Chairman of National Endowment for the Arts Visits Tucson:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012
12:00 to 1:30 p.m

Creative Placemaking Conversation Open to Public
RSVP:  info@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

TUCSON, AZ – National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman will visit Tucson on February 28. The public is invited to a panel discussion and community conversation on Creative Placemaking with him at noon at the Leo Rich Theatre.

The chairman’s visit to Tucson is prompted by his interest in learning more about the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s NEA “Our Town” grant – which supports cultural asset mapping associated with the Warehouse Arts District and TPAC’s P.L.A.C.E. (People, Land, Arts, Culture, and Engagement) Initiative. Landesman also will be a guest at “FILM FORWARD: Advancing Cultural Dialogue,” an initiative of the Sundance Institute taking place in Tucson in partnership with the Loft Cinema.

The free public event on Creative Placemaking with Landesman and other panelists will be from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at the Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave. TPAC also has scheduled a morning walking tour for Landesman of Tucson’s Art Warehouse District with Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Elizabeth Burden of the Warehouse Arts Management Organization and civic leaders.

Landesman is the tenth chair of the NEA. He ran a private investment fund before becoming president of Jujamcyn, a company that owns five Broadway theatres. His Tony award winning productions include “Big River,” “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” “Angels in America: Perestroika” and “The Producers.” He also has a passion for minor league baseball and country music. He holds a doctorate in dramatic literature from Yale.

“We know that when we bring the arts and artists into towns and cities, it changes those places profoundly,” he said. Landesman is visiting many communities across the country that have received Our Town grants. “Creative placemaking is about how the arts can change and transform places, where the arts can intersect with the real world,” he has said.

Also participating in the panel discussion and community conversation are Maribel Alvarez, program director of Tucson Meet Yourself, Tucson artist Bill Mackey and

Gail Browne, executive director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Alvarez is a recipient of a TPAC P.L.A.C.E. initiative award to conduct a neighborhood cultural asset mapping project with the San Ignacio Yaqui Council in Old Pascua, a historic barrio in Tucson.

Mackey received a P.L.A.C.E award for a participatory arts project – the Worker Transit Authority – which looks at the relationship between infrastructure and choice as it relates to the built environment. The Worker Transit Authority explores the question How do you move through the city?

Browne and the Poetry Center have an extensive history of community partnerships and programs that illuminate placemaking through collaborative practices.

The free Creative Placemaking event will be moderated by Roberto Bedoya, executive director of TPAC. The event is free to the public, but TPAC requests an advance RSVP with names of attendees sent to info@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

Bedoya said, “Tucson is a community that values and supports creative placemaking and that is why the chairman is visiting us. His visit will offer him opportunities to learn more about how our local arts community creates civic belonging, contributes to the local economy and feeds the vitality, distinctiveness and identity of what makes Tucson unique.”

For more information, contact TPAC at 624-0595.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

Through Tucson Pima Arts Council
National Foundations Provide $103,963
For 18 Arts-Based Civic Engagement Grants

TUCSON, AZ – From now through next December, 18 local organizations will create arts-based projects designed to strengthen cross-cultural understanding, increase tolerance and encourage a more civil society.

Tucson Pima Arts Council awarded grants totaling $103,963 with funding received from Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

“These awards illuminate how Tucsonans working in the creative arts are building bridges and contributing to our civic wellbeing. These awards speak to the fact that our community is working to bring out the best in us,” said Robert Bedoya, TPAC’s executive director. “It’s all about building bridges of understanding,” he said.

• “Beyond Groceries” will explore the relationships between Tucson’s Chinese grocers of old and multi-ethnic neighborhoods. This is a project of the Tucson Chinese Association.

• “Page to Stage and Beyond” will use performance poetry to examine stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings between Mexican American and Native American communities. This is a Safos Dance Theatre project.

• “The Wonder of We” will create a sense of place by giving Tucson a face – posting portraits of people of all ages throughout the city. Lewis Humphreys, organizer and curator of TEDxTucson, will head this project.

• Pan Left Productions will use the voice of homeless youth to create a media arts project that addresses the systemic causes that lead to children raising themselves on the streets of our city.

• C.A.S.T. will provide expressive arts workshops for homeless youth that will culminate in a collection of stories presented in a public performance.

