Stockton artists gathered at Empresso coffeehouse in the Miracle Mile Saturday to celebrate City Council’s decision not to use $1.1 million from the city arts endowment to help close its budget deficit. Interest from the endowment is used to fund grants for art projects.
By 1 p.m. about 15 visual and literary artists, musicians and others had arrived and were sharing their work and discussing future collaborative projects. Arts advocate Joy Neas had used chalk to draw multi-colored footprints on the sidewalk leading to the gathering.
The image at left is a composite of four of the footprints; click it for a larger view. Click here to see what the footprints looked like on the sidewalk leading to Empresso.
In the video above Stockton Arts Commission Chairperson Paula Shiel describes the arts endowment. The commission is working on a memorandum of understanding with city officials to transfer the endowment from city management to the Stockton Arts Foundation.
Below, Shiel responds when asked why City Council should preserve the arts endowment when it is cutting funding for police and fire fighters.