Culver City is home to a vibrant and diverse arts and culture community dedicated to enriching the lives of all Culver City residents. The City previously supported its arts and culture sector through the work of a dedicated Department of Cultural Affairs. However, this department was dismantled in May 2012 when funding from the Community Redevelopment Agency was lost. Since then, Culver City has no centralized stewardship to support and grow its arts and culture resources.
Now, Marla Koosed, who serves as Chair to the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission, in partnership with her commissioners, is working to change that. Ms. Koosed envisions a Culver City in which every resident has access to a wide variety of arts and culture opportunities as well as access to jobs in Culver City’s thriving creative economy. To support her argument, Ms. Koosed and Commissioner Susan Anderson co-authored the Cultural Affairs Commission report The Arts and the Creative Economy: Recommendations to the Culver City Mayor and City Council from the Cultural Affairs Commission, a report based on the research findings compiled in the 2013 Otis Report on the Creative Economy.
Contact the Culver City City Council to voice your support for the report’s recommendations:
Establish from the General Fund a city Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy department with at least two full-time staff to begin operating in FY 2014/2015.
Allocate funds from the Cultural Trust Fund to conduct a study to establish baseline knowledge of the arts and culture in Culver City and point to areas of economic opportunity.
If approved by the City Council as part of the next year’s budget, these two actions will restore Culver City’s missing infrastructure to ensure public funding and technical support for arts and culture organizations, as well as ongoing support for the city’s creative economy.
Send your letter to the City Council members now @ www.culvercity.org/Information/emailus.aspx?dept_id=38
(From Arts for LA)
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