• “Bus Stop Dreaming” is an eight-month oral history project concerning recent deportations that will culminate in a multi-media performance. This will be led by Denise Uyehara, performance artist, writer and playwright.
• “Soundscapes, Landscapes and Lifescapes” will be an exhibit that celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arizona/Sonora borderland. This is a project of the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

• Through a Tucson Meet Yourself project, UA ethnographers will train up to 25 “community scholars” to record and share stories of cross-cultural mixing, migrations, civic participation and artistic practices.

• Self-described “writer, videographer, composer, musician and recovering scientist” Dan Buckley will produce a documentary on the El Casino Ballroom, Tucson’s original community center.

• In “Bringing Numerical Statistics to Life”  Wesley Fawcett Creigh will create larger-than-life portraits of women in detention centers.

TPAC also awarded grants for projects by All Souls Procession, Borderlands Theatre, Esperanza Dance Project, the Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network, The Loft Cinema, New ARTticulations Dance Theatre, Stories That Soar! and Tucson Arts Brigade. Grants ranged in amount from $1,560 to $7,000.

“This wonderful array of projects helps us appreciate the vibrancy of our civil society and just how dynamic and rich our community is,” Bedoya said.

TPAC applied for funding from several national foundations, addressing the broad topic of building a civil society. “Arts and culture can inspire citizens to transform neighborhoods and encourage civic dialogue around challenging issues,” he said.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation, based in New York, supports a wide range of projects, including community-based artistic and cultural projects that build a just society. The Open Society Institute is dedicated to building vibrant and tolerant democracies and funds projects worldwide.

This foundation support further develops the TPAC’s Tucson P.L.A.C.E. initiative – which stands for People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

The Tucson Pima Arts Council selected 18 local organizations and individuals to receive the Tucson: P.L.A.C.E. Initiative grant funded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and Open Society Institute. The grants range from $1,500 to $ 7,000 and total $ 103,963.00.

P.L.A.C.E. III  Initiative Recipients and Projects 2011-2012:

Borderlands Theater- this project will embrace civic engagement through the annual Tucson Pastorela.

Clean And Sober Theatre (CAST) Compass Behavioral Health Care- C.A.S.T. Encore! will provide two six-week expressive arts workshops to homeless youth served by partnering agencies that will culminate in a collection of stories to be presented in a public performance.

Daniel Buckley- will conduct an oral history project that will document  and re-energize Tucson’s original community center, El Casino Ballroom, while engaging the Latino and multi-cultural communities it has brought together with an air of dignity and civility.

Denise Uyehara- an eight-month oral history project with the South Tucson community concerning recent Police/Border Patrol deportations, culminating in a  multi-media performance at actual sites of deportation in the city.

Esperanza Dance Project- is a multi-media performance project whose mission is to raise awareness, create visibility and educate teens and adults in Tucson and throughout Arizona, about childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault through the use of dance/performance, language/writing and visual art/film.

Lewis Humphreys- is creating a sense of place by giving Tucson a face, through a project entitled “The Wonder of We”. Humphreys will be posting  portraits of people of all ages throughout the city of Tucson to engage the public in civic dialogue about place.

NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre- Re:Configurations: Dance and Stories is a series of workshops and a performance addressing issues of identity and relationship in Tucson’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) community using modern dance, storytelling , performance and civic dialogue.

Pan Left Productions- is conducting a media arts project using homeless youth voice to ignite the people of Tucson to take action on the systemic causes of children raising themselves on the streets in our city.

The All Souls Procession-The All Souls Procession provides a substantial forum for the expression of grief and despair in a creative, uplifting and deep manner for all of its participants.

Safos Dance Theatre- this project is a collaborative two week long arts education residency for Pistor MS and Hiaki HS that will address issue of stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings between the Mexican American and Native American communities

Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network- using culinary and traditional arts of Tucson’s refugees, Iskashitaa RHN will engage the Tucson community to address preservation of heritage food waste under health wellness and the local food system using digital stories and direct engagement.

Stories that Soar!- documented on film for audiences of all abilities, this multitier project uses theatrical storytelling and the creative arts to empower deaf and blind youth by highlighting their unique realities and sharing them in general public.

The Loft Cinema-The free Human Rights Watch Film Festival, bears witness to human rights violations and creates a community forum for outcome-based cross-cultural discourse.

