New State Arts Council Director Discusses Vision For Advancing The Arts In California

>>> The new director of the California arts Council visit San Diego this week to meet with the arts and culture community. It is an uncertain time for arts organizations. The presidents latest that's the latest budget calls for cutoffs for funding including the National Endowment for the Arts and public television. Locally arts organizations have been told that they need to prepare for more cuts. What is the outlook for the arts in California? Joining me is an Crawford director of the California arts Council. Welcome to the program. Tell us about the California arts Council. What is its mission ? what does it do? >> Its mission is fairly simple. Its mission is to nurture and move California forward to the arts and creativity. No small task. It is a beautifully simple statement. >>> You have been an advocate for arts education. You were a visual and performing arts teacher for more than 40 years. How do you see your experience in the classroom translating in the work at the arts Council? >> There are a lot of different layers and skill sets that it takes to be successful in the classroom. All of that, I can bring to bear with that experience in our arts and education grant funding work. I have also been in arts advocate statewide for arts education. And I helped form a chair of Create California which is a corrected impact group to move the whole art education agenda forward in California. >>> I know you have not been in this position for very long, but with that background, I'm wondering if you have established a vision for how you would like to advance art culture in California. >> My vision is the current heir to see vision. I have worked with the Council probably six years directly now through Create California and through my work with the Department of Education. Their vision is spot on. I see my goal as the connector to help create bridges between all of the different diverse people and organizations and elements in the state of California to move there no lesson 16 grant advocacy programs forward. The single thing that I think about most right now is building a stronger connection to the creative economy and the arts here in California. The arts and corrections community arts programs the veterans arts programs, and our cultural district programs, those are all amazing. I am really pleased to be able to work on supporting that. >>> What is the economic aspects of the arts that you say that you want to move forward? >> Californias the six largest economy in the world. Probably one of the biggest ponds we play in this creative economy are -- our arts support that. Not only having strong arts education programs in schools whether it is pre-K through high school and in secondary, it helps to launch people into the creative economy and just forming a basic understanding in terms of building public will. It is such an important part of the California economy what skill sets, appreciation, building public will, all of that. >>> You will be meeting with San Diego arts advocates. What do you hope to learn about San Diego's arts community and their local needs? >> I am really excited to, we have, I think about, 96 grants awarded in San Diego currently. We have a total of over $1 million of awards. I would like to see some community arts projects that we fund there, community place making, and I am excited about the veterans in arts program in San Diego. We have 12 grantees working in this area. It is a pretty innovative program. I am also excited that three of our cultural districts are in San Diego. I am going to be visiting one of those as well. >>> As I said in my opening remarks, the arts organizations have been told they need to get ready for more cuts in the new budget coming from the city of San Diego's mayor because the city of San Diego is facing a bit of a downturn. Do you see away cities can support the arts during difficult financial times? >> I think it takes a mixture of both public and private funds to keep arts programs vibrant. I know that San Diego is very cognizant and aware of how the arts relate to the economic development there. I am hoping that not only private citizens companies but the government can contribute to the activities that are going on in San Diego. It may get tough. I don't know. But I think that there is a resource out there. It is just a matter of connecting, building bridges, having strong networks to bring it all together.