2022
SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY
CULTURAL VIBRANCY REPORT The MAH’s role in the creative economy and how we support place-based development and community building
Contents Executive Summary................................................................. 02 Creative Economy...................................................................... 06 Cultivating Place ........................................................................ 09 Growing Capacity......................................................................... 13 Fiscal and Strategic Planning.......................................... 14 Cultural Vibrancy..........................................................................19
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Executive Summary 02
Place-based development is an approach that uses the unique natural, physical, and cultural characteristics of a location and its people to optimize interventions for smart, equitable growth. It considers the emotional attributes of a community alongside physical improvements, ensuring a long-term, holistic benefit to residents and guests, and thereby the entire community. Place-based initiatives are at the fore of community planning strategy in towns, cities, and counties around the globe, and the arts and culture are key to creating the cultural vibrancy that defines their success. Fortunately, Santa Cruz County is rich with cultural resources, community character, and a strong sense of history, as well as a wealth of nonprofit organizations, museums, community groups, artists, and historians who enrich our cultural landscape. In this report, we outline how the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) and our local creative network contribute to cultural vibrancy, and how we can continue to advance community development by investing in our creative economy.
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Creative Economy 06
The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is a thriving community gathering place that serves more than 130,000 people annually through rotating art and history exhibitions, visual and performing artworks, public festivals, education and outreach programs, and cultural celebrations. At the MAH, we seek to ignite shared experiences and unexpected connections, bringing people together around art and local history as a way to cultivate community. At the end of the day, however, the MAH is also a business, with a bottom line and operating strategy. Like other museums, we are involved in the creation, distribution, and consumption of works of art, historical publications, archival materials, and similar cultural products and services. We are part of and contribute to the creative economy, which is one of the largest industry clusters in our state. In California alone, the creative industries support 2.68 million jobs, $209.6 billion in labor income, and $650.3 billion in annual output. The term creative economy encompasses not only the arts, media, and design, but creativity itself as a strategy for innovation and entrepreneurship. Thus we are also catalysts for experimentation and production, with the potential for widereaching impacts to our local economy. CULTURAL VIBRANCY REPORT
The MAH bolsters community development by
experiences, and historical interpretations
creating vibrant, energetic spaces that strengthen
serve as wellsprings of inspiration. We are
connectedness, spark idea exchange, generate
dedicated to seeking new ways to wed our
excitement, and drive investment.
community’s strong entrepreneurial spirit with
We influence creative economy and community growth in the following ways:
Driving Economic Development Joining forces with County and community partners, the MAH transformed Abbott Square and Abbott Square Market into a hub of creative happenings. By bringing people together around meaningful objects, stories, and experiences we build cultural vibrancy, and there is a return on that investment that is not always easy to quantify, but clearly present. The market is now a venue for local businesses, and our revitalized downtown center attracts investment in the form of residential and business developments. It has become fertile ground for all forms of creative innovation, and a point of intersection for regenerative economy.
Investing in Creative Entrepreneurs The MAH supports many local entrepreneurs— from food vendors in the market, to artists and historians pushing the boundaries of their fields, to innovators finding new ways to disrupt an industry. Our artistic and literary commissions, residency opportunities, research awards, and history publications support the creation of new works, while thought-provoking artworks,
our rich creative culture.
Operating a Fiscally Sound Organization The MAH must remain attractive and relevant in current and future markets to ensure visitation; earn revenue, financial gifts, and support; and optimize our resources. We do this by offering impactful programming that keeps our patrons coming back. One of the defining tenets of our organization is to learn from experience. Thus, our current strategic planning process is based on assessing the economic and social impacts of our initiatives, so that we can make any necessary changes to best serve our community, now and in the future.