University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA)- The Border Project: Soundscapes, Landscapes and Lifescapes is  an exhibit celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the Arizona/Sonora borderlands.

Tucson Arts Brigade- this project works with youth, elders, and adults and provides multi-disciplinary (drawing, painting, design, research, dialogue) arts and cultural activities that addresses critical community needs in the 29th Street Coalition neighborhoods of Tucson.

Tucson Chinese Association- this project returns to selected Tucson neighborhoods to explore the relations of historic Chinese grocers with their neighbors and the associated history of tolerance in those multi-ethnic communities.

Tucson Meet Yourself- brings the tools and methods of ethnographic documentation from the university to the community to train up to 25 community scholars in Tucson/Pima County to record and share stories of cross-cultural mixing, migrations, civic participation and artistic practices.

Wesley Fawcett Creigh- this project addresses concerns around the relatively recent practice of detaining women in Arizona; larger than life-size portraits of women detainees will be created through public participation at various local events in 2012.

Funded by the City of Tucson through TPAC, these grants will help nonprofit organizations address priorities that will help them sustain, thrive and grow during these challenging economic times, according to Leia Maahs, TPAC grants and community cultural development manager.

“As government funding for the arts diminished, TPAC re-envisioned its grants process and focused on using public monies to strengthen our local arts and culture organizations and grow the vitality of our city’s creative culture for the long term,” Maahs said.

The grants are a direct response to the current economic climate. They support creative thinking and leadership in the nonprofit arts and cultural sector.

“These awards are resources that will support the dynamic adaptability of our cultural community as it moves through this sputtering economy. They also affirm the public’s support of Tucson’s diverse art organizations and their valuable contribution to our civic well-being.” Says Roberto Bedoya, TPAC’s Executive Director.

TPAC awarded eight $2,500 grants, seventeen $5,000 grants and six $10,000 grants. A total of 46 organizations applied, detailing the challenges they were facing and how the grant would sustain operations, strengthen management capacity and further the mission of the organization.

Recipients of the $10,000 grants were among the first to submit information through the Arizona Cultural Data Project, part of a national database sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Organizations input detailed background including financial, programmatic, demographic and operational data one time, then continue to access and update the information into the future.

To date, Arizona is one of 11 states participating in the project that began in 2004 after four years of research and a $2.3 million investment by The Pew Charitable Trusts in the Cultural Data Project. Until then there had been no standardized system for gathering cultural data.

As use of the database expands, local organizations will have increased visibility and opportunities. Funders around the nation use this information plan and evaluate grant-making activities.

In addition to TPAC, other organizations in Arizona using this database for grant funding include the Arizona Commission on the Arts, City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Flinn Foundation and Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

The database also helps participating organizations to easily track trends and benchmark their progress through sophisticated reporting tools.

Through sustainability grants, the new database project, economic impact research and community cultural development projects, TPAC’s Grants Program is committed to provide the resources organizations need to increase their capacity, leverage new resources and support the growth of a vibrant and diverse nonprofit arts and culture community in Tucson, Arizona Maahs said.

The grant recipients are:

$10,000 – Arizona Theatre Company, Loft Cinema, The Drawing Studio, Tucson Botanical Gardens, Tucson Museum of Art and Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

$5,000 – Ballet Arts Foundation, Beowulf Alley Theatre, Borderlands Theatre, Chax Press, Kore Press, Live Theatre Workshop, NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre, Odaiko Sonora, Pan Left Productions, The Rogue Theatre, Tucson Arts Brigade, Tucson Chamber Artists, Tucson Literacy Movement, Tucson Meet Yourself, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Warehouse Arts Management Organization and ZUZI! Dance Company.

$2,500 – FUNHOUSE Movement Theatre, Lead Guitar, Safos Dance Theatre, Sons of Orpheus – The Male Choir of Tucson, Studio Connections of Arizona, The Symphony Women’s Association, Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association and Winding Road Theatre Ensemble.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

August 2011

P.L.A.C.E. initiative grants range from $2,500 to $10,000 and are available for individual artists, arts and culture organizations, and community-based projects through a panel review process. Community engagement and civic dialogue are cornerstones of the initiative, making it uniquely competitive and project oriented.

“The Kresge Foundation gave us the means to implement the P.L.A.C.E. initiative,” says Roberto Bedoya, TPAC’s Executive Director, “a key recommendation from the Pima Cultural Plan completed in 2008.”

