Summer is always a busy time for the arts, and this year is no exception. AC5 is proud to have honored twelve exceptional student artists from throughout Contra Costa County at our annual Arts Scholars Awards, which was held on June 4 (please see the Arts Scholars article in this newsletter). It is always inspiring to see these young peoples' love for the arts, so evident in their work. We wish them all the best, and look forward to their contributions to the arts.

As we watch these young talents just starting their creative journeys, we concurrently say farewell to an experienced arts leader who is retiring after many years of service to the West County. Richmond Arts and Culture Commission Manager Virginia Rigney called June 30 her last day in the office (please see Roundup for more). While Virginia's expertise will be greatly missed, she will undoubtedly continue to be involved in arts and community advocacy in Richmond and beyond.

On behalf of AC5, I hope you enjoy this issue of ArtBeat. Please feel free to give us your feedback by emailing ArtBeat at ac5news@ac5.org.

AC5 District 1I Commissioner, appointed by Supervisor Gayle Uilkema

Darwin Marable was born and reared in Los Angeles and has been a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area since 1958, and Contra Costa County since 1978. He was graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Ph.D. in the history of photography and art. He was also graduated from San Francisco State University with an M.A. in art/art history and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Commissioner Marable has been an instructor in the history and criticism of photography at the University of California, Berkeley Extension Photography Program since 1995, he has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute; Academy of Art College, San Francisco; San Francisco State University; California College of Art (formerly California College of Arts & Crafts), St. Mary's college, Moraga, and the University of New Mexico.

Commissioner Marable's published essays, reviews and interviews in have appeared in Afterimage, Artweek, Black and White Magazine, History of Photography, Lenswork, Photo Metro and The World & I (Washington, D.C. Times).

Commissioner Marable has organized and curated The Visual Dialogue Foundation Revisited, J.J. Brookings Gallery, San Francisco, 2000; Vilem Kriz Memorial Exhibition, Irwin Student Center, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, 1996 and The Crucifixion in Modern Art, Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary's College, Moraga, 1992.

Community Activities of Commissioner Marable include: Chair, PTA Cultural Committee (where he organized a series of jazz, classical music, ballet and theatrical performances), Burton Valley Elementary School, Lafayette, 1979-81); Board Member and President, Lafayette Improvement Association, 1979-81; Founding Board Member, Lafayette Arts & Science Foundation, 1980-81; Board member & News Media Publicity Chair, 1979-80 and Business Manager, 1980-81, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, Walnut Creek; Founding Board Member, Contra Costa Alliance for the Arts, 1981-82; Panelist, Federal/State Educational Grants, California Arts Council, Sacramento, 1980; Host for foreign students from France, Germany, Italy and Japan; U.C. Berkeley Alumni Mentor Program 1996-present; and University of New Mexico Student Outreach, 1995-present.

State arts agencies need to change the way they do business if they wish to avoid a continued cycle of budget woes, a RAND Corporation report recommends.

With tight budgets forcing cuts in state spending nationwide, the state arts agencies will have to increase public participation in and government backing for their arts programs, the RAND study says. Some programs may need to be restructured or abolished in order to free up resources for activities that enjoy greater public support, and the agencies will have to work more closely with local communities to determine priorities, according to the study.

Julia Lowell, author of the RAND report that was issued June 4, said state arts agencies should view their role as providing a public service to all state residents, rather than primarily to artists and nonprofit arts organizations.

"One reason many state arts agencies have not fared well in the recent budget crisis is that they have relied on artists and arts organizations to make the case for public support of the arts," Lowell said. "By putting more emphasis on programs that appeal to people outside the arts, such as arts education in schools, arts agencies can encourage more widespread participation and create a bigger constituency for the arts."

In 2003, arts agencies in 43 out of 56 state and territorial agencies suffered declines in their general fund appropriations. In 2004, 34 agencies reported cuts, with nine experiencing cuts of more than 30 percent.

"Along with our partnership with 13 innovative state arts agencies, funding independent, credible research and reporting the results is a critical part of The Wallace Foundation's effort to help expand participation in the arts," said M. Christine DeVita, president of The Wallace Foundation, which commissioned the study. "This report suggests the value of taking a fresh look at how public agencies can contribute to expanding opportunities for participating in the arts."

In the 1960s, when state arts agencies were founded, most states lacked much formal arts activity. Building up the supply of the arts through grants to artists and arts institutions was a top priority.

