All great American cities share similar qualities. They are safe, business friendly, they focus on education, have active parks and have a thriving arts culture. Long Beach is fortunate to have individuals who are committed to promoting and supporting the arts.
One of the city’s biggest arts boosters is Antonio Pedro-Ruiz. He believes in the power of art and understands the need to recruit and foster a creative class for Long Beach.
Antonio organized a Town Hall meeting last Saturday entitled Re-Imagining the Arts in Long Beach. The TV special will be broadcast on Charter Channel 3 on November 11.
Below is a letter that Antonio posted on his Creativity Network website, www.thecreativitynetwork.org
Now What?
Nearly 100 people participated and attended an historic two hour Town Hall meeting at the Museum of Latin American Art on Saturday, November 3rd called Re-Imagining the Arts in Long Beach. Charter Communications taped it for airing on November 11th. Elected officials including Mayor Bob Foster, Vice-Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal, Councilmembers Suja Lowenthal and Patrick O’Donnell attended. A wide range of leaders from the Creative Community, Education, Business and Government participated on four panels on a wide range of subjects engaging in a dialogue that we hope will spark exploration of new ideas and grand plans for the future of Arts and Culture in Long Beach.
At the end of the day, I was exhausted. Months of planning, cajoling, pleading sometimes, and enlisting support from a long list of partners had resulted in a very successful day. However, the only question I could ask myself was “Now what?” Where do we go from here and who is going to take us there?
The next steps will take leadership. I do not presume to believe that I alone am that person. I believe it is a number of us. It must start with the Arts Council for Long Beach; specifically the Board of Directors. We must be clear that this is an historic opportunity for us. We must be very clear about what is our vision and move to make it happen. The Creative Community as well as its partners in Government, Business and Education wants us to offer them more than Mission Statements and Three Hundred Thousand Dollars in funding. We need to come up with a Plan and strategies to implement it. We need to get the message out that there are many great organizations, institutions, events, and creative people doing great things in this city. And we need to help them more. We are doing good things but we can do more. We need to rethink what we are doing and ask ourselves honestly if those things are working. If not, then we should change it to meet the needs of a changing city. We have a new Strategic Plan. Before and when it was adopted, I expressed reservations about it. It is too broad. It institutionalizes programs that I believe were never seriously evaluated for effectiveness and relevancy. It does not ask what are the needs of the Creative Community and the audiences they serve. It just assumed it. The “Plan” does not ask what we, as an organization charted to serve the Arts and Cultural needs of this city, can do to meet those needs. It just assumes we know what needs to be done.
At the Town Hall meeting, the elected officials present who spoke, outlined a number of proposals and ideas for Arts and Culture in Long Beach. We should schedules meetings with them immediately to take advantage of the momentum. Angela Reynolds of the City’s Long Beach 2030 invited all of us to participate in that very important planning process. We should not only accept the invitation, we should become strong partners.
The Arts Council for Long Beach should be actively engaged as the leader of the Creative Community. We need to forge stronger ties with that community so that they truly believe we are here to serve them as well as be their partner. We need to reach out to other sectors of the city including community organizations, the business and educational communities.
We do good things. We can always do more and do it better.
