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Arts Master Plan

Theatre Guild with 280 seats and the Repertory East Playhouse with 81 seats

(formerly the Santa Clarita Repertory Theatre).

The Arts and Events Office currently has a budget of approximately $2.2 million.

Just under half of this budget is spent on staff: there are 8 full time and about
30 part time staff, with emphasis on staffing for events. Also, the Arts and
Events Office handles non-arts functions, such as some sporting and
community events. The arts and culture portion of the budget of the Arts &
Events Office is less than two-thirds of the total, or about $1.4 million, including

staff and programs. Within the arts portion, the budget for Arts Grants is
$60,000 and $45,000 is for Arts Programs that include performances, arts
education, the Arts Exhibits Program (for shows in City Hall, the Library,

community rooms and the Valencia Town Center) and other activities. The City
pays the College of the Canyons $75,000 per year under the terms of its MOU
regarding the Performing Arts Center in exchange for a specified amount of
community use of the theater.

Arts events produced by the Arts and Events Office include the annual Cowboy
Festival, the Art SLAMs/JAM Sessions, Senses and Concerts in the Parks. The

public art program is currently voluntary and, under this approach, the City
allocates amounts from selected projects in its Capital Improvements Program
for art projects. The Arts & Events Office has overseen 16 projects since 2009.

These projects are relatively small scale and the largest budget for a completed
project to date has been $30,000.

Concerts in the Park are the City’s longest-running program. Held at Central
Park, they have become a well-established and attended feature in the
community’s cultural calendar. The location is prominent and provides an
opportunity for community gathering. However, the park also offers some

drawbacks as a venue, since it was not built for performances and requires
construction of a portable stage. Also, concerts restrict the park’s availability for
sports and recreation on Saturdays throughout the summer.

The City has fostered arts leadership through the formation first of an Arts
Advisory Committee and then the Arts Commission. The five-member
Commission is an unusually active, “working” group. The Commission oversaw

development of an Arts Blueprint in 2013, a substantive document that

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