge, untapped constituency that could prove powerful if activated. I heard recently that you have some plans for that.

Tanya: I agree, and we are all learning. We have an artist enrichment team that is designed to help bring more awareness of ways artists can enrich themselves individually but also as a community. That includes getting political, monetizing the work that we do and asking for what we need as tax paying citizens of Long Beach AND LA County.

Currently if LBCreative! all banded together we would be 800 voices strong. Now, that's powerful, if we all showed up at these elections and voted, more of our voices would be heard. There are some organizations that I have recently become aware of that help to do that - Emerging Art Leaders, they are currently based out of LA and are interested in having a chapter in LB. I encourage everyone to get involved. There are resources out there and things we can learn from our neighbors.

Sander: Do you think we need more groups, or better groups?

Tanya: I don't think we need more groups per se. I think we need to become stronger.

Sander: I ask because, sometimes, it seems that as more groups pop up, they wind up doing similar things, or creating competing initiatives. How do you avoid that??

Tanya: That is why we have our creative mixers & connections meetings. I think there needs to be a hub, where people propose their ideas and discover what other people are doing around those ideas. Sometimes people discover that they are reinventing the wheel and that is okay because it may force them to move in a new direction or serve a different population or region. I think becoming strategic is important. I don't have one answer. Do you?

Sander: I think your approach is valid. Still, some research, which most people feel challenged by, can be very valuable. For example, there are a number of local websites that are competing with each other to be 'the' source for arts and culture. Personally, I'd like for all of them to join forces, and unify their efforts. By doing so, they'll be more effective.

Tanya: Like which ones?

Sander: Well, there was LongBeachCulture.org (now gone), 562CityLife, EverythingLongBeach, LBPOST.com, The Creativity Network, LimeLightlb, etc... There are more. Also, I think there's a desire for 'ownership', which can interfere with overall effectiveness.

Tanya: Well, maybe we set up a meeting with all of them and see if they would want to focus their efforts on specific topics..Limelight - calendering, everything - community articls, lbpost - poitical, 562 live interivews...I'm making this all up but you get the point. It might make everyone's life easier if they had more focus.

Sander: Well, there are two challenges that I see, as far as effectiveness goes. The first is getting people to be working together, so their collective efforts far exceed their individual efforts. The 2nd is having a clear message, and making sure that it reaches the audiences that need to hear it.

Related to that is something that most people find hard to discuss: Quality. If you spend time, money, and energy promoting something and people come and have a poor experience, they'll never return, ever. As a community, we need to commit ourselves to quality. That's something very tricky to codify or implement.

Tanya: I agree, I'm struggling with that right now. Ultimately, the community has to have some accountability. For instance, LBCreative! is designed to include you, you are LBCreative! and so are the rest of the members of our creative community. That's the message I want to get out. I want people to come to an event that we host and if they are critical and have better ideas I want them to bring them to the table and help us do it.

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