ARTS & URBAN POLICY EXPERT , DR. MARIA ROSARIO JACKSON AND COUNTY SUPERVISORS JOSIE GONZALES AND  CHAIR JAMES RAMOS TO HEADLINE ARTS CONNECTION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

San Bernardino, California- Arts professionals from throughout San Bernardino County and surrounding areas will convene on Saturday, September 26 in Rancho Cucamonga for a full day of networking, presentations, and workshops about creative placemaking as well as cultural planning and public art.

Creative placemaking is a growing field of practice that leverages the arts to revitalize communities while also addressing broader social and economic issues.  The focus will be on developing creative placemaking strategies which artists and organizations can implement in their own communities, sparking creative entrepreneurship, engaging new audiences and strengthening individual municipalities and the County as a whole.  Opening remarks will be delivered by James Ramos, Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

We are very pleased to share that Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson will be our keynote speaker. She is an Arts and Urban Policy Specialist with expertise is in comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, dynamics of race and ethnicity and the roles of and arts and culture in communities. She is Senior Advisor to the Kresge Foundation and also consults with national and regional foundations and government agencies. In 2013, President Obama appointed Dr. Jackson to the National Council on the Arts. She is on the advisory board of Lambent Foundation and on the boards of directors of Alliance for California Traditional Arts and LA Commons. Dr. Jackson has been adjunct faculty at Claremont Graduate University and University of Southern California, and the 2014-2015 James Irvine Foundation Fellow in Residence at Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Jackson will be moderating our first panel, titled “Growing a Creative Culture.” Panelists include Rhonda Lane Coleman, Director 29 Palms Art Gallery; John Worden, Director of the Ontario Museum of Art and History; Catherine Tessier, Jeved Inc.; and Kathleen Gallego, artist and Founder/Director of Avenue 50 and The California Arts Council.

Our second panel of the day will feature artists and organizations from a variety of disciplines sharing their projects and experiences with community engagement. The panel, titled “Artists and Organizations Creating Community,” will be moderated by photographer and Cal State San Bernardino Professor of Art, Thomas McGovern. It will include an impressive line up: Kim Stringfellow, artist, educator and Guggenheim fellow; Johanna Smith, puppet and performance artist and Professor of Theatre at CSU San Bernardino; Josiah Bruny, musician and CEO of Music Changing Lives; and artist/activist Michael Segura of San Bernardino Generation Now. This will be followed by three afternoon breakout sessions: “Art Making as City Making, an interactive workshop”, with James Rojas, an urban planner and founder of Place it!; “Technology to Temporary: Public Art Pursuits”, with public art expert and consultant, Lesley Elwood of Lesley Elwood and Associates; and “Making Greater Impact,” with Daniel Foster, who served as a founding Board Member of Arts Connection and former Executive Director of Oceanside Museum of Art.

“The arts and culture play a critical role in the economic recovery of the Inland Empire. This conference is a great opportunity to bring ideas and partners together,” states Kathryn Ervin, Arts Connection’s Board Chair and Professor of Theatre Arts at Cal State San Bernardino. “Artists and organizations will be discussing their projects alongside civic leaders, urban planners and private industry. Creative placemaking calls upon these diverse sectors to come together and engage communities through the arts, sparking change and innovation in their wake while bringing programming to communities that are often underserved.”

The conference will provide the most current, practical information and tools available to help visual and performing artists, administrators, organizations, educators and students develop creative placemaking strategies across sectors, which they can then implement in their own communities. The conference is being organized by Arts Connection, the non-profit Arts Council of San Bernardino County, in partnership with the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center.  It will be held on Saturday, September 26 from 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. at the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center located at 12505 Cultural Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739.

The conference is being sponsored through the generous contributions and/or in-kind support from the California Arts Council, Cal State San Bernardino Office of the President, Associate Students Incorporated (ASI) at Cal State San Bernardino, Gloria Macias Harrison, David Lawrence, Dr. Ernest and Dottie Garcia, à la minute in Redlands, The Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art at Chaffey College, Ontario Museum of Arts and History, The Center for Management in the Creative Industries, Claremont Graduate Universityand many others. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available, contact danielle@ArtsConnectionNetwork.org.

The conference is free to all members of Arts Connection. One-year membership start at only $25 for individuals (and $10 for students). Pre-registration for the conference is highly encouraged. Registration is available on the Arts Connection website, at http://artsconnectionnetwork.org/events/conference-registrationor by phone at 909-537-5809.