P.L.A.C.E. II Initiative Recipients and Projects 2011:

Ben’s Bells – Commit to Kindness Mural: Engages minds, hearts, and hands in a public art project with enduring value for theTucson community.

BICAS – Bridging Generations: Connecting Armory Park Seniors and Youth through Art: Connects seniors and youth in learning projects that explore history in relation to the present to build a deeper understanding of personal experience.

Bill Mackey – Worker Transit Authority: Presents events that incorporate performance, graphics, and data in a participatory manner designed to facilitate discussion about the issues of land use, infrastructure, transportation and the environment.

Borderlands Theater – Welcome Refugees and Immigrants: Fosters civic dialogue through theater productions that addressTucson refugee and immigrant communities.

Casa Libre en la Solana – Made for Flight: Produces a youth empowerment workshop series that includes transgender history, ally development, creative writing and kite building to commemorate the lives of transgender individuals who have recently passed.

Finding Voice – Finding Voice Project: Engages refugees and immigrants atCatalinaMagnetHigh School to develop their personal and community voice through literacy, visual arts, and civic engagement.

Kore Press – Coming in Hot Civil Discourse Tour & Cross Cultural Interviewing Project: Engages the public through performance and storytelling to help create social change by raising awareness and bridging cultural and generational gaps.

New ARTiculations – FLOW: Dancing for Water Awareness in the Desert (Phase 2): Engages the community in an interactive dialogue about the past and present flow of water inTucson to inform the creation and presentation of a dance performance in theSanta Cruz riverbed.

Pan Left Productions – Community Media Education Project: Produces youth-oriented courses in media literacy and production focusing on under-represented community voices.

Sharmoore Productions – Stories Thrive in ’05: Engages elementary students in the development of stories that are transformed into performances and picture books.

The Drawing Studio – Neighborhood and Family Outreach: Involves youth at risk for gang involvement, substance abuse, and truancy in art education to develop skills to create a narrative work that explores their relationship to larger family and cultural histories.

Tucson Meet Yourself – Old Pascua Cultural Inventory: Provides workshops on folk life, community asset mapping, and digital photographic documentation in partnership with San Ignacio Yaqui Council in the Old Pascua neighborhood.

Tucson artist Denise Uyehara (left) and Roberto Bedoya (right), executive director of Tucson Pima Arts Council, discuss the public dialogue over arts and politics.
The Tucson Pima Arts Council and Alliance for Audience/ShowUp.com are inviting southern Arizona residents to engage in a conversation about the role of artists in the broader community.
“Arts, Culture & Democracy: A Tucson Community Discussion” is giving participants a chance to hear from leaders from both the political and artistic realms, including Ron Barber, district director of the office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, local artist Denise Uyehara, and Doug McLennan, the Seattle-based founder and editor of ArtsJournal.
Uyehara and Roberto Bedoya, executive director of Tucson Pima Arts Council, join Arizona Illustrated to discuss the project. They say its goal is to advance public dialogue about important issues, not to politicize the arts.

Watch the actual interview:

The Tucson Pima Arts Council selected 15 local organizations and individuals to receive the first Kresge Arts in Tucson: P.L.A.C.E. Initiative grants funded by The Kresge Foundation. The grants range from $1,500 to $10,000 and total $82,000.

P.L.A.C.E. I  Initiative Recipients and Projects 2010:

Borderlands Theatre – for the production of a play and workshops to be held in two Southside community venues addressing the issues of women who cross the U.S./Mexico border illegally.

Catalina Magnet High School / Finding Voice – helping refugee and immigrant students use autobiographical writing and photography to find their personal voices while conducting opportunities for civic engagement to address community issues.

Toltecali Academy/Barrio Sustainability Project – students will work with community members to research neighborhood environmental issues impacting the community such as TCE (trichloroethylene), a ground water contaminant, and then create a mural reflecting their community work.

City High School – using oral history, photography, writing and theatre to engage directly with the public – on the street, in print, over the radio and online – focusing on downtown revitalization and historic preservation of 48 E. Pennington St.

CODAC Behavioral Health Services – working with artist David Tineo and the Hendrick Acres Neighborhood Association to create a mural about overcoming the stigma of mental illness and addiction.

