Town Hall for the Local Arts Community

Jayna Swartzman-Brosky at the 9th Annual Santa Barbara County Symposium for the Arts, photo by Leslie Dinaberg

Jayna Swartzman-Brosky at the 9th Annual Santa Barbara County Symposium for the Arts, photo by Leslie Dinaberg

Last week’s arts symposium, an annual event sponsored by The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, served as a lively town hall of sorts for the local arts community.  Arts advocates, arts educators and youth advocates, arts administrators, foundations, arts and city and county officials (and yours truly) packed the meeting rooms at the Canary Hotel for a day packed full of presentations and opportunities for the arts community to discuss issues that impact the arts in Santa Barbara.

Talented Goleta Valley Junior High student Mary-Grace Langhorne, the 2014 Teen Star (one of many youth-centric arts programs supported by the Arts Commission) awed the crowd with a beautiful song, followed by a short welcome from Ginny Brush, executive director of the Arts Commission. Next up was Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, who led us in a rain dance of sorts. If only I had a video camera … Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Chryss Yost read a moving poem by the city’s first Poet Laureate, the recently-deceased Barry Spacks. This was especially fitting since April is National Poetry Month.

This year’s focus for the arts symposium was “Expanding Advocacy, Community Engagement and Investment in the Arts,” and keynote speaker Kerry Adams Hapner, executive director of the Office of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Jose, gave an excellent presentation spotlighting what San Jose has done to bring the arts to the forefront of that city’s economic development program.

ArtsCommisionlogo-RGBBasically, the San Jose model outlined ten goals for ten years. Number one was to support the resident’s personal participation in arts and culture. Number two: to support availability of diverse cultural spaces and places throughout the community. Number three was to strengthen downtown San Jose as the creative and cultural center of the region. Number four: integrate public art and urban design throughout the community. Number five: expand residents’ access. Number six was to foster destination quality events in San Jose. Number seven: strengthen marketing and engagement. Number eight was to enhance support for creative entrepreneurs and the commercial creative sector. Number nine, to strengthen the cultural community’s infrastructure. And finally, number ten, to increase funding.

What Hapner described as “working the plan” involved a number of partnerships and strategic investments from the tech companies that define the Silicon Valley region, creating a creative industries incentive fund to attract that type of business and allocating 1% of the city capital improvement projects to public art, among other strategies.

The second presentation was by Jayna Swartzman-Brosky, program director for the Center for Cultural Innovation. One of the programs she oversees is NextGen Arts, a grant program of which provides professional development grants and resources for emerging California arts leaders between the ages of 18-35. She also manages the Creative Capacity Fund Quick Grant Program, which provides reimbursement funds to nonprofit organizations and individual artists to enroll in workshops, attend conferences, and to work with consultants and coaches to build administrative and business skills and strengthen the economic sustainability of an organization or arts practice. The organization offers a number of low cost entrepreneurial workshops, practical publications and resources for artists and arts organizations, with loads of information available online as well.

Afternoon sessions were divided into smaller breakout groups to stimulate community dialogue and included a more in-depth discussion with Swartzman-Brosky, a panel on promoting arts education advocacy, a group focused on expanding Santa Barbara’s cultural footprint through collaborative marketing/promotion and a discussion of advocacy for artists/innovators.

All in all it was an invigorating and interesting day. For more information visit sbartscommission.org.

—Leslie Dinaberg

Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS on April 22, 2014. 

Santa Barbara’s Teen Stars Shine at The Granada on Feb. 8

2014 Teen Star Santa Barbara Finalists

2014 Teen Star Santa Barbara Finalists

Congratulations to the Teen Star Santa Barbara 2014 finalists:

Jason Paras — Dos Pueblos High School
Karlie Mack — San Marcos High School
Zoë Lynn Burritt — Cabrillo High School
Nathaniel Neumann — Dos Pueblos High School
Grant Bower — Santa Barbara High School
Mary-Grace Langhorne — Goleta Valley Junior High School
Brandi Rose Lentini — Santa Barbara High School
Luana Psaros — Dos Pueblos High School
Sulema Mejia — Pioneer Valley High School
Dylan Ortega — Santa Ynez High School

And the 2014 alternates:
Olivia Huffman — Solvang School
Sydney Shalhoob — La Colina Junior High School

They will perform in the final competition on Saturday, February 8 at The Granada at 7 p.m. (1214 State St.).

The way the finals work is that each of the final contestants performs a song of their choice in the first round. Voting by text message, the audience selects their top choices and the celebrity judges (Catherine Remak of KLITE 101.7, casting director Wendy Kurtzman and record producer Randy Spendlove) choose theirs; then votes are combined for a second round.

After the second round, text voting occurs again by the audience and the winner is determined!

Along with the prestigious title, contestants have the chance to follow in the footsteps of previous winners like 2013 champ Allie Nixon, who is currently working with her celebrity mentor JR Richards on an album to be released this spring. Here’s one of her songs, which has been featured on the CW network:

The winner’s prize package also includes a $1,000 scholarship, opportunity to record  in a world-class studio, radio and TV appearances, plus being the opening act performer at a number of local events.

Here’s a great video that gives an overview of the program.

For more information regarding Teen Star Santa Barbara, click here.

The Teen Star Santa Barbara program was established in 2010 to give our youth an outlet to showcase their talent in a healthy environment and provide long lasting benefits for our community and our students as well as enhance opportunities for their futures. Proceeds from this event are donated to performing arts programs in Santa Barbara County Schools.

To purchase tickets click here.

—Leslie Dinaberg

Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS on January 28, 2014.