THE CREATIVITY NETWORK DID NOT RESPOND TO RFP
WHY WE DID NOT SUBMIT A RESPONSE TO THE PUBLIC ACCESS RFP
You may not be a regular viewer and I doubt that American Idol has anything to worry about but there is a channel on Charter Cable Television and Verizon FIOS that broadcasts television shows produced by anyone who has a brain in their head and a beating heart. It’s called Public Access. Theoretically, on a first come first serve basis, I can show up at a studio with an idea for a show, receive some minimum training and host and/or produce my own show on how to treat Hangnails. Or how to organize a union. Or preach like a preacher.
The Channel is dark now. A change in the law that governs Cable Television and Telephone Company delivered video services freed them from the obligation to provide the facilities for producing Public Access programs. Both Charter and Verizon are required, however, to provide a channel for public access programming as long as certain minimum hours of programming are met. The public access channel is dark today because there is no longer a way to produce or transmit community programming to Charter or Verizon. The programming had been produced at Charter's provided Public Access studio facilities.
The law does enable the City to establish a fee levied on State franchise holders to support PEG channel facilities. That’s an acronym for Public Access, Education and Government. The City of Long Beach maintains a channel for programming interviews with elected officials and informational shows on various government programs and departments. LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB also have received dollars in the past to support their channels along with Public Access. However, these new PEG funds would be restricted to capital uses and cannot be used for operational expenses such as staffing and rent. Well, that presents a challenge in even the best of times. Great equipment. Too bad you don’t have money for someone to operate it.
A little more than a month ago, the Long Beach City Council voted to issue a Request for Proposal for a non-profit organization to manage the Public Access Channel. At the same time, Council voted to split the PEG funds with 80% going to Public Access Channel in the first year and the remaining 20% being divided amongst the four remaining entities. The logic was that they had studios and facilities and Public Access did not. That logic was based on the faulty assumption that, these days, you need a studio and high priced equipment to produce and broadcast television shows. And there is one more faulty assumption that few are willing to confront and that is: Public Access, as originally envisioned, is needed because we need an outlet for programming that would never be seen otherwise.
The media world has significantly changed since the foundations of cable rules were established. Funding for PEG channels were written into Franchise rules when there was a scarcity of distribution channels for information to underserved communities and constituencies. Now, the explosion of traditional and non-traditional distribution channels raises questions about the old paradigm and the need for antiquated views on media. The heady days of a limited number of cable and now FIOS channels for distribution of programming for a limited audience utilizing capital-intensive studios, production facilities and staff are gone. With a 100-dollar flip video camera or a camera on my Mac and pre-installed software on my laptop, I can reach the world. Why spend 480-thousand dollars to build facilities to produce programming that will reach a limited audience with a limited message?
For The Creativity Network, the bottom line questions are simple: How does this create economic, social and community development impacts that builds industry and jobs, provides maximum opportunities for all people and spurs new growth?
Providing capital funds to the old paradigm does not adequately answer these questions. When you add the operations money that will be needed to run and maintain the facilities along with the capital costs, the result will accomplish no greater good than provide a vanity platform for very expensive programming that very people will see or care about. Does the programming produced by the current Public Access paradigm really benefit the total community or a small band of people looking for relevance in this digital age?
We are not submitting a response to the Request for Proposal because the foundations for it are based on faulty assumptions and will not address the need for economic and community development in these important times:
However, there is another strategy that would create new opportunities and produce these goals:
- Train for the 21st Century media world where 1000 dollars can buy you a studio, post production resources and a door to the world
- Develop a new media industry that is based anywhere and inspires new visions, new jobs, and a new future
- Create a strategy that connects government, education, community, business in a proactive economic development and workforce development movement
- Builds a new media network utilizing current and future tools that allows for the city’s residents, business, government and education to communicate, share information and media resources, to interact on a level only now becoming possible because of the technology.
- And most importantly, create a vision of a city that is light years ahead of other cities in building a infrastructure that is progressive, green, and places the power of new media in the hands of ordinary citizens.
The Creativity Network continues to call upon Long Beach Government, the non-profit and educational sector along with Business to support the development of a community-based new media production and training consortium. The Long Beach-based New Media Technology Center would redefine the traditional paradigm of “public access” to build a network of local distribution hubs that takes advantage of 21st century technology and new media, addresses the gaps created by Long Beach being a media-poor city and provides real community-based programming.
