How Would You Create Long Beach?
On Saturday, March 28th the City of Long Beach Economic Development and Cultural Affairs Bureau, The Arts Council for Long Beach, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission held a Creative Community Public Forum at the Museum of Latin American Art, in Long Beach.Now that's a lot of big fancy organization titles and to me art has never really been about organization and structure. To me art springs up organically, at the times and in the places where one might least expect it. This can not always be in the most comfortable ways to those in power, see Graffiti Art, so when ever some big fancy organizations comes along to "help support" the arts I'm always skeptical. I've also learned that if you don't do what you can to jump in and get involved then you don't have any room to bitch later on when things aren't going your way, so I jumped in the car this last Saturday morning, 9am on a Sat. is usually reserved for sleeping in BTW, and after a stop for systems fuel at Viento Y Agua, thanks to "TheMan" for the intro to this place, I picked up my good friend Victor and headed off to the MoLAA to see what was going on.
The team for Create Long Beach describes the event as "A community cultural planning process that will identify Long Beach’s creative assets and generate ideas to invigorate our culture of creativity. This public dialogue and collaboration will produce citywide implementation strategies to make Long Beach the most culturally vibrant city in California." For this forum they utilized a "Breakout Session" format which can be very effective at openly gathering input from the wide range of voices in attendance. Since the objective was to give all participants an opportunity to contribute to each of the six themes being addressed, this gave roughly twenty minutes for each topic. I've participated in other planning sessions of this type using this format and while twenty minutes may have been a bit short often times causing conversations to get cut short just as they were really getting to the meat of the talk, the method can be very effective for opening up a free flowing dialogue. I know that I as a newcomer and a bit of an outsider to the usual crowd felt very comfortable jumping right in and giving my two cents, so I think the format overall was pretty effective...Here's a little sample of some of the feedback the six themes received:
Issues:
While I won't claim to be young, I will claim to be able to relate better to a more youngish kind of a crowd then to the older/stuffy crowd, so another concern I had was if I'd be able to actually connect to anything anyone else already cared about. I'd definitely like to see a lot more attention paid to the acceptance a wider range of art forms such as MUSIC, poetry, and Graffiti, however I definitely saw some issues and notes that I care about and could relate too.
You can click on that pic to see an up close, but the little scribble on the one about breakdancing... that's me! :) In addition to that I really liked the comments about the Public Access TV and fully support a return to funding for that. I believe that we have a wide range of creative individuals in this city and paint on canvas or sculptures are not the only mediums needing support. This is about building a broad based artist community, so all forms need to be supported! Another issue in this pic I related to is the note about not shying away from racism and injustice issues. Remember that all that it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing, so let's stop pretending and turning a blind eye! BTW - I'd LOVE to hear your input on both the issues I listed and any you might feel strongly about! Hint: Use the comments area below :).
Two more thoughts - I'm almost done rambling I promise!
1st - Diversity... one thing Victor and I were very interested in was how much diversity would be represented in this process. Remember I can have a hard time trusting the powers that be. Although the event did have a bit of diverse representation, so I do not want to knock them here, I would strongly encourage a larger effort on behalf of the Arts Council and the Create Long Beach team to reach out to a broader range of participants. Here's a couple of pics from the breakout sessions. Like I said not terrible with the diversity, but I'll let you decide how much more is needed...
So, here's my final thoughts... AWESOME idea in concept and a lot of great feedback was given by all participants, so THANK YOU to the organizers for working to bring the community together and for hosting this forum! Now - here's the thing FOLLOW THOUGH! That's it, that's all we ask you to commit too, and be sincere and inclusive about it. There is a GREAT opportunity here to truly build an amazing synergy of the arts, community, and business within the best city in all of So Cal. If, however you squander this, there is also the opportunity to use this as nothing more then a tool to funnel public funds to yourselves for the purpose of selfishly lining your own pockets or paying for your own pet projects. For now we'll assume the best and commit whole heartedly to being a strong partner every step of the way!
Comment
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Comment by The Man on April 1, 2009 at 9:28pm -
I'm willing to help also, I down to help Long Beach become more creative and I would like to be involved in the process of it. I'll be sure to leave some suggestions..
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Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on April 1, 2009 at 7:07pm -
Sounds good! We're willing to help... Also, here's a link to the Facebook Group.
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Comment by Antonio Ruiz on April 1, 2009 at 6:17pm -
The Creativity Network is focused on issues. What are the priority issues affecting all segments of the creative community along with those who are the consumers of the arts. For the past three years, we have been sponsoring or co-sponsoring forums, community meetings, small group meetings, producing video and audio podcasts, website forums, surveys, all manner of methods to advocate for a master plan. A master plan that would lay out goals and strategies for the future of the arts and culture in Long Beach. I am not the only one that has been advocating it. From both on the Arts Council and off, we've worked to build a framework for this dialogue and we will continue to push for it because it is an important blueprint for the future. You don't build a house without a blueprint. Why would you build a new arts paradigm without one?
