In 2011, the Coronado City Council created the Cultural Arts Commission, which has since remained relatively under the radar despite its large-scale efforts across Coronado.
The Commission’s written mission includes serving and partnering with Coronado’s many local artists and cultural arts organizations. It includes acting as a catalyst in further developing a vibrant and cohesive arts community, strengthening arts education, and enhancing cultural tourism and economic development.
What it Means to be a Commission Versus Committee
The topic of commissions, committees, and standardization has taken a front seat at the council, notably at their December 17, 2024, meeting.
Dawn Richards, Public Art Chair, explains, “The city has committees and commissions, and they’ve been operating a little differently. Within this past year, Tina Friend, City Manager, noticed there wasn’t a lot of consistency between them. She had a study undertaken by Kelli Maples (Senior Management Analysis) and Kelsea Holian (City Clerk) on how they all operated. They did an in-depth study of all the city committees and commissions.”
Dawn continues, “Tina and the city council shared the recommendations at a recent city council meeting. They made some changes, looking for more consistency and looking at how they operated with the city.”
According to the city minutes, a recommendation was made and accepted for the Arts Commission: Further council discussion ensued regarding the appropriate size and title for the Cultural Arts Commission, ultimately maintaining its name as a commission while reducing its membership to five members.
“I think the Arts Commission and the Mobility Commission were the only two that had as many as seven members,” Dawn says. “All the other ones were between 3 to 5. This puts us more in line with everybody else.”
Dawn is appreciative of the process: “I think that the in-depth study that Kelli and Kelsea undertook really helped us sharpen things. What happens with any kind of committee or commission is that, over time, things evolve. Any kind of working group is dynamic. Periodically, it’s a good idea to step back and look at how things have evolved. Then you get a better idea of what your role can be in the future in terms of how efficient and effective you can be.”
Who the Cultural Arts Commission Helps
Dawn is looking forward to what 2025 has in store. “The Cultural Arts Commission is here to support our arts partners. Some examples of our partners are the Coronado Island Film Festival, the Art Association, our library, the Historical Association, the Coronado Playhouse, and Lamb’s Theatre. Also, our nonprofit music groups include Villa Lobos International, Crown City Chorale, The Concert Band, and the Philharmonia.”
Dawn explains how the Cultural Arts Commission supports the organizations: “One traditional way that we’ve supported them is when a new organization comes on board or one has a new project they’re working on. An example is the Coronado Schools Foundation, which started the Art and Wine Festival two years ago. What we do is help them get started. It might be donating some funds; we have a limited budget, but we can donate some funds to help them get started. We can help them with marketing and publicity. This would involve writing articles for Coronado Magazine, Crown City Magazine, The Eagle, and The Coronado Times. We can help them secure facilities. We might be able to print programs for them. We’re just one part of the many strategies that they use.”
Another partnership Dawn envisions is Safe Harbor. “We might do a workshop for them on using artist therapy, and we could help them with supplies and get the word out about it.”
The Coronado Cultural Arts Commission also provides help by sharing information on finding grants and how to write grants. This includes how to fundraise effectively in today’s changing economic climate.
Smaller Without Scaling Back
While they are down two members in 2025, Dawn is not deterred. “With two fewer commissioners, we’ll have to scale back a little bit, and what we want to do is be as sufficient and effective as we can possibly be. I’m coming on as chair and looking at what all of our arts partners need from the Arts Commission and how we can best help them. We will send them a survey and look at where we can be the most effective. We can work smarter to help them.”
Partnership with the City
The Cultural Art Commission operates in close partnership with the city. Dawn explains, “We work in alignment with our city council and city manager. One example of how we do this is the community grants program. The city may be making some changes, and one of the ways that we work them is by reviewing all of the grants and then making recommendations to the council. The council may or may not follow them, of course. But it’s one more step to help them move through all the grants more efficiently.”
Joining the Cultural Art Commission
For those interested in applying to the Cultural Arts Commissions, there is an ad on the city website whenever there is an open position. You can check current vacancies on all commissions here.
While ideally, seats would be filled on January 1, that isn’t always the case. An example of why someone would leave the position early includes the previous chair, Helen Kupka. Dawn explains, “She left her term early to start the Coronado Community Foundation which is another one of our arts partners. I came on the year when she left, and I took on the end of her term as a commissioner.”
With the current opening on the commission, Dawn encourages people to apply.
