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Chair: Jan- June 2007 Harold Beaulieu
July - Dec 2007 Sarah Michael
Staff person: Robin Moore
Reporting Period: Jan - Dec 2007
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 three 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.
We continued to publish Artbeat, the commission's electronic
newsletter which currently reaches approximately 260 arts groups and
individuals providing a forum to inform the arts community of arts policy
issues, study results and local arts issues such as the redevelopment of the
Concord Naval Weapons Station.
We co-sponsored the "Symposium on California Arts and
Healthy Communities" with California Lawyers for the Arts, focusing on the
importance of restoring arts funding. This symposium took the form of a
roundtable discussion, bringing together representatives of diverse sectors of
the community to advocate for a common message: that arts education strengthens
and enriches the individual which in turn enriches the community. The panel
included Sheriff Rupf, a family law judge, a health care professional, a
representative from State Sentator Tom Torlakson's office, and the artistic
director of the East
Bay Center
for the Performing Arts. Video of the event has been aired by more than 23 local access stations throughout California.
For the 13th 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. This year, 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.
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.
For the first time, 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 the most entries for any county in the state. Our county winner was recognized at the
December 4, 2007 Board meeting, where she was presented a $1000 check as well
as a matching check for her high school's library.
Accomplishments
Beyond our public programs and events described above, AC5
has re-instituted a yearly planning retreat which has resulted in a work plan
for 2008.
As our county's designated State-Local partner, we have
applied for and received newly-available matching funding from the California
Arts Council (CAC) to help support our operating expenses.
We applied for and received a $3000 grant from Wells Fargo
to help offset the costs of our Arts Recognition Awards event.
We have requested, instituted and filled an alternate seat
on our commission to relieve the difficulty of finding a quorum at meetings.
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 (District 5), though we have had as many as 3 vacancies
at once during parts of the year. AC5
met each month during 2007, and achieved a quorum at each meeting, though with
some difficulty at times.
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.
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
In addition
to continuing our existing projects, we plan to accomplish the following:
Arts Directory: We
have committed ourselves to providing an online directory of artists and arts
organizations, which we hope to have online by the end of 2008. We are currently considering the relative
merits of creating new, simple software to provide very basic functions or
buying Artsopolis software, which would be considerably more expensive, but
offer greater functionality and the synergy of associating our directory with
the other Artsopolis directories.
Survey to update Cultural Plan: Early in 2008 we intend to conduct a survey
of local arts organizations to assist us in understanding their needs and
expectations of us. This would function
as an update to our county cultural plan, which was created in 2000.
Poetry Out Loud: 2007-2008 will be 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 CAC. We are making contacts in our 35 local high
schools, and recruiting volunteers to help with the extensive email, phone
calls and visits that will be necessary to encourage wide participation. A committee is being formed to plan the
county competition, and we anticipate partnering with a local service
organization to staff the event.
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