The New Media Technology Center would also offer a unique opportunity to serve and strengthen the creative community of Long Beach. The convergence of new media and the creative arts comes at a time when the City of Long Beach is experiencing dynamic growth and a diversity of the creative community. This project could form the foundation for a new direction and a new priority for the creative community of Long Beach. The New Media Center would be a training center, a creative production facility, a new industry incubator and center for the creative community. Further, by centering key arts resources within facility, the limited budgets of the various arts organizations can be shared and the creative networks of the City can be dramatically strengthened, without having to increase funding.
The purpose of the Consortium would be to:
- Provide a platform for the general public to access media tools to produce programming of a socially beneficial nature
- Train the Next Generation of New Media Users by consolidating a number of existing community-based groups as well as creating new opportunities for additional users, the center can become a hub of training and workforce development for the next generation of new media users. The facility can be an incubator for economic development for new industries and a new workforce.
- Build a synergistic relationship for the Arts and New Media by the provision of the technologies of the 21st century. They would provide a new canvas on which artists can create and new tools with which to find expression. The marriage of traditional and new media is the future of the arts. By incorporating these arts into one state-of-the-art center, we can assure Long Beach a dynamic role in the next generation of the arts.
- Train Adults in Multimedia through LBCC, CSULB or LBUSD ROP or any combination. This would be the platform for preparing community residents for production; whether through the cable/Verizon FIOS distribution channels or new media.
- Create Commercial Production Studio and Additional Income Stream Generation. The City of Long Beach generates the third highest number of permits for television and movie production in the United States. This vibrant economic engine has the potential to generate even greater opportunities for job training and new media industry development. As part of the Long Beach Media Arts Center, we propose to develop and build a full-feature Production Complex with pre- and post-production capabilities. In addition to providing professional services to members of the Media Center, the facilities would be made available to outside production companies and studios for rental. This model would serve as an important income generation mechanism for the Center allowing it to become fully self-sustaining.
The development of a new strategy will demand that we abandon outdated policies, assumptions and so-called legacy traditions i.e. because we’ve been doing it for so long, we need to continue doing it. Long Beach is the second largest city in LA County. We have two strong schools of higher education. We have world-class cultural institutions here. There is a vibrant creative class. We are continuously searching for new economic opportunities. All we need to do now is let go of the failing past and embrace opportunities of the future.
CREATE LONG BEACH!
A community planning process to identify our creative assets and generate ideas to invigorate our culture of creativity. This public dialog and collaboration will produce community-wide implementation strategies to make Long Beach the most culturally vibrant city in California.
A joint initiative of the City of Long Beach, Economic Development and Cultural Affairs Bureau, The Arts Council for Long Beach, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
RE-IMAGINING THE ARTS IN LONG BEACH: ONE YEAR LATER
RE-IMAGINING THE ARTS IN LONG BEACH: ONE YEAR LATER
“You’ve got to come through as an individual…If you own space, rent it to an arts organization for a reasonable rate; if you’re an employer, employ artists; if you have a special skill or knowledge, give it - volunteer.”
Justin Hectus, President of the Arts Council for Long Beach, issued this challenge to the Long Beach community as part of Re-Imagining the Arts in Long Beach: One Year Later, a special one-hour internet podcast at http://www.thecreativitynetwork.org/ on CreativityNet.Radio. The downloadable podcast features community and business arts leaders from around Long Beach including Alex Slato, Museum of Latin American Art, John Thomas, Redevelopment Agency Board of Directors, and Blair Cohn, Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. They, along with other Long Beach artists and arts leaders discussed the state of arts & culture all around the city, highlighting what has changed for the Arts in the past year and forecasting its future.
