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Community groups and residents urge commission to adopt San Bernardino Arts Collaborative agenda
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Summary
Public commenters and Arts Connection urged the Arts & Culture Commission to adopt the San Bernardino Arts Collaborative Arts and Culture Agenda as a guiding framework, press the city for budget support, and preserve prior policy work while staff explores implementation and funding.
Public commenters and a county arts director urged the San Bernardino Arts & Culture Advisory Commission to adopt a community‑driven arts agenda and seek city funding to implement it.
Miriam Nieto, who identified herself as a resident of the 7th Ward, told the commission she was speaking on behalf of work already done by the San Bernardino Arts Collaborative and asked the commission to "revisit them, see where you guys are at" and to "adopt and recommend to the city's council the adoption of the San Bernardino Arts Collaborative and Arts and Culture Agenda as a guiding framework." She emphasized preserving past goals so the city does not "redo the work" and asked staff to explore implementation strategies and funding sources.
Alejandro Gutierrez Travis, executive director of Arts Connection (San Bernardino County), said the collaborative was formed by residents, artists and nonprofits to prioritize 5–10 year goals and to help the commission "hone in our focus and have an agenda to move forward." Gutierrez said the collaborative's packet was being distributed at the meeting and urged commissioners to adopt the framework so it can be presented to city council and pursued for city investment.
Commissioners asked procedural questions about whether an arts acquisition policy previously drafted would be reused or whether the commission should start fresh. One commissioner raised a concern that a prior art‑acquisition document—worked on for more than a year and reviewed by legal—might be lost; staff said the new draft is a work in progress and that commissioners could forward earlier materials for incorporation.
The commission agreed to place related agenda items on a future meeting: a discussion of the San Bernardino Arts Collaborative arts and culture agenda and a separate arts and culture budget/revenue‑request item to inform the commission's priorities before asking council for funding. Commissioners emphasized the need to set specific goals and attach line‑item budget requests to those goals.
The meeting closed the discussion by scheduling follow‑up: the commission will review the collaborative agenda and budget options at a subsequent meeting; staff was asked to bring information on potential funding sources and a draft budget request for commissioners to examine.
