The group will help stoke the city’s public arts scene by
connecting officials with artists
Gilroy – A group of South Valley residents are gathering up the area’s dancers, painters, theater groups and countless other members of the arts community and forging them into a single organization — the Arts Alliance Association.
“What it does is unite the arts groups,” said Carol Peters, a former painting teacher and current member of the Gilroy Arts and Culture Commission. “A lot of times there are different groups in Gilroy and they’ll have a purpose individually, but this makes it more of a collective group where you’re able to share a vision and purpose.”
A focal point for many of the groups is the future Gilroy Cultural Arts and Performing Center, scheduled for construction in downtown by 2008. Local officials hope the center will help unify the local arts community, providing much needed rehearsal and performance space to local schools and arts organizations.
But helping to coordinate use of the new center will not be the sole purpose of the alliance.
Peters said the group also would help stoke the city’s public arts scene by connecting officials with artists who could create murals and other public displays. The Arts and Culture Commission, for instance, already has plans to install garlic-themed statues on several street corners in the city’s historic downtown.
The alliance also would help avoid conflicts when scheduling events, according to Cathy Mirelez, the city’s cultural arts and museum supervisor.
“The (Arts and Culture) Commission has discussed for the past few years the creation of an arts alliance that would be a place for arts leaders and businesses to come together and meet,” she said. “There needs to be some cohesiveness and collaboration within the arts community.”
The effort finally got off the ground in November, Mirelez said, with the aid of a $4,000 grant from the Gilroy Foundation. The funding helped bring together 45 artists and representatives from various groups in the area, including dance studios, Gavilan College, South Valley Symphony and Theater Angels Art League. The group met again last weekend to learn how Milpitas officials formed their arts alliance in the late ’90s. Later this month, a new nine-member committee will meet to start planning the organizational structure of the alliance.
While the details have yet to fall into place, Peters said the vision for the new group is clear.
“It encompasses all of the arts so you’ll have an impact on the community in every aspect,” she said. “This will be a binding force for the individual voices. It’s a terrific vehicle to promote art in the community.”
