Movin’ on up

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” – Carl Jung

It’s official: the Cultural Council is moving to the Tannery Arts Center (TAC). There was an article in Santa Cruz Sentinel about it today, along with a silly picture of yours truly looking off to the distant future in front of a construction zone.

It took the Cultural Council (CC) ten years to make this decision, for a host of reasons. We’ve been involved with the TAC since its inception, with shared board members, participation in focus groups and community meetings about the shape and future of the campus, and the participation of TAC artists in Open Studios and as grantees. Through the years, the TAC board was interested in the CC having various roles on the campus: everything from general management to fundraising to programming partner. This last element is where we, in the end, found agreement.

The Council will continue to focus on our current programs: arts education, Open Studios, grants, exhibitions, and advocacy. But we know that by virtue of being on a campus teeming with artists and arts organizations that we will find inspiration and motivation to help activate the campus for creative people county-wide. And we are excited about the prospect of finally being located in an artistic environment, as opposed to generic office buildings (as lovely as our current office is).

Some of our stakeholders have expressed concern about this move. How will it affect our county-wide mandate? How can we ensure that our own identity will remain intact, now that we are a part of the campus? I understand these concerns. Ultimately, though, it is a financially sound move, which will help support our programs AND our county-wide mandate. I think we’ll actually have the opportunity to be more visible, and have greater clarity about who we are and what we do. We should be surrounded by artists and arts organizations, and our intent will be to draw creatives from the whole region – if not the whole world – to Santa Cruz County’s one-of-a-kind arts campus.

These days, I don’t think the Cultural Council could be accused of “lying at anchor”. But nor do I think we are done changing, not by a long shot. This TAC news is just part of the momentum that we are building, and the changes that we’ll be announcing in the near future. We are working to realize our vision of being of greater service to our community, and for those who are uncomfortable with change, I gently encourage to consider Carl Jung’s quote above.

We’re starting what I hope will be a wild and wonderful ride. And very soon, we’ll start telling our story in a new way, so the community we serve has a better understanding of who the Cultural Council is now, and who we are becoming. Stay tuned.