Carson City committee tackles arts master plan

A chairperson was elected Wednesday and duties were doled out for future steps in a Carson City Cultural Commission subcommittee’s effort to draft a community arts master plan.

Terri McBride, the newly elected committee leader, divided up six areas for short takes on the broad outlines in a Creative Capital arts assessment done years ago to be rewritten. It will become the city’s arts and culture master plan. The city’s Board of Supervisors charged the Cultural Commission with doing that rewrite in coming months, after which the commission focused the workload by naming a three-member subcommittee to work on the draft.

A wide-ranging discussion in Wednesday morning’s meeting at the Sierra Room in the Carson City Community Center also dealt with which arts group or government-related unit could serve as a central clearing house for seeking grants and coordinating arts or cultural marketing and the like, where financing for staff support could be sought, as well as on outreach to various organizations or community groups.

Central clearing house and grant-seeking authority could involve the Brewery Arts Center (BAC), the Carson City Arts and Culture Coalition (CCACC), the Cultural Commission itself or some other entity, according to the discussion, but Kelli Du Fresne of the Nevada Arts Council said whichever unit or units get designated to receive federal grants or National Endowment for the Arts money should be a dedicated arts and culture unit.

“It doesn’t need to be the city, but it needs to be developed,” said Du Fresne, interim community arts development coordinator at the state council.

The subcommittee at its’ next panel meeting July 29, also at 9 a.m. in the Community Center’s Sierra Room, will seek input on the matter from BAC and CCACC representatives, as well as do outreach involving the Native American and Hispanic communities. In addition, it will review written items in two paragraph or bullet points form from the workload divvied up Wednesday.

McBride took the visual arts and fundraising categories. Barbara D’Anneo took on economic development/urban design and organizational development/support, while Danielle Cook took performing arts and leadership/training. Preferences provided by full commission members will be the guide for those short takes.

Questions about funding kept arising during the morning discussion, but no decisions on it were made pending future discussion and input.

“All of us envision a steady revenue source for arts and culture in this town eventually,” said McBride, but she stuck to the topic of rewriting so a “skeleton” framework is ready for full commission action in August or later.