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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSS3 - Arts Commission Annual ReportPggW krok - R-9-ob Cultural Arts Services Library Services Department City of Newport Beach To: Mayor and Members of City Council From: City Arts Commission Robyn Grant, Chair, Newport Beach Arts Commission (Presented by Kirwan Rockefeller, Vice Chair, 2008 -2009) Date: September 9, 2008 Re: Annual Report FY 2007 -2008 On behalf of the members of the City of Newport Beach Arts Commission, I am pleased to present our Annual Report for FY 2007 -08. The Arts Commission, established over 35 years ago, acts in an advisory capacity to the City Council in all matters pertaining to artistic, aesthetic, historical and cultural aspects of the City. Our mission is to promote and support a wide range of accessible cultural programs, activities and facilities to address the needs and interests of residents and visitors in the Newport Beach community. We have prepared the following report to bring you up to date on our recent activities. 2008 -2009 COMMISSION OFFICERS: Commissioners: Chair: Robyn Grant Gerald Allison Vice Chair: Kirwan Rockefeller Wendy Brooks Secretary: Rita Goldberg Gilbert Lasky Robert Smith i 2007 -2008 COMMISSION OFFICERS: Commissioners: Chair: Kirwan Rockefeller Gerald Allison Vice Chair: Robyn Grant Wendy Brooks Secretary: Carol Starcevic Gilbert Lasky Arlene Cartozian CITY STAFF: Cynthia Pirtle, Library Services Director Jana Barbier, Cultural Arts Coordinator CULTURAL PROJECTS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS ■ Performing Arts Programs The Performing Arts Committee works with the cultural arts office to audition and secure talent, promote and produce the summer Concerts in the Parks Series, the Shakespeare by the Sea theatrical productions and the Arts Lectures, Workshops and Performances Series. 2007 -2008 Chair: Gil Lasky; Members: Carol Starcevic. Concerts in the Parks The City Arts Commission began the Concerts in the Parks summer series in 2001 to bring the community together with free outdoor musical performances. Between 500 - 2000 people attend each concert. The Arts Commission has hosted many Southern California bands in all music genres including two performances by Pacific Symphony and a first performance by the Russian National Orchestra in the Newport Beach park setting. In 2007 Lao Tizer Music, "An Evening with Joan Ryan," and The Scott Martin Latin Soul Band performed at Bonita Canyon, Grant Howald and Eastbluff Parks. In 2008, the season began with "Upstream" in Bob Henry Park, returning for a second performance in Newport Beach. In July, the Arts Commission had made arrangements for a performance by Opera Pacific titled "Opera Soup!" described as "a sparkling one hour plus pastiche of opera for the whole family. Directed by Dylan F. Thomas and featuring members of the Opera Pacific Ensemble of Repertory Artists (O.P.E.R.A.), Opera Pacific's Opera in the Park is a romp exploring the fun, adventure and thrill of the richest art form ever created." This performance was free to the community and introduced opera to a new generation of audience. In August, the Joel Penner Sextet provided a fine jazz concert at Eastbluff Park `a • Shakespeare Festivals The City Arts Commission celebrated its seventh year with Shakespeare by Sea during the summer of 2008. The traveling group of actors (and set builders) has provided Shakespearean play performances at the natural amphitheater at Grant Howald Park in Corona del Mar since 2002. Because of increased attendance, and the subsequent demand on facilities at Grant Howald Park, in 2008 the Arts Commission changed the location of the performances to Bonita Canyon Sports Park. Through the years, the Commission has sponsored performances of "Much Ado About Nothing," "Twelfth Night," "Romeo and Juliet," "Richard III" "Two Gentlemen of Verona," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Othello," "The Merchant of Venice," and "The Taming of the Shrew." A stage, lights and sound amplification are provided by the cultural arts office. In 2008, Shakespeare by the Sea presented "Antony and Cleopatra" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on August 2 and 3 consecutively. ■ Public Art Programs • McFadden Square Centennial Legacy Project In 2006 the City of Newport Beach elected to go forward with a public art project that would commemorate the Centennial. The McFadden Square Centennial Legacy Project was established to both recognize donors and also historical themes throughout the City's 100 -year history. The design for the project was created by Peridian International, Inc., to be installed in McFadden Square, at the base of the Newport Pier. The Centennial Legacy Project is based on a timeless theme, and includes granite benches and an historical walking path with markers of significant events from the past 100 years. The focal point of the project is a bronze sculpture representative of our community. 