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Home My WebLink About19 - 2009-2010 Cultural Arts GrantsCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT Agenda Item No. 19 July 14, 2009 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: LIBRARY SERVICESC Cynthia Cowell, Library t ervices Director; Arts and Cultural Services Division; Jana Barbier, Cultural Arts Coordinator (717 -3870) jbarbier@city.newport-beach.ca.us SUBJECT: 2009/2010 Cultural Arts Grants RECOMMENDATION: Approve recommended recipients for FY 2009/2010 Cultural Arts Grants as selected by the City Arts Commission in accordance with City Council Policy 1 -10 - Financial Support for Culture and Arts. DISCUSSION: BACKGROUND: City Council Policy 1 -10 recognizes the importance of promoting culture and the arts within the City and establishes a Reserve Fund for Culture and Arts. The sum of $55,000 is provided each year for specific cultural or artistic planning or projects as approved by the City Council. The City Arts Commission has the responsibility to review all programs and requests for support from arts groups and make recommendations for funding to the City Council for final approval. The Commission received written grant proposals from eleven organizations for funding of approximately $61,240 in free cultural arts programming for the Newport Beach community in fiscal year 2009/10. After careful deliberation the following recommendations, totaling $40,000, were approved at the June 11, 2009 meeting: The Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar, after 29 annual seasons, is the only continuing, locally produced, fully - professional musical performance venture in the City of Newport Beach. The special project for which the orchestra in celebration of their compositions, written for important a larger than usual orchestra that and timpani in addition to strings, New York and Northern Californi afestival is requesting funding is for an expanded 30tt' anniversary season. Particularly dramatic historic occasions by Bach and Handel, necessitate includes three trumpets, three oboes, two bassoons harpsichord and organ. Instrumental specialists from will be brought in to perform with historic, period instruments. During their 30`h annual season, the festival is planning to premiere a new work written specifically for the celebration. City Arts Commission $12,000 The City of Newport Beach Arts Commission is dedicated to providing a range of free cultural programming that enriches the entire community, especially children and families. The Arts Commission sponsors multidisciplinary arts programs funded by the Cultural Arts Grant Program such as the Concerts in the Parks Series; arts lectures, public art projects, and visual art exhibitions in Central Library and at City Hall. The Arts Commission extends the range of arts programming by providing additional funding for the Shakespeare by the Sea festival held each summer. Festival Ballet Theatre will bring its "Ballet to Schools" program to two Newport Beach Elementary Schools in November /December 2009. They will perform a narrated, abbreviated version of the Nutcracker, tailored for children ranging in age from five to fourteen years old. A program coordinator, with the assistance of the performers, will guide the students through an interactive lesson on how pantomime, music, and costumes tell a story and express emotions without words. Students will be taught appropriate ways to express appreciation for a theatrical performance. The Newport Beach Film Festival is planning a one -day educational industry seminar program, similar to past seminars, to be held on the first Saturday during the Festival, tentatively scheduled for April 24, 2010 at a Newport Beach location. 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 Sorcerers 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. Newport Beach Public Library Foundation $350.0 The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation is requesting funding to enhance, by at least two programs, the "Library Live" series, which provides cultural enrichment to the residents of Newport Beach. In addition to the literary events currently planned, the Foundation intends to design one event that will introduce the Library audience to the field of Public Art in the community, and one program which would allow the Library to present, as a speaker, at least one well -known art historian, architect or artist in the context of the winter 2010 programs. Additionally, the Foundation expects to collaborate on generating publicity for the Library Live events and most especially drawing attention to the community activities and benefits of the Arts Commission. 2 Newport Harbor Nautical Museum $3000 Using nautical and ocean themes as a backdrop, the program "Sea Tales" will provide a platform for parents and their children to engage in a variety of activities including storytelling, arts and crafts, music and touch -tank exploration that introduces them to all the wonders of the sea. Participants are encouraged to dress up in costumes related to the theme. An example of an upcoming theme is "Row Your Boat" which is offered in conjunction with the museum's current exhibit on navigation and the upcoming Transpacific Yacht Race. Families will be able to see and touch boats from the museum's collection as well as enjoy hearing stories, singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" then assembling and painting their very own boat to take with them. Orange County Museum of Art $3500 The specific program to be funded is a new partnership between the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) and the Newport Beach Public Library. This collaborative program would allow for works of art from OCMA's collection to be installed in the lobby area of the Newport Beach Public Library. Specific works of art would be selected by OCMA curators and approved by the Newport Beach Board of Library Trustees, and would be appropriate for the NBPL in terms of scale and medium, conservation and safety issues. The work will be installed by OCMA preparators and registrars in specially constructed, museum - quality pedestals and vitrines, or on the walls. Secondly, OCMA and the NBPL would jointly host a series of public programs related to the work on view. These programs would feature lectures or dialogues with the artists, curators, critics and historians and would be held in the library's auditorium. The two key goals of this project are to increase community awareness of outstanding contemporary artists and of art in public spaces, and to cross - promote the project to extend the audiences and support for both organizations. Pacific Symphony $2000 The Pacific Symphony offers a variety of programs designed to integrate the Symphony and its music into the Orange County community. Through these programs, the Symphony reaches more than 100,000 people annually. In recent years the Symphony has partnered with the Arts Commission and the City of Newport Beach to present free concerts in the park (Symphony in the Cities full orchestra outdoor concerts in 2003 and 2005), chamber concerts at Oasis Senior Center, and educational programs for young children and their families at Central Library (in 2005 a woodwind quintet was featured at Imagination Celebration and in 2009, the Symphony presented a brass quartet "informance" based on Fabulous Fables and Fairy Tales.) Pacific Symphony would like to continue this successful partnership with a proposal to present another community " informance" in 2009 -10. South Coast Repertory Theatre has requested funding for "Theatre for Young Audiences" (TYA), an annual series of three professionally produced plays initiated by SCR in 2003. TYA extends the range of the theatre's offerings and makes available to the community plays based on the finest and most enjoyable works from children's 3 literature. Through TYA, educators have an opportunity to introduce students to the wonder of live theatre in an academically significant way, at little or no cost to the schools except for transportation to the theatre. At all TYA performances, students receive a special booklet with biographical information about the playwright, educational games, and stimulating activities built on the play's central themes. Southland Opera $2000 Southland Opera proposes to perform one performance of "Stories Come Alive" in each of the elementary schools in the City of Newport Beach or sequential workshops at one school and have the students create their own musical piece and perform it. Southland Opera would work with four classes of students and each class would have four sessions; the students would perform their original pieces for the school audience and attending family members. The "Stories Come Alive" program uses familiar fairy tales as a vehicle to encourage reading and introduce young people to opera and musical theater. Fairy tales and stories which have been highlighted are Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast and Hansel and Gretel. Submitted by: 2 ynthia Cowell, Library Services Director Jana Barbier, Cultural Arts Coordinator (949) 717 -3870 0