Now the hard part. Working with the Arts Council, City Council, Institutions, Community Groups, Arts groups and individuals, we want to continue to educate everyone about "Create Long Beach" and solicit input into the planning process. We need the help of everyone on this site and other sites to help us get the word out and to direct input to us. If you're on Facebook, that's easy. There are forums you can join. We're going to create forums on The Creativity Network and the Arts Council website. We're going to develop a continuing strategy for offline input as well. As I said on my video, this is a process that will continue to a long time; allowing us to evolve a plan that truly deals with a multitude of issues, communities and solutions.
Please send your suggestions to thecreativitynetwork@gmail.com. Thank you.
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Comment by Lugene on April 1, 2009 at 6:11pm -
I agree that it takes more work to reach all corners of Long Beach, and that we do need to go out into the neighborhoods to talk with people instead of expecting them to come to "us", but who's going to do that work? It takes people and time to identify, organize, facilitate, listen, document, compile, analyze, etc. to ensure that what people have to say is heard, understood and considered when preparing any sort of strategic plan...or people do begin to feel like it's a waste of their time.
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Comment by lbcsrw on March 31, 2009 at 10:57pm
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Students are a significant cultural engine, and we should do everything to encourage their participation. I'll be working on a large-scale piece about the zoning issues related to entertainment. I'll keep you posted.
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Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on March 31, 2009 at 10:21pm
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@ lbcsrw :) hey better late then never!
I completely agree with "taking it on the road"!
As far as Antonio's video - I think it can be a natural reaction to want to strongly defend an effort one might put into something, so hearing any criticism can be tough. I think that your recap, was subjective, as you note in the comments, but I also think it can be good to be subjective...
If we can keep talking and keep working, then maybe we can achieve the end goal in a consensus format...
AH - one thing I just realized that I forgot to mention in my blog was what you told me at the event on Saturday... the part about it being against city ordinance for retail businesses to have live music performances... that is LAME! Perhaps you could write a piece about that specifically...
TheMan also has good points about the schools too!
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Comment by The Man on March 31, 2009 at 10:01pm
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How about go to the skate parks, and the schools? I go to LBCC and I didn't see any info of this event at all. At LBCC you can set up a date to come and have a table and have your reps talk about everything. The ASB will know more about it in the E building. I think getting to the schools, not just colleges but LB highschools also is a good pull source...
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Thanks for this great coverage, Matt. Like you, there were some things about the event I liked, and some I found challenging. Having walked this road many times, it takes a certain faith to hope that tangible results will arise from this. Fiscal resources are dwindling, and we're reaching a point now where the operational expenses of the Arts Council are exceeding the municipal funds it distributes. I didn't hear much talk about that, though.
Antonio, in the video posted above, was quite critical of my recap. Perhaps folks here can read it and let me know if it seems like "a flawed subjective review based on a misperception of the goals of the forum and a misunderstanding about the process now underway."
I agree that diversity and broad participation are required. I believe that the only way to accomplish that is to take the show on the road, and connect with people in their own neighborhoods, in places where they naturally congregate, and do lots of listening. It would be great if City Council members helped facilitate this.
Lastly, thanks for creating this forum. Sorry I'm so late to the party!
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Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on March 31, 2009 at 9:21pm
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Hello Lugene - The fact that it was fully open to the public and had a Facebook group, as well as info on the cities site was/is GREAT! My thoughts are that in this large and very diverse city so it might take a little more work to completely and fully reach out to the full range of people that might be interested in this issue... An old boss of mine taught me a teaching skill she learned from her many years in the classroom; it takes presenting the information seven different ways, seven different times in order to fully get your message across.
So, I definitely don't think that the event was meant to be exclusive by any means. What will need to be done though is ask, what else can I do reach a wider crowd. We'll have to actually physically go into the different neighborhoods and try to put ourselves into the mindsets of those that are not exactly like us... How will I tell the younger audience about this, how will I communicate this to the hispanic audience, or the Cambodian community... etc, etc, etc. I just might take a bit more work if we truly want a strong diverse representation... just my thoughts - THANKS FOR LISTENING! :)
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Comment by Lugene on March 31, 2009 at 2:18pm
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This was a Public Forum, anyone and everyone was invited. How do we reach out to those who weren't there on Saturday? Would love to hear all viewpoints...leave a post here or at the Facebook group: Create Long Beach
Thanks!
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