The Jazz Angels band plays during Wednesday night’s Arts In The Long Run event. Photos and words by Jacob Beizer.
1:00am | On August 11th, members of the community gathered at the Long Beach Museum of Art on Ocean Blvd. to support the vibrant but struggling Long Beach arts education scene. Performances by local student groups the Jazz Angels, the Khmer Arts Academy, and the Renaissance High School for the Arts, as well as a painting workshop, offered a small sample of the many programs throughout the area that have managed to sustain themselves in the wake of massive budget cuts and an economic downturn that has effected a lot more than just housing prices and stock portfolios.
The event, called “Arts in the Long Run” was put on by the Arts Council for Long Beach and We Love Long Beach, to raise awareness of the ways in which city and state budget cuts have devastated arts education, forcing public schools to lay off arts teachers and increase class sizes in the few programs that still operate. “Arts in the Long Run” began a major fundraising collaboration between these two organizations called We Love Long Beach Arts, the goal of which is to raise $100,000 for arts education programs.
Craig Watson is the executive director of the Arts Council for Long Beach, who award grants to art programs in the Long Beach area. He enumerated the problems created by cutting funding for the arts. “We’ve seen more new applicants for grants this year than in the last 10 years.” He credited the increase to the shrinking availability of funds for arts education from other foundations and from the City of Long Beach. But as a result of the recession, the Arts Council has had to cut funding by 30-percent, which means there are more applicants competing for less money overall.
When the funding dries up, the programs begin to disappear, and children have much less exposure and access to visual and performing arts, despite the evidence that such exposure raises student performance in other subjects and contributes to the cultural vibrancy of the community.
The goal of “Arts in the Long Run” was to encourage patrons to support arts education in Long Beach by having runners register for the Long Beach Marathon, as well as the Half-Marathon, 26.2 Bike Tour and 5k walk/run, all to be held on October 17th. Those who register can run on behalf of the We Love Long Beach Arts fundraising project, thus raising money for community-based arts programs like the ones featured at “Arts in the Long Run”.
Cambodian dancers from the Khmer Arts Academy (pictured right).
Among those programs were The Jazz Angels, a group of talented young jazz musicians led by Barry Cogert, and traditional Cambodian dancers from the Khmer Arts Academy, an internationally-recognized dance academy led by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. Both groups, along with dancers from Renaissance High School for the Arts, dazzled the large crowd that gathered on the bluffs overlooking Alamitos Beach.
While those groups performed, attendees were able to observe a demonstration of circle painting, which captivated the attention of some of the younger patrons at the museum. Circle painting, as the name suggests, involves painting with circular stencils. And the results were colorful. Directing traffic at the circle painting workshop was Maribel Hernandez of the Living Love Foundation, a beneficiary of the Arts Council. She expressed concern about the effect of public education budget deficits on arts education, but applauded the Council for its efforts to offset those deficits.
The crowd in attendance also included Ann Courtney, a retired drama and English instructor from Warren High School in Downey, who praised the efforts of the Arts Council and We Love Long Beach to restore funding that has been taken away from programs she considers vital to the well-being of children. She reflected on her experience as a teacher and the way the arts engages kids who may not necessarily excel in other subjects. “I’ve seen kids get on stage and just spark,” she said.
After each group performed, Watson would interview some of the performers in front of the crowd, asking about their involvement in the group and the interest in the arts. Invariably, each one expressed an interest in continuing their artistic pursuits well into the future, something that could be hindered if arts education continues to be under-funded and under-appreciated in a city that should serve as an example for artistic communities everywhere. If state and local governments can’t prevent this from happening, then more citizens will need to step up with efforts like We Love Long Beach Arts.
Disclosure: This event is an advertiser of the lbpost.com. For more information on The Arts Council for Long Beach and We Love Long Beach Arts, visit artslb.org.
Jacob Beizer is a writer living in Long Beach. He can be reached at [email protected]. He blogs at anti-jacob.com.