San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs
In what is generally regarded as the most comprehensive community cultural plan ever undertaken, two agencies — the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs and the Arts Council of Santa Clara County — decided to undertake a joint planning process in 1995. The first phase of planning lasted for fourteen months and was overseen and carried out by WolfBrown consultants. It involved over a thousand people in interviews, focus groups, task forces and public hearings. Many innovative research and data collection efforts were carried out to measure public attitudes about the arts, information about facilities and audiences, and data on arts education programs in the region. Also piloted was a new system for keeping people informed and soliciting their views via the World Wide Web.
The project expanded to include four related initiatives. These included: a ground-breaking arts education study for the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, a merger study for the Arts Councils in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, a program planning and feasibility study for neighborhood arts development for the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, and an agency plan for the Arts Council of Santa Clara County.
The community cultural plan itself — called “20/21: A Regional Cultural Plan for the New Millennium” — called for a public/private investment of approximately $250 million over the subsequent decade. WolfBrown presented the plan to various public bodies as well as private groups, funders, and arts constituents. The firm was then retained to assist in implementation of the plan. In this next phase, they oversaw a Task Force to develop an in-depth implementation plan for arts education and were also retained to work on related initiatives in the area of arts stabilization, community/neighborhood programming, and new facility development.
They also helped recruit and work with a Leadership Council of some of the top private and public leaders in Silicon Valley and develop a new nonprofit organization for them called Cultural Initiatives/Silicon Valley.
Go to www.sanjosearts.com