Santa Monica Creative Capital Plan
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A PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SANTA MONICA’S ARTS AND CULTURE TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary......................................................................................3 II. Summary of Recommendations...................................................................8 III. Strategies..................................................................................................15 A. Celebrating Innovation ...........................................................................16 1. Fostering Cultural Innovation..............................................................19 2. Adopting the Theme of “Innovation and Creative Individuals” ............20 B. Increasing Cultural Participation.............................................................22 1. Enhancing Marketing and Coordination..............................................24 2. Enhancing and Expanding Festivals...................................................27 3. Integrating Cultural Programming .......................................................29 4. Expanding the Public Art Program......................................................31 C. Enhancing Sustainability ........................................................................32 1. Retaining and Developing Cultural Facilities.......................................35 2. Increasing and Restructuring Cultural Funding...................................53 3. Enhancing Leadership ........................................................................61 IV. Resources ...............................................................................................66 1. Public Sources....................................................................................66 2. Private and Other Sources..................................................................69 V. Implementation..........................................................................................71 VI. Appendices..............................................................................................81 A. Planning Participants..............................................................................82 B. Planning Methodology............................................................................87 C. Santa Monica Creative Workforce Study ...............................................90 D. Telephone Survey of Santa Monica Residents ....................................101 E. Santa Monica Creative Industries Study ..............................................106 F. Survey of Santa Monica Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organizations .....109 G. Assessment of Current City Cultural Funding ......................................115 Page 2 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Culture sustains Santa Monica. Through a yearlong process of research and dialogue, Santa Monica has crafted a collective vision for the future of the arts and culture and developed strategies for fulfilling this vision. More than two hundred community members discussed issues and opportunities, vision and challenges in Town Hall and neighborhood meetings, interviews and via an interactive website; they participated in a broad array of workshops, completed surveys and nominated favorite cultural icons. 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. 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. And they seek to integrate culture more thoroughly into the fabric of the community. Residents value Santa Monica as a small-scale, informal, personal, engaged community that is fully committed to the values of sustainability. They appreciate the beauty of its natural setting and believe that Santa Monica’s extraordinary creativity flows in part from this environment. Many also consider this cultural ecosystem to be threatened by real estate pressures and a lack of focus, and seek to retain and nurture its creative people and resources. They desire a local cultural community that is multi-faceted and easily accessible. Santa Monica’s cultural community envisions the arts and culture as an integral Page 3 component of civic life, incorporated into of the city. They see culture lik community, not separate from life. Demographics of th Santa Monica has a remarkable, ye extraordinary population of creative pr destination and a haven for artists for more e sustainability—an organic part of the it—enriching and supporti perhaps the largest concentration of cr the values, policies and daily activities e Creative Sector compared to Los Angeles and other creat extraordinary proportion of artists, perfo other professionals who work in the cr national average. t in some ways hidden, asset—an ng Santa Monica’s civic ofessionals. The city has been a 1 9.00% eative employmentthan a hundred in the years. US. Even It also boasts 8.00% 7.00% ive centers, Santa Monica has an 6.00% rmers, designers, writ 5.00% eative sector, more than six times the 4.00% 3.00% 2.00% 1.00% Total number of creative workers employed as % of total employment 0.00% SantaCreative Monica compared Workforce to the 20 Most Comparison Creative US Cities ers, directors and Santa Monica For many, culture Sliterallyan Francisco sustains them or part of their living in Los Angeles Berkeley commercial and nonprofit worlds, asNe wew York Washington DC 1 The source for the workforce comparison is Seattle Cities, identified by economist Richard Florida, t Minneapolis with the Gallup Steve Organization Nivin, PhD 2006and a (see Senior page Fellow 23), withbased the on Brookings the US Ce Atlanta The Arts and Economic Prosperity, Monica, the creative workforce accounts for 8.9% of all Boston arts-related fields. This employmentPortland, OR spans the Austin Chicago Page 4 San Diego : 43% of Santa Monica’sDenver adults make all Dallas Comparison of Santa Monica’s Creative Industry to the Top 20 CreativeRaleigh he Hirst Professor of Public Policy at Ge Americans for the Arts 2002, based on US Philadelphia ll as individual, small business and Phoenix Houston Indianapolis Hartford nsus. The twenty most creative US cities are those employment, compared to the national average of 1.4%. Institution. The source for the national comparison is orge Mason University, Senior Scientist Bureau of Labor Statistics; in Santa corporate endeavors. This proliferation of creative individuals is a vital new demographic fact that perhaps more than any other characteristic defines Santa Monica’s cultural identity and informs the vision for the arts and culture. Its discovery also creates an imperative to re-examine Santa Monica’s cultural priorities. Creative Identity Santa Monica’s residents show extraordinarily 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 (83% compared 41%) and they believe having public art in a community to be nearly as important as good public schools. Seventy-two percent of families with children involve them in arts activities outside of school. This intense amount of involvement leads residents to value the presence of the arts in the community, be very enthusiastic about the quality of the cultural scene in Santa Monica and want even more opportunities to participate. Comparative Size of Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organization Budgets 2 Less than $250,000 Greater than $1 Million Santa Monica 67% 8% Pasadena 50% 29% Los Angeles County 48% 16% San Diego County 47% 23% In addition, Santa Monica identifies itself as innovative. The brand promoted by the Convention & Visitors’ Bureau describes Santa Monica as “cutting edge” and the creative community has engendered experimentation and innovations in many fields. The cultural community is also relatively non-institutional. It is distinguished by a high concentration of individuals, smaller organizations and 2 Comparison of average budget sizes of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. Data is from consultants’ surveys for Santa Monica, Pasadena and San Diego County; data for Los Angeles County is from Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Page 5 arts-related businesses, such as art galleries, and few large-budget arts and cultural nonprofit institutions. The Plan 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. Creative Capital presents three comprehensive strategies for fulfilling the community’s cultural vision, ways in which Santa Monica can ameliorate these challenges and foster even greater cultural opportunity. Celebrating Innovation Santa Monica’s extraordinary concentration of creative individuals and the associated opportunities for innovative cultural partnerships ensure the city a unique niche within the cultural ecology of the Los Angeles region and offer remarkable options for marketing and programming. These are as much overarching concepts as a specific strategy and as such echo throughout the plan’s