LongBeachCulture.org CenterStage Blog

CREATIVITY NETWORK FORUM SUMMARY

On Wednesday, July 26, The Long Beach Creativity Network and LongBeachCulture.org co-sponsored a community forum at Koos Art Center. The topic was Building a Master Cultural Plan for Long Beach’s Creative Community. We asked the participants to list three goals, priorities or issues facing the city’s creative community. The following are the responses. In most cases, we’ve transcribed the exact wording of the responses. We’ve also listed multiple versions of one idea to demonstrate that this was an important and consistent issue.

On Wednesday, September 6, 7-9pm, a second forum is scheduled to address solutions and actions in response to this list. Location to be announced.

1. Provide opportunities for youth-particularly low income youth-to experience art
2. Invite all arts agencies, artists, businesses to participate in the development of the arts district
3. Define Budget (arts budget?)
4. Establish priorities
5. Set quality levels through promotion of more juried art shows
6. Out of the 16 goals set in the 1996 Community Cultural Plan, how many are in place today?
7. Can a no-name artist get funding?
8. Make artist spaces available: Studios, apartments and exhibition spaces for artists. Get artists into Long Beach
9. Pay Attention to quality on all levels of events
10. Invest in artists and institutions-demand this of the City Council
11. Arts Training and Education
12. Affordable artist live/work spaces for purchase or lease
13. Engagement of LBUSD: K-12 and full course offerings in visual and performing arts at all high schools
14. Bring together the arts and Long Beach Arts Education
15. Centralize and coordinate art information for the city
16. Promotion of the arts in the city
17. Increase the critical mass of artists by providing affordable “cheap” live/work spaces (meanwhile, not demolishing existing ones)
18. A true advocate for the arts community at the City Council level, to keep plans on track and arts focused
19. Take the time to cultivate quality art and art events
20. Arts Exchange that promotes these three things:
• Businesses, Artists, Art related events
• Supports art related grants/activities for artists and services galleries
• Community publicity information exchange: TV, radio, print media, internet-networking
21. Educate the community about the value of the Arts
22. Use that new awareness to form support of Arts advocacy
23. Revise Entertainment permitting
24. Mentoring artists as entrepreneurs
25. Rent control of artists residential and studio spaces
26. Create an active dynamic network of galleries. Support/promote galleries
27. Create a highly visible arts community so that people can’t resist attending
28. Centralized marketing/promotion of the arts
29. Create an incubator for the arts
30. Tax incentives for Creative Industries
31. Free weekend parking in the Arts District
32. Political support for the Arts

THE LONG BEACH CREATIVITY SURVEY

Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of priority issues facing the creative community in Long Beach. We add the responses here as an addendum in order to stimulate further dialogue.

1. What would you list as the top priority issues facing the Creative Community in Greater Long Beach?

• Lack of funding; continuity within the artist community; willingness to embrace new ideas.
• Building the arts to increase tourism.
• Inclusiveness in the Arts: Expanding the role of individual artists as well as embracing the diversity of Long Beach culturally, ethnically, sexual orientation, gender, etc
• Lack of a Cultural Master Plan
• Reviewing the role of the Arts Council for Long Beach: Should it serve as an umbrella for distributing Arts funding or as an Arts Leader and Advocate for the role the city plays in the arts?
• Strategic Marketing- Cross promotion of Arts events and marketing synergy; Media and communications & using the Citywide Arts Calendar to avoid conflicts in fundraising events; Opportunities for Arts Groups and individuals to co-sponsor events.
• Arts Education- The role of the Arts Council, CSULB and LBCC in Arts Development and Education & Arts in the Schools; LBUSD as the largest recipient of Arts Education. How can they help to communicate benefits to students and encourage support for the Arts and Culture? Youth Leadership Development and Arts- Mentorship programs.
• Knowing whether the City wants to support public art and having a professional administer the program.
• Over-development. Losing the individual businesses and galleries and turning into a corporate environment. This is what happened in Santa Monica. Little by little, the small businesses closed and were replaced by Starbucks, Armani, Coffee Bean. The individual businesses we have in our community enhance the feeling of a creative environment and are a much more supportive group towards local artists.
• Expanding venues for visual arts exhibitions.
• Learning from the successes, and failures, of other arts communities. A willingness to abandon the status quo in favor of a more successful model

2. What are the three most critical issues specifically facing you as an individual, artist or Creative organization?

• Funding
• Opportunities for public forums to share work
• Conflicted direction and objectives from the artistic community.
• Promotion of my art in the community
• An art educated audience to view it. More opportunities to educate everyone in the arts through workshops, museum tours and art events.
• Municipal cooperation
• Cooperation with other artists and orgs
• Educating the municipal leaders, org leaders, and individual artists about what is possible, and that there is a clear path toward creating an atmosphere of success in the city

The Long Beach Creativity Network is an informal network of representatives from creative industries including visual arts, television, and performance arts, and includes gallery owners, arts administrators, patrons, artists and art lovers. Founded ten months ago, the Network sponsors monthly mixers at artful locations throughout the city in order to bring the creative community together for dialogue and creative action.

LongBeachCulture.org is a free arts portal that provides powerful on-line tools designed to empower artists of all kinds to promote themselves, their work, and their events. It has been serving the community for more than 6 years.

For further information:

Long Beach Creativity Network, Antonio Pedro Ruiz, 562-430-8637

LongBeachCulture.org, Sander Roscoe Wolff, 562-716-8088