Synergistically Building Vibrancy The MAH is one of many cultural organizations that make Santa Cruz what it is—a quirky, caring, creative, vibrant place to live, work, and visit. Partnering with one another on mission-aligned initiatives defines who we are as a community and results in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is crucial that we work together to enrich and grow the creative economy, infusing it into all aspects of our County and City. Not only does this benefit our minds and spirits, but our cultural and economic vibrancy as well. SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY
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Cultivating Place
Innovation and creative practice promote place identity, enhance livability, spark engagement, drive tourism, invigorate the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and ultimately serve as engines of economic development. To continue moving this work forward, our plans for the future involve the following emphases. Placekeeping To understand placekeeping, we first need to unpack placemaking, a movement well-known to civic planners that occurs at the intersection of creative economy and community development. Placemaking is a concerted effort to recognize and
More than preserving historic buildings, placekeeping aims to elevate local culture, heritage, and landscapes through artistic and historical interpretation, in recognition of the fact that all are valuable and relevant to urban and rural communities alike.
shape the cultural identity of a place,
Not only do the MAH’s exhibitions,
growing pride among residents and
festivals, and programs encourage
guests. It inspires the active care and
localism as well as the tourism
maintenance of a place and its social
that financially benefits businesses,
fabric by the people who live and
workforce, and City and County
work there. Placemaking is something
tax revenue, they also invest in our
Santa Cruz does very well.
cultural profile in a way that enriches
Placekeeping recognizes that a community already has a strong cultural identity, a history, and a people, and thus there is no need to
the lives of our local community, invites visitor participation, and ensures we remain attractive and relevant in these rapidly changing times.
create something new or artificial.
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Community belonging
Social connectedness
Cultivating a sense of belonging among all
Connectedness is key to growing a sense
people helps to transform communities
of belonging, and the experiences we
by contributing to healthy, meaningful
craft around it are designed specifically to
lives and safe, inclusive neighborhoods.
encourage people to come together,
When we encourage culture and identity
interact, and engage in mutual value
to flourish, civic participation increases.
creation through an exchange of
Belonging is so fundamentally important
knowledge and information. Residents
to human development that recognizing
who are engaged become invested in the
and nurturing it should be a cornerstone
MAH and one another. This builds the
of urban planning and social policy.
public value and perception of the
MAH programming seeks to enhance belonging by animating our museum,
organization, while contributing to the community’s wellbeing overall.
historic sites, and public spaces in a way
In our view, the museum is a civic
that acknowledges and honors our
common, or public space. This is true of
diverse cultures and histories, while
the MAH itself, as well as our efforts to
encouraging interaction and community
reach beyond the museum walls—in
building. We use interventions to engage
physical, intellectual, and emotional
people as active collaborators around art
space—to embrace shared heritage,
and history; to make and offer space that
lifelong learning, cultural literacies,
fosters encounter, dialogue, and social
physical and mental health, and more.
cohesion; and to build individual and collective capacity to sustain socially and place-connected, resilient communities.
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SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY
Growing Capacity Here are some of the specific visioning, organizational, and programming approaches the MAH is taking to increase creative capacity and competitive advantage within the aforementioned emphases: • Articulating narratives that
• Investing in local artists, historians,
represent the beliefs, values,
and creative practitioners via
and ideals of Santa Cruz County
commissions, residencies, space,
to guide our programming
and resources
• Launching a biennial festival
• Encouraging a shift toward
series to connect and inspire
regenerative economy by working
patrons and guests in and around
within our community to capitalize
the MAH and County
on opportunities
• Unveiling temporary public
• Building support for citizen artists
artworks that invite engagement
and storytellers to increase
and interaction while creating
involvement in creativity and
a draw to our civic spaces
cultural exchange
• Creating new artistic work and
• Committing to accelerating
cultural content in addition to
diversity and equity in our cultural
preserving and presenting our
workforce and leadership pipeline
collections • Designing virtual activities that invite online interaction to serve our community during and after the pandemic
• Collaborating with other cultural organizations to strengthen our mutual impact • Engaging in the global conversation by connecting local and regional initiatives to broader contexts
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Fiscal and Strategic Planning The MAH will be revising its budget over the coming years to allocate a greater percentage of resources to some key areas, including creation and content development, promoting revenue-generating activities, and prioritizing initiatives that
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support efficient operations, enhance the guest experience, and bring the stories of Santa Cruz County to a wider audience. We have already shifted our previous, payrollheavy allocation into one more focused on the goods and services needed for quality program delivery, marketing impact, and infrastructure improvements, and we will continue to scale these to new operating budgets aligned to industry benchmarks.