3 The Centennial Legacy Project ad hoc fundraising committee was assembled for the project and chaired by Newport Beach resident, Bernie Svalstad. A group of approximately 15 met regularly at Central Library with staff to review community donations and to strategize ways for raising additional funds for a target goal of $500,000. In 2007, a Request for Proposals was compiled and distributed by the City Arts Commission /Cultural Arts Office to encourage public artists to submit ideas and plans for a sculpture on the McFadden project. There were thirteen submissions from international artists, as far away as Poland, Columbia, and Texas and as close as Portola Valley and Newport Beach. A public arts committee reviewed the thirteen submissions and selected sculptor Hank Kaminsky of Fayetteville, Arkansas to create the piece. Throughout 2007 and 2008, Kaminsky provided updates on the progress of the sculpture as well as photographic evidence for each stage. Staff reports were prepared for approval by City Council for each consecutive payment, totaling $110,000. Public Works generated a request for proposals for a contractor to build the project, anc construction began on March 17, 2008. On July 21, the project was unveiled at a public ceremony at McFadden Square. • Civic Memorial Honoring the Marines of 1" Battalion, 1s` Marines Arts Commissioner Gilbert Lasky served as a representative to the Marine 1/1 Memorial Committee for the City Arts Commission. Additionally, the cultural arts office prepared a request for proposals, distributed to qualified artists for the creation of a memorial monument for the project. The City Arts Commission assisted in reviewing submissions from artists, architects and others for the design and Castaways Park was selected as the site for the installation. After careful review by the City Arts Commission and the Marine 1/1 Memorial Committee, artist Benjamin Victor was selected to create the memorial. A staff report was prepared and approved by City Council, and the piece was built, installed and unveiled on Memorial Day in 2008. ■ Visual Art Exhibition Programs The Exhibitions Subcommittee works with staff to request, select, install and remove artwork for revolving visual art exhibitions in City Hall and the Central Library gallery spaces; organize annual juried art exhibitions; and inventory, maintain and re -hang the City art collection as needed. 2007 -2008 Chair: Arlene Cartozian; Members: Robyn Grant. • 2008 Orange County Artist Juried Exhibition, Reception and Sale In 2007 the Arts Commission reorganized the annual spring show with a one -day exhibition and art sale. On March 1, 2008 over seventy -five artists submitted 225 works of art for the exhibition, which were available for sale that evening. Arts commissioners checked in the work in the morning and Cal State Long Beach Art Professors Clare Hansen and Jeanette Johns judged the submissions in the afternoon and selected award winners. That evening, Commissioner Rockefeller assisted Mayor Ed Selich in handing out awards f the show in first, second, third and honorable mer categories. The Arts Foundation assisted with the show and sale, and collected up to 30 percent of sales to be used for community programs coordin by the Arts Commission. City Hall Exhibitions 2007- 2008 Exhibition schedules for City Hall have been extended for up to 3 months and include art displays such as the City's permanent art collection, holiday displays, centennial exhibitions, Newport Beach Sister City student art exhibitions, CNB employee exhibitions, and individual artists. Cultural Arts staff is maintaining the cabinet in the Council Chamber lobby as well with quarterly displays. Central Library Exhibitions/Receptions Due to the popularity of Central Library as an exhibition location, shows are scheduled for up to one year in advance. Exhibitions run for a duration of two months. Artists are provided with a date for an evening reception, and are allowed to bring additional works to be displayed at that time. Cultural arts staff lists the exhibitions in City publications as well as sending press releases to the media. Central Library Exhibitions Continued: In 2007 January/February Natasha Shoro March /April Lauri Mendenhall May /June Katherine Leland July /August Jennifer Mathews September /October Mercedes Shaffer November /December Davy Liu In 2008 January/February George W. Seitz March /April Ingibjorg Hauksdottir May /June Linda Berman July /August Gil Morales September /October Paul G. Bryan, Jr. November /December Ralph Velasco ■ Imagination Celebration of Orange County Each May the Cultural Arts Office coordinates an Imagination Celebration of Orange County family - festival event at Central Library. Imagination Celebration began at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and has been spearheaded regionally by Arts Orange County for the last several years. In 2007, the Cultural Arts Office presented "Creative Faces, Creative Places." Over 300 children attended a "Young Artist's Studio" with their parents for a day of Drawing like Degas, Drawing like Picasso and Drawing like Van Gogh. In 2008, Imagination Celebration's theme was "Imagination Powers the Planet." Cultural arts provided "My Own Jungle Book Illustration." Children were given the opportunity to create artwork focusing on jungle animals; additionally, the Newport Beach Repertory Theater performed an excerpt from Kipling's "Jungle Book." , at, 0 ■ Cultural Arts Grant Prouram In accordance with City Policy 1 -12 (Reserve Fund for Arts and Culture), the Arts Commission annually accepts and reviews requests for support from arts organizations offering cultural programs