Today the word is “plan”. This is what the city is going to do. In the Santa Clarita Valley Signal newspaper on May 10, the large caps were “Master Plan for Art Set.” Santa Clarita City Council members and Arts Commissioners gave the nod to move forward with a master plan to take an overarching look at art in the community. The master plan idea came during a joint study session of all the city officials.
Yes, indeed this sounds like some positive thinking about the place art has in the lives of community residents.
Of course to see an art center created has been a dream of many people. The problem has been that if the dream is not scary enough, then it is not big enough. Okay… now it is necessary for all people in different city organizations to make a dream for an art center to become real. A building needs to be purchased by the city and transformed into different departments such as: an art gallery for visual art to be exhibited, a professional art lecture room, art room for teaching art classes to children and adults, films to be shown weekly, space for theatre and dance productions. This building must be open for the public to visit every day of the week. Now let us hope the “master plan” will involve many different kinds of people to be used to create a symposium plan. Maybe over 100 people who are community residents should participate in making plans for art in SCV.
Jaylene Armstrong is a retired Art Teacher from Madison, Wisconsin, a former National Art Education Association Western Region Vice President and President of Wisconsin Art Education Association. For more information contact Jaylene at 661-255-3050.