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In this way we bolster our ability to present our dynamic slate of programming—from innovative exhibitions and biennials rich with thought-provoking installations, to meaningful residency opportunities that give time, space, and financial support to artists connecting our past with the present, to interactive educational experiences that integrate cutting-edge learning tools and resources to help interpret and contextualize our work. the future. Over the past year, museum stakeholders came together to write a new strategic plan that will
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serve as our roadmap for continued growth over the next five years. Our major strategies are to increase engagement and retention through innovative and time-tested programs that attract audiences, engage community, and spark connections; deepen relationships and collaboration through mutually beneficial partnerships that leverage resources and expertise to benefit the public; and build
The MAH is committed to strong governance
resilience and capacity through streamlined
practices and comprehensive financial
practices in all areas of management and
management, and we actively seek funding from
operations. With organizational learning as a
federal, state, and local agencies to broaden
core operating tenet, we rely on data-based
our base of support. More detailed financial
decision-making and measurable methodologies
planning will be based on the strategic plan, in
to improve, extend, and increase the impact of
which we are laying out our processes for
MAH experiences, while continuing to embrace
understanding, assessing, and optimizing our
the experimentation, risk-taking, inventiveness,
strategies, structure, systems, and skills.
and reflection the MAH is known for.
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Cultural Vibrancy Santa Cruz County has long specialized in creativity, and the MAH is proud to be part of that time-honored tradition. Our achievements to date are the result of
Drawing on the multidisciplinary strengths
an exemplary group effort made possible by
of our peer creative community, the MAH
the collaboration of many partners—from
contributes to vibrancy by offering a robust
dedicated community volunteers and
slate of activities that cut across visual and
longstanding local arts and history groups to
literary arts, music, dance, film, spoken
regional and national supporters. Together
word, education, and the creative and
we have built a livable downtown (where
technology sectors. We seek out bold,
livability refers to its tangible, physical
relevant programming that engages our
attributes), and together we can ensure
community as a creative partner, reflects
vibrancy (the positive emotional qualities of
both past and present, invites audience
a community) for years to come.
co-creation, and showcases Santa Cruz’s
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global identity. We also use art and
we can to support the sector. We need to
history to transcend aesthetics, impacting
develop vision, strategies, and priorities in
community goals from public health,
partnership with community experts and
human rights, social justice, and
practitioners, and ensure long-term
environmental stewardship to
funding to sustain such high-quality
sustainability.
programs and facilities.
In 2022 and beyond, the MAH forges
The MAH looks forward to joining
boldly ahead with our inventive offerings,
municipal planners and policymakers in
working with colleagues and partner
conversations around recovery efforts,
groups to breathe new life into our
because we know that artists, cultural
cultural scene and public spaces. This has
organizations, and events add great value
become more important than ever as we
to our community. Recognizing this
take steps to emerge from the pandemic,
cultural vibrancy is not only key to
reconnect, and rebuild.
attracting and retaining people and
Arts communities around the world have experienced colossal blows in the past year, and our own cultural landscape in
businesses, but to making and keeping place, nurturing belonging, and fostering connectedness.
Santa Cruz County has been altered in
A renaissance of art, culture, creativity,
unprecedented ways. At a time of such
and community is upon us. By recognizing
uncertainty about the future, it is crucial
and strengthening the institutions,
to recognize the enduring value of
businesses, and individuals who make our
creative enterprise to drive community
creative economy flourish, we can
development. We need to celebrate our
harness it to the benefit of all.
local cultural organizations and do what CULTURAL VIBRANCY REPORT
Acknowledgments Funder Recognition It is through the generosity of members, corporate sponsors, foundations, and government partners that the MAH is able to be a community resource and economic asset. To learn more about how to get involved with the institution’s work, please visit the MAH’s website to see our various engagement and philanthropic opportunities. We thank our donors, volunteers, and collaborators for their tremendous support, and look forward to working with new friends as we continue to pursue new horizons.
Land Acknowledgment The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.
Photo Credits The majority of images featured in this publication were sourced from the MAH’s portfolio and archives. Special thanks to photographers Ashley Holmes, Michaela Clark-Nagaoka, Garrick Ramirez, Mickey Ta, Marcello Hutchinson-Trujillo, and Alex Vasquez. ADDITIONAL CREDITS Pages 16-17 Photo by Noah Berger/SF Chronicle
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Please contact the MAH at 831.429.1964, if you have any questions. For more information about the MAH, please visit santacruzmah.org.