for City residents and visitors. Programs can include publicly accessible cultural performances, workshops, festivals, lectures and exhibitions which take place within the City of Newport Beach, as well as projects providing K -12 students in Newport Beach public schools with arts activities. Final recommendations are forwarded to City Council for approval. In 2008, the Commission received written grant proposals from eleven organizations for funding of approximately $62,840 in free cultural programming for the Newport Beach community. After careful deliberation the following recommendations were approved at the June 10 City Council meeting: The Baroque Music Festival, a locally produced fully - professional musical performance venture in the City of Newport Beach, will be held in June of 2009. In 2009, there will be an international observance of the 250"' anniversary of the death of the George Friederich Handel. The Baroque Music Festival will engage America's finest musicians, who play historical period instruments for each of the five concerts: concerto program, organ recital, vocal and instrumental chamber concerts in the Gardens, and the dramatic Festival Finale for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The festival will include the lively music that Handel wrote for the Duke of Chandos, royal occasions on the River Thames and in Westminster Abbey, and for London theaters and concert halls. Festival Ballet Theatre $2,000 Festival Ballet Theatre will bring its "Ballet to Schools" program to two Newport Beach Elementary Schools in November /December 2008. They will perform a narrated, abbreviated version of the Nutcracker, tailored for children ranging in age from five to fourteen years old. The presentation will include pre - performance dance demonstrations complemented with interesting facts about ballet and the arts. Immediately following the actual performance, children will have the opportunity to converse with the professionals through a post - performance question and answer section. The Newport Beach Film Festival is planning a one -day educational industry seminar program, similar to the 2008 series, to be held on the first Saturday during the Festival, tentatively scheduled for April 25, 2009. Past seminar topics have included directing, screenwriting, production design, cinematography, film music composer, animation and special effects. Artists of past seminars include Elmer Bernstien (To Kill a Mockingbird,) John Waters (Polyester,) Don Burgess (Castaway,) John Landis (Twilight Zone,) and Judiann Makovsky (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). The Festival Seminar Series attracts a wide variety of people with a strong representation of students, seniors, film experts, avid fans, and novice filmmakers. Ages span from 13 to 85. The seminar program intends to serve approximately 800 people. In 2007, the Festival expanded its outreach to colleges and high school students. The Kids' Art Station is a year -round public art program offered for children in the grades of K-6 located in the Education Center of the East Wing Gallery that currently runs on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00am — 3:00pm and is made possible by support of the Museum and participant donations. The average length of time of participation is fifteen minutes to an hour, with many recurring visitors. Depending on the project content and optimum scheduling, the museum will select appropriate times to conduct the program, e.g. weekends, after school and vacation periods. By designating a space in the Museum, they secure a consistent location for community members to participate in art education. The Museum is determined to create a reliable, sustainable and significant art program for the community. 7 The Pacific Symphony offers a variety of programs designed to integrate the Symphony and its music into the Orange County community. Although the programs are quite varied in their specific content, they share four guiding principles: 1) to provide participants with multiple, deep interactions with Symphony musicians and instructors; 2) to serve a diverse group of participants; 3) to serve primarily Orange County residents; 4) to encourage cross - promotion among all educational programs, thus providing life -long engagement with the Symphony. Through these programs, the Symphony reaches more than 100,000 people annually. In recent years the Pacific Symphony has partnered with the Arts Commission and City of Newport Beach to present free concerts in the park, chamber concerts at Oasis Senior Center and educational presentations for young children and their families at the Central Library. Meet the Musicians is a program designed for 4'" — 6 "' graders. In Meet the Musicians, professional brass, woodwind, string and percussion groups visit elementary schools to perform for the students. Musicians also give demonstrations of their instruments and finish each performance with a question and answer session. The duration of each program is 45 minutes. Ensembles on Tour is a similar program, but it is designed to appeal to middle school students. This program features professional groups performing for the whole student body a variety of music styles and instrumentations. The Meet the Musicians and Ensembles on Tour programs are brought to the