Filmmaker Jaime A. Lee – developing a website and short film about “the power of our stories to connect us,” prompting conversations about the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community in Arizona.

Prescott College / Ironwood Tree Experience– an opportunity for children, families and neighbors to express “sense of place” and community cultural development through art making in and with nature with the Coronado Heights Neighborhoods.

Laura N. Banks Elementary PTA – collaborating with the Terra Cotta and Cooper Crest neighborhoods to create assessable community assets and shared community resources on the school campus.

NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre – creating a community-based dance performance and on-going workshops for children, youth and adults addressing issues about water scarcity, riparian ecosystems and Sonoran Desert ecology.

Barrio Centro Neighborhood – producing a neighborhood festival that promotes diabetes awareness and healthy lifestyles through music, dancing and an educational health fair.

Pan Left Productions – involving neighborhood associations and organizations to provide media literacy and production courses for youth, homeless people and those living in poverty.

The Drawing Studio – providing visual arts studio learning for low-income at-risk teens and youth in downtown and South Tucson neighborhoods.

Arizona State Museum– creating a digital graphic comic-style book with a Native American artist and local Native youth dealing with diabetes prevention for middle school, high school and college aged youth.

Tierra Y Libertad Organization – using a variety of expressive methods to build and disseminate positive social, neighborhood and cultural messages in the Southside of Tucson.

Tucson Arts Brigade – using mural arts to inspire community engagement, teach civic responsibility, promote stewardship and create a strong sense of place, belonging and pride in three Tucson neighborhoods.

 Press Release
 Contact: Roberto Bedoya | 520.624.0895 x. 25 | rbedoya@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

TUCSON, AZ – The Tucson Pima Arts Council and Alliance for Audience/ShowUp.com present a free provocative community discussion about the role arts and culture will play as part of civil discourse in the lives of Tucsonans.

Douglas McLennan, founder and editor of ArtsJournal and the event’s keynote speaker, will give a talk titled “More than Applause: The Pursuit of Cultural Conversation.”  McLennan will examine the ways in which the arts and culture community can and must begin offering new perspectives and meaningful dialogue on essential issues like health care, immigration, education, and foreign affairs.  Since decisions affecting Tucson represent our community’s fundamental values and concerns, those issues merit examination on stages, in galleries, and everywhere the arts thrive in our community.

ArtsJournal, founded in 1999, is the leading online arts resource, presenting over 60 bloggers from across the world of arts and culture with daily news feeds about the arts nationwide.

Following the talk will be a panel discussion by Ron Barber, District Director for the Office of Gabrielle Giffords; Denise Uyehara, an award-winning performance artist, writer and playwright; and James Garcia, Co-founder of the Real Arizona Coalition and the Producing Artistic Director of New Carpa Theatre.

“Arts, Culture & Democracy: A Tucson Community Discussion” will be facilitated by the co-sponsors, Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, and Matt Lehrman, Executive Director of Alliance for Audience/ShowUp.com.  The event is produced in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

Arts, Culture & Democracy: A Tucson Community Discussion will take place at the Temple of Music & Art at the Cabaret Theatre in Tucson, November 17^th, from 8:30 am – 11:30 am.  Admission is free, but seating is limited. To reserve seating, visit http://artsculturedemocracy.eventbrite.com.

 Event Details 

About the keynote speaker:

Douglas McLennan is an arts journalist and critic and the founder and editor of ArtsJournal.com, the leading aggregator of arts journalism on the internet. He has written on the arts for numerous publications, including as music critic for Salon.com, and for Newsweek, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and the London Evening Standard. He is a recipient of several awards for arts criticism and reporting, including a National Arts Journalism Program Fellowship at Columbia University and a Deems Taylor/ASCAP Award for music journalism.

About the panelists: 

Ron Barber, District Director for the Office of Gabrielle Giffords, was wounded in the shooting in Northwest Tucson that claimed the lives of six people.  In the aftermath of the tragedy, he and his family founded the Fund for Civility, Respect, and Understanding at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona to support nonprofit organizations working to heal the community, honor the fallen, and foster dialogue and artistic performances that unify the Tucson community.