New Chair of the Cultural Arts Commission
As far as Dawn’s rise from vice chair to chair, she explains that it was put into motion when Heidi Wilson left. “Heidi is the one who actually started the commission in the first place, and she came back in temporarily to help out when we needed a new chair. Then she stepped aside, and Debbie became the chair. Deb’s already served as many terms as possible, so she asked me to be her vice chair. Now she’s termed out, so I will step in as chair.”
Dawn recalls how she initially joined, “It was Heidi Wilson who convinced me to apply. We served on a committee together in the Cays for the Cays Park several years ago. She said, ‘Dawn, I think you should do this.’ I asked her a bunch of questions about it, and she gave me lots of great information, and that’s how I ended up on the commission.”
Looking Forward to 2025
“I’m excited about all the changes and working closely with the city manager and City Council. We serve at their behest, so I want to ensure that our goals align with theirs. I’m excited about how we can really be as effective as possible for our arts partners because we’re there to serve them.”
Be on the lookout for exciting things coming. Dawn highlights, “One initiative that we started in January, and I’m very excited about this, is a local arts agency network that has started in San Diego. They are taking arts organizations from around San Diego in a year-long program. They will bring in experts to help us be more effective as arts organizations. We will be meeting for 12 months. Every other month, we meet in person for a full day. Then, we will meet online for three hours the other months.” Examples of what they’ll do include bringing in experts on grant writing and fundraising.
Dawn is also excited about the greater community aspect. “This is good, not only for all the learning but working with all the arts partners. In essence, our colleagues around San Diego. I love learning new ideas, and this opens up a whole world of possibilities for how art can be used effectively in our city and great ideas on what we can do to help our arts partners here.”
How The Cultural Arts Commission Impacts Community
Dawn researched other arts organizations when she joined the commission. She noted that quite a few studies have shown the impact our cultural arts tourism can make on a city.
“Arts tourism brings in more money to a city than just beach tourism.”
One of the projects that the Cultural Arts Commission did in the past was for Californians for the Arts, which is part of Americans for the Arts. Dawn explained the process: “We did a survey for several different types of arts events in the city. We went out with our clipboards and conducted surveys of people who came to events at Lamb’s Players, Coronado Playhouse, the 4th of July parade, Christmas parade, and Concert in the Park. The survey looked at the zip codes of where people live. There were residents from Coronado, there were also residents from all over San Diego, and all over California, then across the country and even from Mexico.”
What Dawn learned was, “Despite our small size compared to other cities like San Diego as a whole, we actually were one of the top in terms of bringing in data and getting all of the work done in a timely manner. We had so much data to turn in. It showed art tourism’s huge economic impact on our city and local businesses.”
Partnership Examples
The Cultural Arts Commission frequently partners with the Coronado Library. Dawn says, “We did an event for the library where they had Jose ‘Trino’ Trinidad Camacho Orozco, a Mexican comic graphic artist, come in. He was here visiting for Comic Con, and he presented in Spanish at the library, and they had a translator. We also did one of the book events, a collaboration between the library and the historical association. These are small-scale events, but we have people coming from over the bridge for these.”
Another example of work from the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission is the Orange Avenue banners. Dawn describes these as a way of celebrating the city’s nonprofits, artists, and events.
Partnership with Locals
In addition to partnering with the arts organizations and the city, the commission engages with residents. Dawn says, “I want [locals] to think about how art impacts their lives and their quality of living. I really want to know what helps improve the public’s quality of life and what they like!”
Upcoming, the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission is focusing on public art. Dawn teases, “We have a brand new app rolling out. We’ll give the public the information when it’s ready, but it has audio and visual information. This will be for public art, with a QR code on it. Anywhere you’re walking around and seeing a stunning piece of public art, you only have to scan the QR code. It’ll give you all the information on the artist and the piece.”
Dawn concludes the interview by showing her appreciation for the people that make the commission possible. “I truly appreciate working under Deb Keller, our outgoing chair, and all the time she has spent with me to help me prepare for my role as chair. Also, Kelly Purvis, I don’t think we could exist without Kelly. Kelly is stepping down from her role with us to take on a city council position, so her position with the Coronado Arts Commission will be advertised very soon. We encourage people to apply for that position, and a position open for a communications commissioner. Keep their eyes open for that!”
Upcoming events advertised by the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission:
- Feb. 12 at the Spreckels Center: Art Exhibition Opening on Quilts, “Variations on a Square“
- April 5 at the Coronado Library: San Diego Writers Festival
- May 4: Motorcars on MainStreet
- May 10: Art and Wine Festival