children of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Each school is on a rotating groups schedule so that each year the students will have the opportunity for a new experience. In response to strong positive feedback from area educators, SCR has decided to revive a unique, three - year cycle of specially commissioned plays that chronicle major events in California history. In 2009, the Educational Touring Production will present the first of three plays in the Califomia Stories series, "Indian Summer" — a play that explores an early chapter in California history — a time when California was still struggling to define itself. "Indian Summer" links directly to the Social Studies curriculum and will follow a young boy's journey while living within a tribe of Native Americans in Central California in 1850. Southland Opera proposes to perform one performance of "Stories Come Alive" in each of the elementary schools in the City of Newport Beach, along with one performance at another Newport Beach public venue, such as Central Library. Highlighted fairy tales and stories are Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast and Hansel and Gretel. The programs encourage reading and introduce young people to opera and musical theater and also demonstrate how composers often used children's fairy tales as the story line for their opera or musical. STOP -GAP is seeks funds annually to support the tour of an important play related to violence. "LIFELINE" deals with the issue of teen dating relationships that are controlling and have the potential of becoming violent. LIFELINE has been constantly requested by schools in Orange County, who indicate that the subject is of particular challenge to their youth. Funding from the City of Newport Beach will allow STOP- GAP to perform plays reaching up to 500 students in Newport Beach. The performances will take place within the 2008 -2009 academic year starting immediately upon receipt of funds. LIFELINE is STOP -Gap's interactive Touring Play that examines domestic violence and the surrounding emotional and social issues. Using the power of interactive theatre, LIFELINE inspires awareness and understanding of domestic violence issues in diverse audiences throughout our community. 0 ■ City Permanent Art Collection The cultural arts office continues to inventory, organize, review condition, clean and repair the City's permanent art collection. The library's art collection (Ruth Hynds, etc.) is stored and displayed at the library. The City's art collection is stored at the yard in a locker shared by the library. Eventually the cultural arts office would like to find another solution for storage of this artwork, where the collection is not moved and is cared for properly. The artwork is routinely considered for exhibitions and a major portion of it is displayed in City facilities and offices. ■ City Hall Holiday Continuing an annual tradition, the Arts Commission decorates the holiday tree and reception area in the City Hall lobby each December. ■ Newport Beach Film Festival Seminars Since April of 2001, the Arts Commission has co- sponsored one or two -day programs at local venues, including Central Library, for the Newport Beach Film Festival's "Vision and Craft: The Art of Filmmaking." More than 1600 people attend the presentations, ranging from screenwriting and directing to digital film techniques. Additionally, the Commission cosponsored a program called "Meet the Programmers." This event gave filmmakers an opportunity to introduce themselves and their films to programmers from festivals across the country. Commission Chair Kirwan Rockefeller currently serves on the Film Festival Board of Directors. ■ Community Involvement and Proarams Recitals and Dance Performances at OASIS Senior Center In 2007 -2008 the Arts Commission provided funding for another "Symphony and Sweets" program at Oasis Senior Center. Pacific Symphony brings individual performers and concert musicians to the senior center for live performances to an appreciative audience. In 2008, the Keith Glassman Dancers will perform a special class and program focusing on dance at Oasis. In 2008, Kirwan Rockefeller, PhD, has been nominated for "Outstanding Volunteer of the Year" and the McFadden Square Centennial Legacy Fundraising Committee has been nominated for "Outstanding Volunteer Organization of the Year." Nominees and award winners will be announced at the 91" Annual Arts Orange County Arts Awards Presentations on September 24 at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort. ■ City Council Policies There were no revisions to the Donation of Art Policy (1 -11); the Art in Public Places Policy (1 -9); or the Financial Support for Culture and the Arts Policy (1 -10) in 2007 -2008. ■ The Newport Beach Arts Foundation The Arts Foundation Liaison Committee works with this tax - exempt nonprofit corporation, which raises private funds supplemental to City appropriations to support, promote and extend the cultural activities of the Newport Beach Arts Commission. The Arts Commission assists in advertising the Newport Beach Arts Foundation's events including Art in the Park; a Bonham and Butterfields appraisal event, and the collaborative shows with the Southern California Plein Air Painter Association. 2007 -08 Ex- Officio Members: Wendy Brooks; Robyn Grant. 0