LongBeachCulture.org CenterStage Blog

”…Artists and a vibrant arts community are critical to the cultural life of Long Beach and its economic future. The city should review all policies, procedures, and regulations to ensure that it is viable to live and work in this community.”

The quote is from the Long Beach Community Cultural Plan issued in February, 1996. More than ten years ago. In the past year, I know of at least three artists who have moved out of Long Beach because they just couldn’t afford to live here anymore.

The Community Cultural Plan mapped out a series of recommendations that, if all of them had been enacted, would have made Long Beach a culturally competitive city. But the economic health of the city in the intervening years, lack of leadership, vision and just plain ordinary guts has stopped this city dead in its cultural path. Yes, there are great things happening here. Who knows about them? From the excitement of Homeland Cultural Center to CalRep to International City Theater, a wave of great creativity awaits us. And no one can argue that more cannot be done.

How serious is our commitment to Creativity? Six hundred thousand dollars is what the city gave the Arts Council for Long Beach last year. That same number is on tap for next year. So what, you say? We need cameras on Pine. 100 more policemen and my sidewalk needs fixing. Yes, it’s a matter of priorities. Always. But try and envision a city without its creative heart. Imagine no music programs in the school. No live theaters, no arts in the schools, no design, no beauty in your home, no way for young people to express creatively their frustrations and their joys.

Kids with arts training score 35% higher on math and science sections of SAT. Overall SAT scores increase on average 100 points when kids have arts training.

68% of the public thinks arts education is more important than academics! 89% of Americans believe that arts education is important enough to be taught in schools. Young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days each week through at least one full year are:

• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
• 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
• 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance
• 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem

95% of parents believe the arts are important in preparing children for the future. Parents view the arts as contributing positive attributes to their children. 91% of parents thought the arts were an important part of a well-rounded education. 86% of Artists Vote.

The City of Long Beach is spending $1.20 per capita on the arts. That’s not enough to buy a bag of popcorn at the movies. What would it cost us if we didn’t spend anything? My favorite story is telling people about spending several hours at Homeland Cultural Center on Anaheim and watching young people express themselves in ways I didn’t think were possible. Music and dance that pulsated, mocked us, challenged us, told us that they had their own way of revealing themselves and they didn’t care whether we liked it or not. It was their dance and music. How many of them, I wondered, had a healthy alternative if Homeland didn’t exist? How much should we pay to give them hope and a future? Crime prevention? I call that youth development. Allowing young people to express themselves, to learn how to read the script of a play, to learn the discipline that comes with rehearsals, to write their ideas and challenge themselves to grow up with a clear vision of what their tomorrows will be.

And it isn’t just young people. It’s every one of us who find small moments to express our creative urges. To exercise our souls with music, dance, film, spoken and written word. Theater. Animation. Yes, even your Sunday Choir duty. We eat art and culture every day of our lives. Most of the time, we don’t even recognize it as creativity. But it is and you do. Next time you hang that wonderful picture you bought at the garage sale, step back and enjoy it and know that someone spent time, soul and love making it happen.

We need to celebrate creativity in Long Beach. We must find ways to support it, encourage it, and recognize its powerful role in developing strong hearts, minds and souls. On Wednesday, August 2, 7-9pm, the Long Beach Creativity Network, of which I am the co-founder, and LongBeachCulture.org are co-sponsoring the first of several community forums at Koos Art Center on Broadway to discuss how we can build a master cultural plan for the city. We need to build a bigger and bolder house we call Long Beach. We must find the courage and leadership to embrace the power of creativity, recognize its powerful economic and community development power, and just damn be willing to pay the investment because the return will be so much greater. And so will we all.