Today, however, the United States abounds with top-notch theater groups, musicians, art museums, dance troupes, and folk artists-and is much more diversified culturally. Determining where small amounts of public money will do the greatest good is a harder task, requiring state arts agencies to get a consensus from a much broader spectrum of Americans than was true in the past.

A new report from the California Arts Council (CAC) shows that the arts are integral to improving student learning and academic achievement, increasing parental involvement in a child's education, and enhancing teacher understanding of the visual and performing arts standards. The report, "Arts Lab 101: The Results Are In," shows that students who participated in the CAC Arts in Education Demonstration Projects demonstrated improved academic achievement, artistic ability, and artistic knowledge in tested evaluations.

"Clearly, the arts are a catalyst affecting how students learn," said Barbara George, Chair of the Arts Council. "These grants provided sustained arts opportunities to more than 92,000 students and 4,100 teachers in 496 schools throughout California and produced positive results for the growth and development of those participating in the programs." Juan Carrillo, Interim Director of the CAC, agrees. "This report shows that students exposed to arts instruction improved their writing scores, literacy, and artistic abilities," said Carrillo.

Making arts basic and integral to K-12 schools is the goal of the CAC's Arts in Education Program. The Demonstration Projects were experiments to show how arts organizations and educational institutions could partner to demonstrate advances in cognitive and affective learning for school children. While 58 grantees were funded to provide arts education activities during the 2001-02 academic year, 55 were selected to receive continued funding for 2002-03. The Demonstration Projects were intended to be funded for three to five years; however, state budget cuts reduced funding for the second year and eliminated support for subsequent years.

Nearly 75% of the projects involved efforts to increase English language proficiency and literacy skills. Just over one-third of the projects worked with students enrolled in special education classes or identified as at-risk individuals. Grantees were required to include an evaluation component for each project. WestEd, a nationally known nonprofit research, development and service agency for more than 35 years, was contracted to provide an overall program evaluation and technical assistance. WestEd used a combination of methods to learn about project characteristics as well as the successes and challenges encountered during implementation. WestEd employed content analysis, case studies, and developed a statewide system of measures to gather qualitative and quantitative data.

Examples of measurable gains include:

• Improved language and math skills as a result of integration art instruction at a community day school for at-risk youth and juvenile offenders.
• Increased writing scores among students participating in playwriting workshops.
• Improved behavioral attitudes among students
• Reduced absenteeism in classrooms with arts educators and artists
• Increased artistic and writing ability
• Improved teacher confidence, knowledge, and skills in using the arts
• Heightened parent and community awareness of arts programs in the schools
• Increased parental understanding of the value of the arts in their children's education.

For a PDF copy of the summary report go to the California Arts Council Web site at http://cac.ca.gov/wested/westedsum.pdf

For the complete PDF evaluation, go to http://cac.ca.gov/wested/westedfull.pdf

A long search to find a repository for his extensive collection of recordings, music and documents relating to multicultural folk dance has ended successfully for Max Horn.

Horn, a Martinez resident and recipient of a 2003 Arts Recognition Award from the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County, said Stanford University has agreed to take possession of most of the donated collection for its archives. In the months ahead, Horn and university representatives will be working to catalog the collection.

It includes more than 50,000 recordings-78s, 45s, and 33s-and 20 linear feet of bookshelves filled with magazines, books, sheet music and other documents relating to cultural dance. The collection is housed on his Martinez ranch, which for years has been a center for picnics and cultural dancing.

"After more than 60 years of teaching international folk dance and collecting music, choreography and costumes, I now probably have the largest private collection of ethnic music and dance material in northern California which now will have a permanent home," said Horn.

A construction engineer by profession (he helped build San Francisco's famed Transamerica Pyramid), Horn had been hoping for years that his collection could stay intact to become "the nucleus of a music and dance arts library or museum that could become a valuable asset for the community at large."

For the time being, Horn will retain a large number of dance costumes and 400 dolls, each costumed to represent dances ranging from flamenco to the Irish jig.

When he was honored last year, AC5 described Horn "a one-man United Nations for international dance." AC5 noted that "for most of his 77 years, he has worked faithfully to teach, promote, preserve and promote the art of folk dancing--efforts that have reached out to thousands of people who share his zeal and enjoyment, as viewers but most often as active participants, in dance. Horn embraces the power of dance because, as he puts it, 'it shows not so much as how people differ, but how much they have in common. Dances may be diverse, but they all essentially begin with basic steps.'"

