AC5 is proud to share our annual report, which was accepted by the Board of Supervisors at their December 16, 2008 meeting.

Chair:                                                               Jan- June 2008 Sarah Michael

                                                                        July - Dec 2008 Sarah Michael

Staff person:                                                    Robin Moore               

Reporting Period:                             Jan - Dec 2008

Activities                                             

We provide technical assistance to organizations and individuals throughout the county based on our knowledge of the resources available in the greater Bay Area and networking with other arts and culture organizations.

We presented four exhibitions in our Art Passages program, an ongoing series of art exhibits in the public areas of the County Administration Building, including the Board of Supervisors Chambers. A county visual arts organization is selected for each exhibition, rotating around the 5 supervisory districts of Contra Costa County. Additionally, we co-sponsored the art portion of the annual Cesar Chavez celebration, helping other county departments make that a big success.

In May 2008, we began hosting the Arts Directory and Calendar on AC5's web site; this is an online directory of artists and arts organizations in our county. To date, 165 arts organizations and individual artists participate in the Directory.  We believe the directory is invaluable to the community in finding artists and events, to the arts community in making themselves known to each other and to the public, and to AC5 and other public agencies in understanding the scope and nature of our arts community, in reaching them with our communications, and in soliciting information, direction, and support from them.

2008 was our first year of participation in the Poetry Out Loud program, a recitation contest for high school students co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and the California Arts Council.  The six county high schools who participated in our pilot year brought the program to over 200 students in our county. Each school held a competition, sending their two top students to the county wide competition hosted by AC5. The event filled the Schoolhouse Theatre in Pleasant Hill. CCTV videotaped the event and broadacst it throughout 2008.

We continued to publish Artbeat, the commission's electronic newsletter which currently reaches approximately 350 arts groups and individuals providing a forum to inform the arts community of arts policy issues, study results and local arts issues; our subscribership has increased by 35% over this last year.

For the 13^th year, our Arts Recognition Awards program honored individuals whose work in arts and culture has had a significant impact on the quality of life in Contra Costa County. No other organization recognizes our county's arts champions, and all levels of government representatives - city, county, and state are invited to and often attend the awards event. The celebration, featuring Supervisor Uilkema as MC, was attended by over 100 guests. A video was produced about the honorees; this video is currently being carried on Contra Costa TV.  In addition, the Contra Costa Times continued its support with a feature article and photos of the honorees.

For the second year, we assisted the California Arts Council (CAC) in promoting their creative writing competition "My California Story Slam" to Contra Costa high schools.  Our efforts resulted in many quality entries from our county.  Our county winner will be recognized at a January, 2009 Board meeting, where she will be presented a $500 check as well as a matching check for her high school's library.

We co-sponsored a "Copyright, Trademark and Patent Seminar " with California Lawyers for the Arts, for artists and entrepreneurs to learn about ownership and protection of their work.  This seminar provided an overview of copyright, trademark and patent, defined terms and covered issues including registration, infringement, fair use and licensing, non-disclosure agreements and trade secrets.

We hosted a reception for the talented Contra Costa County students who are selected to attend the California State Summer School for the Arts in Valencia.  We honor these students as yet another way of emphasizing the importance of the arts and celebrating the wealth of young talent that exists in our county.

Accomplishments                               

Beyond our public programs and events described above, AC5 held its fiscal-yearly planning retreat in June, which resulted in a work plan for 2008-09.

As our county's designated State-Local partner, we have applied for and received matching funding from the California Arts Council (CAC) to help support our operating expenses.

We applied for and received a $1500 grant from Wells Fargo to help offset the costs of our Arts Recognition Awards event.

Attendance/Representation                

AC5 has eight seats.  Each of the five county supervisors appoints one person to represent their district.  There are two are at-large seats and one alternate seat which are appointed by the Board of Supervisors at the recommendation of AC5.  We currently have only one seat vacancy (the Alternate), and have interviewed applicants and recommended a candidate to the Board.  AC5 held 9 monthly meetings during 2008.  Two meetings, February and July, were cancelled due to lack of a quorum; the December meeting was cancelled by mutual agreement to take a holiday break.

Our members participate actively both in meetings and in our programs.  We rely on work from our commissioners and from volunteers to supplement the efforts of our staff.  Without extensive participation from the commissioners most of our events and programs would not be possible.

Training/Certification                                      

Each new AC5 member receives Board Advisory Body training as is required.  Robin Moore, our Executive Director, attended the live training session this year.  Additionally, the commissioners and Ms. Moore are completing the required Ethics training on-line.

Staff and commissioners also attend conferences and meetings related to current issues in arts administration and advocacy.  Recently these have included the California Arts Council's conference on State and Local Partnerships and a training seminar on the California Cultural Data Project.

Proposed Work Plan/Objectives for Next Year   

Arts Directory and Calendar: Over the next year we plan to expand our outreach by continuing to inform both the arts community and the community at large about the Directory and Calendar.  It's off to a good start, but we see it becoming a much larger presence in the community.

Poetry Out Loud: We feel this program is a success story for all who participate, and our goal is to double participation in 2009.

In addition to continuing all of our existing projects, we plan to accomplish the following: