Mission
The Arts Council of Sonoma
County inspires our community to recognize and embrace the power of the Arts
to enrich our lives, enhance our economic development and add value to our
educational programs. The Arts Council provides leadership in support of
the growth and accessibility of all art and artists in Sonoma County.
History: The Arts
Council of Sonoma County was founded in 1983 as a nonprofit organization and
countywide agency to provide leadership and support for the arts and culture
of our county. At our inception, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
designated ACSC as the partner in the California Arts Council’s program. The
Council serves as the countywide coordinating agency for cultural arts
information, programs, services, technical assistance, and communication.
2007
Program highlights
Education & Outreach
●Sonoma County Arts / Education Alliance:
The Council leads an alliance of K-12 arts educators and organizations that
advocates access for all countywide multi-disciplinary arts education. We
direct and engage organizations to utilize arts and literature to improve
test scores.
California, the fifth largest economy in the world spends three cents per
person on the arts, the lowest
expenditure in the United States. Due to funding criteria, in Sonoma
County our 40 non unified school districts teach to test, a model we are
working to change.
●California
Poets in the Schools: For two years
the ACSC has acted as fiscal sponsor for this program, which places poets
directly into classrooms. The focus is on increasing literacy, particularly
in schools with high ratios of minority students and fewer enrichment
opportunities due to financial constraints.
●Poetry
Out Loud: In partnership with the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Poetry Foundation, California
Poets in the Schools, and the California Arts Council, the ACSC hosts Poetry
Out Loud. The program encourages high school students to learn about great
poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. Through this
program, students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and
learn about their literary heritage. This program requires collaboration
with outreach teachers and schools to reach underserved schools.
●The Big Read:
With support from the
NEA, the ACSC will collaborate with local organizations to bring this
important literary program,
The Big Read,
to Sonoma County. The program, consisting of more than two dozen activities,
will kick off at the Sonoma County Book Festival on September 15, 2007, and
will enable us to reach suburban and rural, old and young, and economically
diverse audiences within in the county.
●ARTrails Open Studios:
For two weekends in
October, 140 professional Sonoma County artists open their working studios
to thousands of visitors and students to share their creative processes and
to display and sell their unique art. We distribute 50,000 catalogs
throughout the community and information to k-12 teachers to encourage class
participation in this unique opportunity to discover how artists create
art.
www.ARTrails.org
●Professional
development for teachers: Partnering
with the Sonoma County Office of Education, the Alliance addresses teachers’
needs for additional professional development in the arts through hosting
Arts Integration Workshops for educators.
●California Arts Scholars:
ACSC honors 15 distinguished high school students
named California Arts Scholars by the California State Summer School for the
Arts-InnerSpark program. The annual ceremony is hosted at the Arts
Council’s 5th Street Gallery.
●Keeping Score:
In conjunction with the Sonoma County Office of Education, the ACSC
participates in the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score, an educational
program which trains teachers to integrate classical music into lesson
plans.
●Arts in Education:
A
Resource Guide
for Sonoma County: distributed free to over 1,000
teachers and administrators throughout Sonoma County and available to the
public on our website. The guide serves 73,000 students, 40 arts
organizations and working artists.
Building Countywide Art
Capacity and Audience:
●Arts Council Taskforce: Convened by
the Council, leaders of Sonoma County arts organizations come together to
identify common goals and explore collaborative opportunities to promote
arts and culture in Sonoma County.
●Achievement in the Arts Awards:
Established in 1998, the
annual
Achievement in the Arts Awards
recognizes outstanding individuals from Sonoma County who have had a
significant, measurable impact on the arts both inside the County and beyond
its borders
●Community Cultural Arts Information and Referral:
The offices of the Arts Council provide information
regarding events, resource information for grants, and a centralized
database of arts groups and supporters.
●SonomaArts.com:
The Council’s internet site – www.sonomaarts.com – is
the County’s leading source on the web for Sonoma County arts information,
which includes a daily calendar of events, as well as hotlinks to artists
and arts organizations.
●Artist Registry: Beginning in fall
2007, the Arts Council will provide a digital gallery for visual artists
featuring their images with links to their contact information and/or
website.
●Collaborative Programs
with the Community Foundation:
Partnering with
Community Foundation Sonoma County,
with support from the James Irvine Foundation’s Communities Advancing
the Arts Initiative, the Arts Council coordinates programs that foster
the development of individual artists and builds capacity of arts
organizations.
Recent programs
include the highly acclaimed Sculpture Sonoma and the inaugural
SonomaArts Awards for Emerging Artists. The Arts Council is now
coordinating
Performance Sonoma,
which will bring together twelve Sonoma County performing arts organizations
for an eight-week celebration of the performing arts in fall 2007.
●Exhibition Program:
Eight new exhibits
are presented each year at the
Gallery at 529 Fifth Street in downtown Santa Rosa,
with emphasis on Sonoma County artists, many of whom share insight into
their work and the creative process through the popular A La Carte
art talks. The Arts Council also coordinates exhibits in the Sonoma County
Board of Supervisors offices approximately eight times a year.
●Jail Arts
Program: Under contract with the County of
Sonoma, the Arts Council provides rehabilitative art instruction at the
Women’s correctional facility in North County.
●First Friday Santa Rosa:
The Council works with
Santa Rosa City agencies including Recreation & Parks, Economic Development
and Housing, and Santa Rosa Main Street in coordinating the
First
Friday Artwalk
in the Courthouse Square area of Santa Rosa, which
features artists exhibiting works in local businesses in addition to a
variety of street performances that enliven downtown.
●Peanuts on Parade:
Through the work of the
Peanuts on Parade
Committee, composed of representatives of the City of Santa Rosa and the
Charles M. Schultz Family, the Arts Council serves as a fiscal sponsor for
the three-year celebration of Peanuts characters in fiberglass statues,
which are individually designed by local artists for public art exhibition
at host businesses and organizations throughout the city.
Community revitalization
●Cultural District:
The Arts Council, in partnership with the Santa Rosa
City Council and the Art in Public Places Committee, led a successful
year-long campaign to pass two historic initiatives, an ordinance for new
commercial construction to contribute 1% of project costs to a fund for
pubic art and the establishment of an arts downtown district.
●All American City Award:
Awarded to Santa Rosa last month, the cornerstones for
the award are gang prevention, Arts Downtown, Measure O-which provided
public safety monies, and community partnerships. The Arts Council, in
addition to traveling to Anaheim as part of the presenting delegation
supported two of the four cornerstones-Arts downtown which revitalizes
downtown Santa Rosa, and community partnerships to broaden and deepen access
for all.
Information Link:
Arts Council of Sonoma County
