If you are a local artist, chances are you feel frustrated that
there are limited prospects to showcase your talent. Once upon a
time, San Benito County had a thriving arts commission that served
the interests of local artists, education and our youth.
If you are a local artist, chances are you feel frustrated that there are limited prospects to showcase your talent. Once upon a time, San Benito County had a thriving arts commission that served the interests of local artists, education and our youth.
The California Arts Council granted the county $40,000 per year to cover the salary of the executive director of the Arts Commission. That person would arrange events for local artists and for touring artists to come to San Benito County as an outreach to kids through the education system. The Arts Commission Board of Directors would approve these activities and the director submitted invoices to the California Arts Council for reimbursement. The Arts Commission even helped sponsor the inaugural triumph of the San Benito Stage Company’s production of The Wizard Of Oz in 1999.
The program was effectively managed for several years until it was discovered that invoices had not been submitted to the state for two consecutive years and was $80,000 in arrears. There were a few other issues that smacked of witch hunting and political vindication. But the bottom line was that county staff and the board of supervisors failed to oversee the fiscal affairs of the Arts Commission and were caught in an embarrassing position. In 2001, they pulled the plug on the San Benito County Arts Commission and summarily dissolved the organization.
Just before the end of the arts commission, there was an organized effort to build a Center For the Arts in downtown Hollister at the corner of Fourth and San Benito streets. Under the leadership of Ignacio Velazquez, a nonprofit group was formed, and the city of Hollister loaned the organization $35,000 to commission a feasibility study to determine whether the community would support a Center For the Arts. The results were … inconclusive. In the end, a lot of people were discouraged and disillusioned by the course of events that culminated in the loss of a badly needed organization in our community.
Finally, the state of California withdrew 94 percent of its funding of the California Arts Council when it went broke, leaving many arts commissions twisting in the wind.
Now what?
I suggest that it is time to reorganize and revitalize a new San Benito County Arts Commission at the worst possible fiscal moment in state and county history.
Why? Because if you ask any local artist: visual, musical, performing or literary, each is still committed to his/her respective craft and just as passionate as ever. So the task ahead is to find fresh talent unafraid and untarnished by past failure or success to develop an arts program that will serve the needs of the community. That includes finding alternative funding resources such as benefactors and philanthropic foundations that support the arts and approaching media sponsors such as Mainstreet Media; the people that publish this paper.
Frankly, I’ve spoken to several people in the community who like the idea; county supervisors, artists, even Juan Carillo from the California Arts
Council in Sacramento. Though Mr. Carillo conceded that there is no funding available at present, he promised to offer guidance and assist with organizational support that would yield results when funding materializes in the future.
Here is the challenge: If you want to reinstate the Arts Commission, we need to schedule a town hall meeting. If we schedule such a meeting then we need to invite a representative from the California Arts Council, State Sen. Jeff Denham, Assemblyman Simon Salinas, the Board of Supervisors, the Hollister City Council, the San Juan Bautista City Council and representatives from all arts groups in the county. This would be an excellent time to organize an Arts Commission that represents the diverse cultures of our population and builds a sense of appreciation for a variety of artistic genres while strengthening community ties.
Let me know what you think by sending a letter to the editor.
