City Council Meeting: February 27, 2007

Agenda Item: 8-A  

To: Mayor and City Council 

From: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services

Subject: Presentation of the Long-range Community Cultural Plan and Recommendation to Review and Accept the Plan

Recommended Action

Staff recommends that Council:

1) review and accept Creative Capital: Culture, Community Vision, the recently completed long-range community cultural plan;

2) provide conceptual approval of the strategies outlined in the executive summary of the plan; and

3) direct staff to initiate implementation as outlined in Section V. of the plan, contingent upon available resources and partnerships.

Executive Summary

Creative Capital, the result of a yearlong process of research and dialogue, presents residents’ collective vision for the future of the arts and culture in Santa Monica and strategies for its fulfillment. The consultant team worked with the Arts Commission, staff and community members through public meetings, interviews and a broad array of workshops, as well as via surveys and an interactive website. In addition, several commissioned studies provided a detailed portrait of Santa Monica’s creative sector.

Based on this new understanding, Creative Capital offers a plan for the City’s continued cultural development over the next ten years. The three core strategies and associated recommendations provide a roadmap for Santa Monica to retain and build upon its vibrant cultural sector. Full implementation of the plan will require the participation of the City and community partners as well as new resources, both public and private. The plan includes a table that details the initial steps associated with each recommendation as well as a preliminary estimate of related costs. A copy of the draft plan is included with this report (Attachment A).

Discussion

Background

Much like other long-range plans, the development of a cultural plan engages a wide cross section of the community in taking stock of available cultural assets, needs, opportunities, and resources, and establishing a collective vision for the future. Santa Monica last undertook a cultural planning process in 1997. Since then a majority of that early plan’s recommendations have been implemented, the creative sector has grown and evolved, and residents demand for local cultural programming has increased.

Creative Capital: Culture, Community. Vision

Demographics of the Creative Sector

Culture sustains Santa Monica.

Santa Monica has a remarkable, yet in some ways hidden, asset—an extraordinary population of creative individuals. It also boasts perhaps the largest concentration of creative employment in the US, more than six times the national average.

In Santa Monica, the creative workforce accounts for 8.9% of all employment, compared to the national average of 1.4%.

The source for the workforce comparison is a study by Steve Nivin, PhD, commissioned for Creative Capital. The twenty most creative US cities are those identified by economist Richard Florida, the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, Senior Scientist with the Gallup Organization and a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution. The source for the national comparison is The Arts and Economic Prosperity, Americans for the Arts 2002, based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Forty-three percent of Santa Monica’s adults make all or part of their living in arts-related fields. This employment spans the commercial and nonprofit worlds, as well as individual, small business and corporate endeavors. Not surprisingly, Santa Monica’s residents show corresponding high levels of personal participation in cultural activities and an expansive understanding of their role in a community. For example, residents visited an art museum or gallery at twice the national average and believe having public art in a community to be nearly as important as good public schools.

Vision

Santa Monica’s residents share a vision for their community that interweaves the arts, cultural activities, entertainment and education throughout their lives, work, cityscape and neighborhoods. They view culture as an inseparable component of what makes Santa Monica exceptional, desirable and economically competitive. They appreciate the beauty of its natural setting and believe that Santa Monica’s extraordinary creativity flows in part from this environment. They see culture like sustainability—an organic part of the community, not separate from it—enriching and supporting Santa Monica’s civic life. Many also consider this cultural ecosystem to be threatened and seek to retain and nurture its creative people and resources.

Strategies and recommendations

Despite this creative abundance and relatively widespread understanding of its value, Santa Monica’s artists and cultural entities face increasing challenges. Rising costs, the loss of affordable real estate, and a lack of infrastructure threaten the diversity and vibrancy of the creative community. These issues, combined with the demographic discoveries outlined above, create an imperative to re-examine Santa Monica’s cultural priorities. To fulfill the community’s cultural vision, ameliorate existing challenges and foster even greater cultural opportunity, Creative Capital proposes three comprehensive strategies, along with thirty detailed recommendations.

A. Celebrating Innovation

Cross-Sector Innovation

1. Recognize and support the importance of individual artists to Santa Monica’s cultural ecosystem.

2. Adopt the theme of innovation and creative individuals as the basis for programming and marketing of Santa Monica’s creative identity.

3. Capitalize on the extraordinary concentration of creative people and resources by fostering communication and leveraging partnerships for innovative cultural programming.

B. Increasing Cultural Participation

Marketing and Coordination

4. Develop a comprehensive directory of Santa Monica’s arts and cultural resources.

5. Develop a communitywide marketing program to build audiences for Santa Monica’s arts and culture programs, increase cultural participation and access, and increase community awareness of local arts and culture.

6. Explore the evolving creative potential of electronic communication to support Santa Monica’s cultural community.

7. Develop cooperative strategies with Santa Monica College, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and other providers of lifelong learning programs to enhance the accessibility of their cultural programs to the community.