Bob Rezak, AC5 chair, cheered Horn's decision to donate his collection to Stanford. Rezak noted that the American Association of Museums has long championed the belief that collections be held in trust for the public and made accessible for the public's benefit.

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced it will establish three NEA Arts Journalism Institutes that will focus on improving arts criticism in classical music, opera, theater and dance. Information on this new initiative is available at http://www.arts.gov/news/news04/ArtsJournalism.html.

And speaking of critics, a number of theater critics attending their annual conference held in San Francisco this year, took time from official business to tour Tao House in Danville, the former estate of Eugene O'Neill. It is at Tao House, a historic site maintained by the National Park Service, that the award-winning playwright wrote his last six plays, including "A Moon for the Misbegotten."

12 Contra Costa County Students Selected for Summer School for the Arts

Twelve students from throughout Contra Costa County were honored on June 4 as gifted and talented artists selected to participate in an intensive pre-professional training program at the California State Summer School for the Arts in Valencia. Honors were bestowed upon the students during a public ceremony, arranged by the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County, in the chambers of the Board of Supervisors. All attending students gave a brief presentation of their work. The event was followed by a reception.



Contra Costa County Supervisors Mark DeSaulnier (District IV), Federal Glover (Chair, District V), and Millie Greenberg (District III) presented the awards to the students at the ceremony.

In connection with the event, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared June 4 as California Arts Scholars Day and commented that, California Summer School for the Arts challenges talented young artists to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential. These students will take California's arts and entertainment to new heights in the years ahead.

The Contra Costa honorees are among 520 students selected from 1,500 applicants for the California State Summer School for the Arts. This is the 18th year of the program, which runs from July 10 to August 7, in which 7,500 students have participated. Students receive rigorous training to enhance their skills in performing and visual arts, creative writing, and animation.

Funding for the program is provided by a grant from Union Bank of California, which was represented by Heather Simeao, manager of the bank's branch in Martinez. This is the second year the bank has made the program possible.

Please check back with our website in the next few weeks (www.ac5.org) for upcoming pictures of the students from the ceremony.

Arts Happenings in Contra Costa County and Beyond

Completion of the 300-seat Danville Center for the Performing Arts appears more promising. According to published reports, a new foundation overseeing the project is recommending that the facility be taken over by the YMCA. The center has been caught up in lawsuits and financial troubles that put a halt to its completion. The exterior was finished three years ago, at a cost of $3 million but the interior remains empty. Officials figure they'll need to raise $3-million to $5-million more to complete the interior.

Richmond honored Virginia Rigney with a celebration that included fireworks on July 3 in recognition of her retirement after years of service as the city's arts administrator and arts advocate. A resident of Richmond since 1964, she led the effort to create a cultural master plan for the city in 1994 as well as an ordinance that provides funding for public art. In 1999, AC5 presented her an arts recognition award for her numerous accomplishments. She was a member of a task force that led to the formation of AC5 in 1994.

The new John Muir Festival Center, formed to provided cultural and educational programs and events related to Muir, plans special fundraiser on August 7 at the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. The highlight of the event will be the first staged reading by the Willows Theater of Concord of "Sacagawea," a new musical based on the life of the Shoshone Indian guide who aided Lewis & Clark in their Voyage of Discovery that reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805. A fully-staged, costumed version will premiere next summer at the John Muir Amphitheater in Waterfront Park, Martinez.

The City of Brentwood Arts Commission welcomes Rebekah Burr-Siegel as their new Arts Services Manager. Rebekah brings many years of arts administration experience with her to the position, having previously worked for the City of Stockton as Public Art Manager and as the Arts Commission Director for the City of Turlock.

In these difficult times, you can make a difference and help support the arts, by purchasing the Arts License Plate you will be supporting arts programs in schools, neighborhoods, and communities. Your investment in the Arts License Plate is crucial to supporting programs for at-risk kids, seniors, and thousands of Californians. Order the plate online at https://vrir.dmv.ca.gov/ipp/ippMain.jsp.

Orders take between 6-8 weeks for processing, however, ordering online speeds processing time. For ordering information and Frequently Asked Questions, go to the Arts License Plate section of the CAC Web site. (www.cac.ca.gov).