October 17 Arts Council Meeting

Hey everyone!

Our Oct 17 Arts Council Meeting was held once again at the BurkeTriolo studio and kicked off with a half hour drum circle group led by Munyungo Jackson! Lisa Watson, who moderated a Mission /Vision Statement Arts Council Focus Group, started off our meeting by talking about the process and how the Focus Group arrived at the statement below:

We the South Pasadena Arts Council believe that the Arts enrich and enliven our lives and are vital to the social, educational and economic well-being of South Pasadena.

The Council will advocate for and promote the Arts in order to recognize local artists as a rich resource within our city and build appreciation and understanding of the value of the Arts within the community.

Some comments were to shorten the Mission Statement and not limit recognition to “local artists” and list that as one of our goals instead. If you were not able to give input at the group meeting please do so here on the blog! We will do the final tweaking and list it here in its finished form.

Next, Victoria Arriola gave a short presentation about designing the Arts Council web site and asked the group for ideas. Some of the ideas shared:

• Arts calendar of local performing and visual Arts events

• Arts Resource guide

• Arts links page

• Arts advertising page

• Arts map of arts organizations, galleries, theatres etc.

• Arts networking system like “Social Sam”

• Arts on-line way to collect donations or pay for future events

• Arts Advocacy page

If you have other ideas please share here on the blog.

Victoria is going to put a plan together and start the process to develop the Arts Council Web site, and come up with a budget to help get it done!

Next, Hope Perillo spoke of organizing our first Arts event in the Spring of next year. It is based on an idea presented on the blog by Karen Cooper for an Interactive Arts Event for both kids and adults. It is conceived of as a way to have a fun, hands-on experience with both the visual and performing arts.

There was a lots of interest in this and people signed up to participate. So if any of you out there in blog land would like to be a part of this event, leave a message here for Hope or Karen, who will be co-chairing this event.

Thanks to Jeff and Lorraine Burke for hosting our end of year group meeting! Thanks once again to Munyngo for leading our Drum Circle group! Thanks to Lisa Watson, our volunteer focus group, Hope Perillo and Victoria Arriola. Thank you Desiree Paterson for the refreshments. And thanks to artist Liz Reday for drawing the sketch of some of us during our group meeting which we include on this blog. Very cool. And thanks to all of you for showing up. Let’s keep moving forward.

On another note, run don’t walk to see the documentary film of the rehearsal of Michael Jackson’s last concert – “This Is It!” It’s amazing to watch an exceptional artist in action behind the scenes.

My husband and I will be doing an Armed Forces Entertainment tour overseas in Dec & Jan visiting with soldiers and their families. We’ll meet as a large group again in Feb. I sign off with this thought:

“On a day no different than the one now dawning, Shakespeare sat down and started Hamlet, Leonardo stepped to an easel and made the first strokes of the Mona Lisa, and Beethoven took out a sketch book and began the Ninth Symphony.”

-adapted from Robert Richardson, Emerson: The Mind on Fire

Have a wonderful holiday- see you next year!

Lissa Reynolds / Fremont Centre Theatre