Festivals

8. Continue and further develop existing arts and cultural festivals, such as the Santa Monica Festival and Jazz on the Lawn.

9. Develop major new arts and cultural festivals, to celebrate and explore Santa Monica’s innovative cultural identity and address the community’s desire for more festivals.

10. Facilitate the provision of small-scale festivals or showcases that highlight the arts and culture, or contain a cultural component, through a co-sponsorship arrangement.

Integrating Cultural Programming

11. Seek further opportunities to integrate arts and cultural programming for all ages into non-traditional venues and programs such as community centers, parks, and other open and/or public spaces.

12. Expand the cultural programming partnership between the Cultural Affairs Division and other City divisions and departments, including the Santa Monica Public Library and the Human Services Division’s after-school and youth-at-risk programs.

13. Enhance accessibility for senior citizens to arts and cultural programs through integration of programs into existing venues and services for seniors, and by promoting partnerships through the network of lifelong learning service providers.

14. Find opportunities to promote the reintroduction of arts education in all public schools through implementation of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Arts for All plan, in cooperation with the district and the Santa Monica-Malibu Educational Foundation.

Public Art

15. Implement a public art in private development program that supports a Cultural Trust Fund flexible enough to help fulfill the community’s arts and cultural vision, as identified in this planning process.

16. In future years conduct an assessment of both the public and private public art programs to gauge their effectiveness in meeting the community’s cultural needs.

C. Enhancing Sustainability

Cultural Facilities

17. Establish Santa Monica Arts Alleys as zones for the concentration and development of small-scale arts uses, such as creative businesses, artists’ studios, small performing and exhibition spaces, and other cultural uses, and:

Ø Create a downtown cultural district for the development of Arts Alleys, bounded by 2nd Street on the west, 4th Street on the east, Broadway on the south and Wilshire on the north.

Ø Make necessary adjustments in zoning in the downtown cultural district to permit and encourage arts and cultural activities in the Arts Alleys.

Ø Negotiate with downtown property owners and businesspersons to use the vacant and underutilized space fronting the Arts Alleys and consider offering a financial incentive, such as a property tax abatement on the portion of the properties used for arts purposes, to encourage landlords to maintain affordable rents on the properties.

Ø Work with the designers of the new parking structures to ensure that the areas fronting the alleys support the Arts Alleys concept.

18. Commit to a cultural use of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in line with the community’s vision for this facility and:

Ø Approach development of the Civic Auditorium as a key component within a larger cultural campus encompassing the Civic Center, Santa Monica High School, the Pier and adjacent areas.

Ø Create a plan for the development of the Civic Auditorium that assesses the options identified in this planning process, and presents specific recommendations for implementation.

Ø Revisit the recommendations regarding the Civic Auditorium in the Civic Center Specific Plan to better accommodate the cultural uses envisioned by the community.

19. Develop, or facilitate the development of, small, flexible and affordable performance venues (under 500 seats) and visual arts spaces.

20. Develop policies and ordinances that encourage and even mandate the creation of affordable artist live/work and day studio spaces in new residential and industrial development at a minimum in the Light Manufacturing Studio District (LMSD).

21. Retain and enhance current concentrations of arts uses at the Pier, Bergamot Station, the Santa Monica Airport and 18th Street Arts Center.

22. Support and enhance cultural development around nodes, such as the emerging cultural uses along Pico Boulevard.

Cultural Funding

23. Work to increase the total amount of the City’s Cultural Funding program budget towards a benchmark of 10% of the total operating budgets of Santa Monica’s arts organizations.

24. Create new cultural support opportunities as follows:

Ø Expand and restructure the current Cultural/Arts Organization Support Grant Program to ensure separate review of arts applicants and cultural heritage applicants, and implement procedural refinements.

Ø Create an Artists Fellowship Program to support and recognize Santa Monica’s individual artists.

Ø Create an organizational capacity building and technical assistance program to encourage appropriate institutionalization of Santa Monica’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations.

Ø Create an Opportunity Grants Program to allow the City to respond to unusual and short-term arts and cultural project opportunities.

Ø Create a Capital Grants Program to assist nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in meeting their facility needs, and to encourage capacity building.

25. Explore options to best reflect and support Santa Monica’s cultural diversity through cultural funding.

26. Explore ways to enhance community access to cultural funding programs, while improving administrative effectiveness, through such tools as e-granting, on-line data collection, and collective insurance for grantees.

Leadership

27. Reactivate the Santa Monica Arts Foundation as a fundraising and leadership development organization by confirming its mission and role, and developing a plan to partner in the implementation of Creative Capital.

28. Provide in-kind support and seed-funding to the Foundation to enable it to provide increased community cultural leadership.

