COMMUNITY STRATEGIST
Q&A
with RICK
STEIN
Rick Stein has served as the president and CEO of Arts Orange County, the local nonprofit arts agency, since 2008. He was previously the executive director of the Laguna Playhouse for 17 years and, prior to that, managing director of the Grove Shakespeare Festival. He is a longtime member of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dean’s Arts Board, as well.
Q. During the pandemic, the arts sector has suffered tremendously as venues have been forced to shutter. How has your role with ArtsOC changed during this last year? RS: Much of my focus at Arts OC has been advocacy: meeting with officials on the federal, state and local level to advocate for increased public funding for the arts. Our advocacy at the start of the pandemic resulted in nearly $2.8 million of relief funds last summer for artists, arts nonprofits and arts-related businesses in Orange County. However, we just released a “one year later” survey that reports OC’s arts community has now lost more than $121 million, and 2,700 people lost their jobs, were furloughed, or had pay cuts. We brought that data to the OC Board of Supervisors, persuading them to make $5 million of their American Rescue Plan Act funds available to the local arts community 28