James E. Garcia is a playwright, journalist, university lecturer, and owner of Creative Vistas Media, a media consulting firm.  He also serves as the director of communications at the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and as a writer, researcher and policy strategist at Urias Communications. He has taught writing, theater and ethnic studies courses at Arizona State University since 2003. Garcia is the co-founder of the Real Arizona Coalition and producing artistic director of New Carpa Theater Co. in Phoenix.

Denise Uyehara is an award-winning performance artist, writer, and playwright whose work has been presented internationally. For over two decades her work has investigated what marks us in our migration across borders of identity. A founding member of the Sacred Naked Nature Girls, Uyehara conducts workshops for artists and a wide range of communities – LGBTQ, women, people of color and seniors. She has been named a “Critic’s Choice” by L.A. Weekly, the Bay Guardian, and SF Weekly and has been honored with an Emerging Voices Fellowship by the PEN West Center.

About the facilitators:

Roberto Bedoya is the Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council. He formerly served the Executive Director of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO), a national arts service organization for individual artists and artist-centered organizations. Bedoya is the author of the monograph, U.S. Cultural Policy: Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential, and has been a Rockefeller Fellow at New York University and a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has Master of Arts in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Matt Lehrman is the founder and Executive Director of Alliance for Audience.  Previously, Lehrman served with the Scottsdale Cultural Council as Director of Marketing for the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  Matt moved to Arizona in 1988 and worked as a Corporate Sales Officer for Citibank, and then as Director of Sales & Marketing for Bank of Scottsdale. Prior to that, Matt held positions as a staff lobbyist in Washington D.C. for the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

For more than 25 years TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art.. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

Contact: Roberto Bedoya, 520 624-0895 ext. 25 or rbedoya@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

SURVEY OF CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES SHOWS SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC ART; INCREASE IN ARTS FUNDING NOT LIKELY UNTIL ECONOMY IMPROVES 

TUCSON, AZ – A new survey of City of Tucson council members and candidates showed strong support for creating and maintaining the city’s public art collection, and a willingness to increase local arts funding once economic conditions improve.

Arizona Citizens for the Arts and the Tucson Pima Arts Council sponsored the seven-question survey to explore candidate attitudes about local public funding to support arts and culture and other arts-friendly public policies. Six City of Tucson council members and five candidates responded to all or part of the survey.

The introduction to the survey noted that the nonprofit arts and culture industry in Tucson and Pima County has an economic impact of $57.5 million, according to the most recent statistics available from the Arts and Economic Prosperity report from Americans for the Arts. That represents 1,703 jobs and $5.25 million in local and state tax revenues.

In the economic downturn, City of Tucson arts funding has dropped more than 50 percent over the past three years to a low of $401,660 (or 77 cents per capita) in Fiscal Year 2012. National research shows that local public arts funding averages $6 per capita. The survey asked if the candidates would support increasing the Tucson Pima Arts Council budget to $1 per capita in Fiscal Year 2013.

Responses cited current economic constraints. The majority did favor that level of funding “should the budget allow” or “after we address basic services” or “when funding is available.”

Council members and candidates unanimously support the city’s public art program that provides sculpture, murals and other art for the city’s public facilities and spaces. A majority also supports funding for maintenance and repair of the city’s public art collection.

Most respondents indicated that city-owned arts and cultural facilities are not sufficient to meet the needs of the community.

The survey also asked council members and candidates what they believed was the appropriate role of the City of Tucson in fostering arts and culture for citizens and visitors. Every respondent indicated the city does have a role in supporting the arts, though views differed about what that role should be.

Each candidate also detailed his or her personal involvement in the arts.

Survey participants were current council members Paul Cunningham, Richard Fimbres, Steve Kozachik, Regina Romero, Shirley Scott and Karen Uhlich, plus mayoral candidates Mary DeCamp, Rick Grinnell and Jonathan Rothchild and ward candidates Beryl Baker and Tyler Vogt.

Complete candidate responses to the survey in pdf format:
Arts Candidates Survey-All Responses

The compilation also will be distributed to the 2,040 voters registered as Tucson and Pima County residents who are members of Arizona Citizens for the Arts and to the 230 members of the TPAC Arts Advocacy Network. Results will be shared with local media outlets and via social media.