29. Focus the Foundation’s efforts as follows:

Ø Expand the pool of resources available for cultural uses by developing a workplace giving program to encourage cultural giving by private individuals, and a united arts fund to encourage cultural giving by local businesses and corporations.

Ø Institute an annual arts leadership awards program, recognizing leading citizens in the areas of philanthropy, business and volunteerism.

Ø Create an active program of leadership development, in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce, or other civic or business group.

30. Strengthen the capacity of the Arts Commission to fulfill its role in implementing Creative Capital as follows:

Ø Explore a reduction in the size of the Arts Commission to facilitate effectiveness and flexibility, while retaining the current use of subcommittees that include non-commissioners to provide opportunities for wider community involvement.

Ø Alter the composition requirements of the Arts Commission to balance the need for qualifications in cultural policy and advocacy with the need for professional arts qualifications.

Ø Work to diversify the membership of the Arts Commission to more accurately reflect the demographic diversity of Santa Monica.

Implementation

Full implementation of the plan will require the participation of the City and community partners as well as new resources, both public and private. The plan includes details on the initial steps associated with each recommendation as well as a preliminary estimate of related costs.

The first five years are also summarized in the table below, organized by year, with the items that can be started with little or no new resources appearing in italics. In most cases, full implementation will however be contingent upon new resources, public or private, and/or new partnerships.

Implementation by Year

Start year for implementation, including recommendation number

Ongoing

1. Individual artists recognition

2. Theme of innovation

11. Integration of cultural programs in non-traditional venues

14. Arts education cooperation

19. Small-scale venues

21. Retention & enhancement of current arts uses

30. Arts Commission diversification

Year One (2007/08)

3. Partnerships for innovative cultural programming

7. Partnerships for lifelong learning

8. Ongoing festivals

15. Private developer fee program implementation

18. Civic auditorium plan

17. Arts Alleys—zoning

20. Artists Live/Work

22. Cultural development around nodes—Pico Boulevard

25. Cultural diversity options

30. Arts Commission restructuring

Year Two (2008/09)

4. Creative Santa Monica Directory

9. New festival (“Glow”)

12. City cultural programming partnerships

13. Seniors’ programming

17. Arts Alleys—create district

24. Restructured/new cultural funding programs

25. New funding programs

26. Grants program enhancements

27. Santa Monica Arts Foundation plan

Year Three (2009/10)

5. Communitywide marketing program

6. Explore electronic communication

10. Small-scale festivals

28. Santa Monica Arts Foundation implementation of plan

Year Four (2010/11)

16. Public art program assessment

24. Capital grants

29. Santa Monica Arts Foundation—fundraising

Year Five (2011/12)

23. Cultural funding benchmark

17. Arts Alleys—downtown parking structures

Previous Council Actions

In February 2006, Council approved award of a contract in the amount of $90,000 to the Cultural + Planning Group, a Los Angeles based firm with extensive national experience in the development of cultural plans, to produce a community cultural plan that would identify Santa Monica’s priorities in terms of the arts and culture, as well as the methods for achieving these objectives. Over the course of the last year, two information items highlighted the plan’s progress and an initial draft of the plan was circulated in early December.

Commission Action

The Arts Commission held four public hearings on the community cultural plan during the course of its development. In addition at its meeting on February 5^th, 2007 the Arts Commission reviewed the final draft of the plan and voted unanimously to enthusiastically endorse it and recommend its adoption to Council.

Alternatives

Council could adopt the plan in its entirety or could elect to adopt it with exceptions or provisions regarding specific findings or recommendations. Prior to adopting the community cultural plan, Council could also require further study or research on some topic or finding in the plan, which might require the allocation of additional resources.

Public Outreach

Extensive community outreach, input and review have been a hallmark of the Creative Capital planning process. In addition to the four public hearings held by the Art Commission, there were fourteen different public meetings and topic oriented workshops held to discuss the plan in which over two hundred people participated. The draft was widely distributed in December and made available through the project’s website. Staff also made presentations to five neighborhood associations and solicited feedback at a special meeting of representatives of all the City Boards and Commissions.

Budget/Financial Impact

Full implementation of the plan is envisioned as a joint responsibility of the City and a number of partner entities. While the City will play a major role, this is a community cultural plan meaning that it is derived from the entire community and will be implemented in partnership with agencies and individuals from the community. The plan contains a section on implementation that details the initial steps associated with each recommendation, lead agencies or partners, and a preliminary cost estimate.

It is important to note that the pace and sequence of implementation envisioned in the plan is contingent upon the availability of sufficient staff, funding and other resources. Implementation of the portions of the plan that require additional City resources is contingent on Council’s appropriation of additional funds and will have to be prioritized among other City requests for additional resources.

Prepared by:

Jessica Cusick, Cultural Affairs Manager

Approved:	Forwarded to Council:
Barbara Stinchfield Director, Community and Cultural Services Department	P. Lamont Ewell City Manager