The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and the Santa Monica Arts Commission - Blog #11

There were two presentations today in class, the first from Carissa Marsh was on the Santa Monica Arts Commission. Following, was Shannon Kelly presenting on the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

The Santa Monica Arts Commission has 13 members and is under the Cultural Affairs division of Santa Monica. The city council appoints citizens that live or work in the city and have a background in art to the commission. The city of Santa Monica considers public art to be a basic city service. The city believes that by supporting all forms of art within the city limits there will be educational, social and economic benefits.

Santa Monica has some amazing public art that comes close to competing with my favorite Orange County artistic community of Laguna Beach. The promenade on 3rd Street has great sculptures and the traveling museum that is placed in the parking lot by the pier every Fall is amazing. The biggest problem with the art commission is that they are using public money to attempt to give housing to struggling artists and extort businesses.

The commission funded through the city council is working on finding affordable housing for struggling artists. In a free market when someone is unable to meet their basic needs they have to adapt and find something else they are good at. I am sorry but if a great artist can not provide for himself he need to become a good craftsman and do some art projects during his weekends. It is not the publics responsibility to fund art, not matter how great it makes the city look.

Another troubling matter is the "percent law," which requires any new development has to have some artistic elements or otherwise donate funds to the commission. How is requiring public art good for the economy? I understand that these artistic elements might be easy and even cheap to incorporate but the idea of making it mandatory leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The commission is doing some positive things with the taxpayer money they should not have. The commission hosts a festival, May 20, and Jazz on the lawn. There are two programs under way that I actually would not mind attending/supporting (with my private donations). The first is the GLOW festival, which is a 12 hour art festival from dusk till dawn. The second program is the Arts Alley project that aims at sprucing up some of the allies in Santa Monica with some art.

Moving to another and potentially better run art organization is the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The Plaza located off the 101 Freeway is huge, it is so large that it is actually the largest performing arts center between San Francisco and Los Angeles. More than 250,000 patrons visit the venue every year.

The organization is interesting because it is a public/private partnership between the city and the Alliance for the Arts. The Alliance for the arts has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of Cities as a successful model for these partnerships. The Alliance formed in 1994 has kept the center from going over budget due to private donations and support. The Alliance provides the center with marketing, advertising and public relations.

Both organization presentations were well done and the two organizations are vastly different.