Following, are the comments submitted in answer to a question regarding the role of the City in fostering arts and culture for citizens and visitors:

Ward One: Regina Romero, Democrat– “Providing funding for the Arts is part of the City’s role, and I have promoted Arts funding since I was elected. In this tough economic crisis I am working with my colleagues to provide leadership and vision for celebrating the arts, people, nature and culture as an economic driver for Tucson. I am proud to champion Tucson as a place for arts, culture, music and festivals such as El Dia De San Juan, All Souls Procession, Fiesta Grande, the Cesar Chavez March and Rally and Tucson’s Birthday Celebrations. I support the City’s involvement in promoting these and other events such as mariachi festivals and a Downtown with diversity. I look for grants for funding to support our history, such as Mission Gardens and Tucson Origins Heritage Park and seek funding for grants to artists through TPAC and the MTCVB, and so much more.”

Ward Two: Paul Cunningham, Democrat – “The City of Tucson should play a role in empowering people to enjoy and participate in the arts. This support includes but is not limited to community support, city financial support, and supporting and collaborating with the local education system through the arts.”

Ward Three: Karen Uhlich, Democrat – “The shift to truly designate TPAC as our arts and cultural coordinating entity will, I believe, advance our shared cause. This will help the city promote arts/cultural attractions (as designated now in MTCVB agreement), document economic impacts, and communicate the value of investments.”

Ward Four: Shirley Scott, Democrat – “I do believe that our Arts community, and the art that is created by it, is of tremendous cultural, economic, and educational value.  I believe that the City should provide support in partnership with the other municipal and governmental members of our region when we are financially able and after we have met our obligation to fully fund core services.”

Ward Five: Richard Fimbres, Democrat – “Having venues such as the Leo Rich, TCC Music Hall and others, working with TPAC and other arts groups and to encourage private donors to contribute to the arts and arts programs. If funding permits, to give funding as well but during these tough economic times, the City can’t give as much as it had.”

Ward Six: Steve Kozachik, Republican – “We fund MTCVB – they need to do more with what we provide to them. We give lease consideration at far below market rate to non-profits. We continued to fund TPAC, visual and performance art, Access T.V., City ordinance giving a percent of capital projects to public art.”

Ward One: Beryl Baker, Green Candidate – “…In the last decades or so the City of Tucson has enacted opportunities within road projects to support the Arts community. I would like to see those continue as projects come on line. As you mention, the City has buildings it maintains which the different venues use. The City should remain in that role.The wide range of Arts and Culture in Tucson not only improves our quality of life, but helps to define who we are as a city and where we are going…  The City of Tucson needs to understand the intangibles that the arts community offers.”

Ward Four: Tyler Vogt, Republican Candidate – “The City of Tucson’s role in fostering arts and culture for our citizens and visitors should be to offer public venues for exhibits or performances that will generate revenue for the city.”

Three candidates for mayor of the City of Tucson submitted these comments about the arts and the role of city government:

Mary Decamp, Green Candidate – “I think that Tucson’s thriving and vibrant cultural community is a treasure that draws tourists to our city. I think it is a source of deep pleasure and spiritual enrichment for our citizens. I believe most people WANT art in their neighborhoods and in their lives. If elected and if my plan of Community Conservation Centers is adopted, there WILL BE physical space given over to support the arts. Non-profits will be given the resources they so sorely need to thrive. More citizens will be exposed to the arts. Music, dance, performance art, murals, sculpture, poetry slams, painting, and the myriad other creative expressions will be exalted.”

Rick Grinnell, Republican Candidate – “Given the status of the City budget, I believe we should focus on the priorities of the Core Services established by the City Council in 2006. Since arts and culture are considered as an economic generator this opportunity should be included in my plan to bring all the economic development entities, including the arts and entertainment communities under one plan of action. Funding can be better coordinated and many programs can cooperate to maximize public and private partnerships. The City budget process should be inclusive by category versus independently funding different organizations.  And since arts are an important part of our education environment this strategy can be adopted by our school districts.”

Jonathan Rothchild, Democratic Candidate – “I support increasing local public sector funding for the arts when sufficient funding is available to do so. Local public funding for the arts should be strategic – for example, arts education for youth and underserved communities, arts that attract tourism and arts that make Tucson more aesthetically pleasing, which is both good for the community and for promoting business. Yes, I support continuation of the city’s public art program and yes, I would support allocating funds for maintenance of the city’s public art collection. City facilities need to be maintained and upgraded, and made available to local arts groups.”

For more than 25 years TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.