The special, a look at the State of the Arts in Long Beach, is a follow-up to a two-hour television special produced in November 2007 at the Museum of Latin American Art. Leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities facing arts corridors in the city as Fourth Street’s Retro Row and Bixby Knolls/Atlantic Corridor are welcoming new opportunities while the East Village continues to face challenges. “How can we (Bixby Knolls) do what you’re doing up in our neck of the woods which is a blank canvas?” asks Blair Cohn of Bixby Knolls. “People want a theater, and they want music and they want culture.” Perhaps rhetorically, Kamran Assadi suggests, “Maybe we should change direction and promote the (East Village) as an area that is receptive to arts and culture rather than a live/work space because (artists) can’t afford it anyway.” As co-owner of Utopia Restaurant in the East Village and Vice-President of the Arts Council for Long Beach, Assadi has been at the heart of the East Village and is a co-organizer of the very successful SoundWalk that is staged annually.
As host to many arts events and festivals, Long Beach faces a challenge to be more than just a series of unconnected one-day events. “We need a long, sustainable connection to all of the arts and opportunities that exist here in Long Beach,” say RDA’s John Thomas, who outlined his five “Ps” for creating sustaining greats arts community: Passion, Purpose, Partners, Presentation and Performance.
Justin Hectus highlighted the upcoming update of the twelve-year old Cultural Master Plan as important for the future of the arts in Long Beach. Launched by The Creativity Network, in partnership with LongBeachCulture.org, the special podcast was moderated by The Creativity Network co-founder, Antonio Ruiz, and engineered and recorded by LongBeachCulture.org Executive Director Sander Roscoe Wolff.
The participants included:
• Justin Hectus, President, Arts Council for Long Beach
• Alex Slato, Museum of Latin American Art
• Max Viltz, Owner, Village Treasures, East Village
• Blair Cohn, Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association
• Rachel Potucek, SmolarCorp, University by the Sea
• John Thomas, Board of Directors, Redevelopment Agency
• Carina Leoni, The Connected Corridor
• Kamran Assadi, Arts Council for Long Beach
• Danielle Dauphinee, Alive Theatre
• Jeremy Aluma, Alive Theatre
• Liz Anderson, Media Consultant
Co-Owners Amir Zee and Kamran Assadi hosted the gathering on December 1st at Utopia Restaurant in the East Village.
The Creativity Network is a network of creative community members committed to promoting, advocating and inspiring dialogue on the Arts and Culture in Long Beach. They do so through sponsorship of Salons at artful locations, a website at http://www.thecreativitynetwork.org/, regular e-news alerts and event collaborations with arts organizations, institutions and individuals.
They’re faint but you can hear them. Sell the Museum. Sell the Art. Why do we need a museum in the first place? I’m sure cooler heads will prevail in the end. But I do wonder, if only for a brief moment, what if, they’re right. What if those defenders of the taxpayer are right that no tax dollars should go into the Arts? They say these are frivolous extras that we cannot afford. That there are better uses for these dollars.
Where should we begin, I wonder, if only for a brief moment? Heck, let’s start big. In Washington, D.C. Shut down the Smithsonian. All of them. That Vietnam War Memorial that is a work of art as well as a monument, cover it up so the taxpayers won’t have to maintain it. Then move on Los Angeles and New York and defund all the publicly supported symphonies, museums, public art programs, school-based music and art programs, shut down the High School for the Arts. Remove all the publicly funded murals, no more libraries (hey, literature is art). Any fancy architecture public buildings? Get rid of them. Don’t want to be reminded of how our taxpayer dollars were spent on works of art.
Then, move on to Long Beach. Arts and crafts programs in Parks and Recreation, get rid of them. Have the kids sweep the sidewalk. Computer animation, fashion design, poetry and short story writing, folkloric dancing, get rid of them. Waste of money. Make the kids auxiliary police officers. Yeah, those tax dollars-draining institutions like the museums, the symphony, those ranchos (heck, who wants to study history and culture anyway), and the municipal band. Arts Council, one percent public art program, in fact, get rid of all the public art so we don’t have to be reminded that our tax dollars are being wasted.
I’m sure that if we all got our heads together, we could come up with an even longer list of all things related to arts and culture supported in part or whole with public money (that would probably include the universities and schools) that if we only got rid of them, we would all feel much richer and better.
Or not.
STRENGTHENING THE ARTS IN CALIFORNIA
The Internet is a treasure trove of information. On one recent search, I found examples of what other cities are doing when it comes to Arts and Culture. Here are some examples:
1. 
