Art can do many things for each of us when we look at art in art galleries, private collections in our homes, art festivals and fairs, in artists’ studios, corporate collections, street sculpture in malls, government sculpture of our heroes, cultural art centers, Artists’ demonstrations of two and three dimensional, professional visual artists’ and student art exhibits, digital art, computer art, fashion art, technical art, engineering art, architectural art and any form of art created by human hands.
Art promotes the feelings of healing, surprise, relaxes, delights, calms, teaches, inspires, persuades, beautifies, motivates, entertains, predicts, advocates, enriches our lives, excites, changes thinking and feelings when we look at it.
Moving to Santa Clarita in May of 2003 I looked for art in the city. I asked, “Where is the Art?” I found little examples of art in the city, no art museums, a few small sculptures in the Town Center and one art gallery just opened by the Santa Clarita Artist’s Association.
I joined this association and began to learn how the Art Gallery was exhibiting SCAA members art every month for the public to view or to become members. I attended monthly art lectures and art demonstrations offered by the artist’s association for their members and the public to attend. It was fun to go to the programs at the two Performing Arts Theaters on San Fernando Road and the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center. The College of the Canyons has an art gallery displaying professional and student art exhibits. The art gallery has a gallery staff member to manage all of the art exhibits.
Santa Clarita has a City Arts Alliance and Arts Advisory Committee with monthly meetings open to the public. At the Arts Advisory Committee meeting I received a general overview of how the funding of the arts on a per capita basis was created for Santa Clarita. A comparison chart of cities of Pasadena, Glendale, Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks and Santa Clarita were used for the percentage of the total budget spent on arts organizations in each of these cities based on population, arts funding and arts expenditures.
The research was interesting because it asked the question,”Why Are The Arts Economically Important?” Public opinion was listed on “Why The Arts Are Considered Important.”
John F. Kennedy said, “The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of a nation is very close to the center of a national purpose and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization”.
For more information contact Jaylene Armstrong, Retired Art Educator, Santa Clarita Artists’ Association Member at 661-255-3050.