City of
The Palette Exploring Creative Santa Monica
Listen to Radio Commercial
These audio files are in RealPlayer format. If you have trouble hearing them, you may need to download the Free RealOne Player
3. 
Creative Capital, a New York City-based nonprofit organization, acts as a catalyst for the development of adventurous and imaginative ideas by supporting artists who pursue innovation in form and/or content in the performing and visual arts, film and video, and in emerging fields. We are committed to working in partnership with the artists whom we fund, providing advisory services and professional development assistance along with multi-faceted financial aid and promotional support throughout the life of each Creative Capital project.
4. 
Background information, program objectives, and requirements for the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program.
The educational enrichment element must offer an array of additional services, programs, and activities that reinforce and complement the school’s academic program. Educational enrichment may include but is not limited to, positive youth development strategies, recreation and prevention activities. Such activities might involve the visual and performing arts, music, physical activity, health/nutrition promotion, and general recreation; career awareness and work preparation activities; community service-learning; and other youth development activities based on student needs and interests. Enrichment activities may be designed to enhance the core curriculum.
5. 
Community Arts Network promotes information exchange, research and critical dialogue within the field of community-based art.
6. 
By Keith Knight, Mat Schwarzman, and many others
Ten transformative local arts projects come alive in this illustrated training manual for youth leaders and teachers. This energetic guidebook demonstrates the enormous power of art in grass-roots social change. It presents proven models of community-based arts programs, plus techniques, discussion questions, and plentiful resources.
Writer Mat Schwarzman directs the
Graphic storyteller Keith Knight is an award-winning cartoonist, rapper, and hip-hop musician with two nationally syndicated comic strips.
Available at Amazon.com
Click this button to download a full transcript of Re-Imagining the Arts Town Hall Meeting.
The genesis of the Re-Imagining the Arts in Long Beach Town Hall Meeting last November 3rd was a conversation early in 2007 between Charter Communications Vice-President Craig Watson and Antonio Ruiz. They had worked together on Enough is Enough, the Youth Violence Marathon special several years ago. We wondered aloud about the state of the Arts in
That fateful conversation generated more discussions, meetings, phone calls, and emails. Ruiz was pleasantly surprised at how quickly many individuals, groups and institutions signed on to be a part of the effort. From College of the Arts, CSULB to Downtown Long Beach Associates to
On November 3, 2007, an important Town Hall meeting, Re-Imagining the Arts in Long Beach, was hosted by the
The general consensus is:
1. The Creative Community must develop partnerships with non-traditional allies e.g. Youth Services organizations, Senior advocates, Business groups, Neighborhood associations. The purpose is to develop a support constituency and an audience that understands, respects and appreciates the value of arts and culture. We need their political and economic support. We need their patronage. And we need to ensure that children gain exposure to arts and culture in school and in their community.
2. In a city of nearly 500,000 people, we lack for traditional media resources. Therefore, we need to be creative in utilizing existing alternative resources (print weeklies, online sites, community and access cable television) and developing more opportunities as new technology comes online. One consistent observation during the past three years has been the need for better and bigger marketing and publicity efforts on behalf of Arts and Culture in
3. The Creative Community has a myriad of needs, including live/work space, business development assistance, exhibition and performance space and marketing support. We support all efforts to develop proactive strategies to identify and meet the needs of all artists. We, as a city and as a Creative Community, must become more proactive advocates to continue to identify those needs, develop efficient and effective strategies and programs to meet those needs and to ensure that those who need it do in fact receive them.
RECOMMENDATION
Toward that goal, The Creativity Network recommends that the Mayor and the City Council create a 10-12 member Commission to update the 13-year-old Cultural Master Plan and define the steps that will be taken to make Long Beach a livable community for the Creative class of all ages. The Commission should be comprised of leaders of the Creative Community including the Arts Council for
The Cultural Master Plan development process must be one that touches all corners of the city. It must be community based, involve a diverse and broad spectrum of people, organizations and institutions, and most importantly be subject to community review. Everything must be on the table: From the City's oversight of the Arts in
Re-Imagining the Arts in
Creativity is…Action!
Antonio Pedro Ruiz
The Creativity Network
Click the button to DOWNLOAD a pdf of the Executive Summary and the full unedited transcript of the November, 2007 3rd Town Hall Meeting
