 and welcome to Discovery. My foundation's weekly program on the arts. I'm Priya Sarkar, Director of Arts at Night, and today I'll be discussing how to center the arts in your city's present and future with Connie Martinez, CEO of SD Creates, a network of creatives and an artist and an art service organization based in San Jose, California. Thank you for joining us. Connie, welcome. Thank you, Priya. Thank you for being here. I'm so glad to be here. So for our folks who might not be familiar with your work, Connie's career spans decades in the arts, business and civic leadership and bringing those together in service of artists and communities. And I'm so glad to get to talk about this important topic with you today, Connie. I just wanna briefly say to viewers that we will be doing some Q and A toward the end. So please submit any questions you might have in the Zoom chat or if you're watching on Facebook Live into the comments function there. So Connie, maybe we could just start briefly with learning a little bit more about SB Creates and if you could just tell us a little bit about the work that you do. Sure, you started by saying we are an arts-serving organization. So that's where I would start, so a nonprofit. And in some circles, we would be considered an intermediary for the arts. In others, there's slices of what we do that's definitely in the arts council lane. But in Silicon Valley, we call ourselves venture cultureists. And so we use the lens of our local culture and what resonates here. So how that translates into our work is that we hold a portfolio of about a hundred arts organizations and we steward their success. And all of our work falls into three categories, building the capacity of our arts ecosystem, raising their visibility and voice or increasing access to the arts. So that's sort of the organizing principle and we embrace the ecosystem as if they're our portfolio. Thank you, that's really helpful. So as we think about those three areas in which your work is concentrated, those are things that were essential prior to the pandemic and I think some would say have become perhaps even more important to focus on given what's happening now. But as you look back on your decades of work in this area and the work that SBQ8 has been doing, what do you see as being some of the key challenges that you've seen when arts and culture hasn't necessarily been included in an integral way in community planning or development or anything also that you've seen where it's actually been addressed, the key challenge that's been addressed in really what you would use a successful way as you think about recurring themes over the years. So specifically to the challenge, as you can imagine, and I know you have an audience that's beyond Silicon Valley, but just the noise and to compete with the iconic power behind our tech industry and to actually be noticed, I think that's a huge challenge. And so our approach has been less about trying to be in the center and more about integrating ourselves into all these civic conversations. And so the challenge is, is that there's not one simple entry point and so much of the Valley's leadership and the progress we make is really connected to the networks. And so you have to actually be in the network. And so the time that it takes that for those of us who are in the sector to sort of dedicate ourselves to going beyond the arts community and actually being present in networks that aren't the usual suspects, if you will. And so there's the issue of getting attention in a Valley that's of zero on ones and iconic innovation and global recognition. So there's that piece. And then it's spending the time to develop the relationships because that's where you actually make inroads. So I think that's the challenge side. On the upside is that once you do engage because the Valley is so collaborative and in fact, logic and reason, you can bring logic and reason into those conversations, but always sprinkle it with the heart. So you lead with head, if you will, because we live in our heads in Silicon Valley, but you never let go of the heart. And so again, it depends on what the conversation's about. It depends on who's in the conversation. And it's sort of like you have to navigate what resonates in that moment for that particular audience. Did I answer that question, Priya? You answered it beautifully. And I guess I'd love for you to maybe just kind of talk a little bit more if we follow that thread a little bit. I think one of the things that anyone who's sort of working in this space and advocating for arts and culture to be part of those conversations, whether it's central to or integrated within these community discussions. And I should acknowledge, I think on this episode, we probably have folks tuning in who are artists, who are with arts organizations, arts and cultural organizations, and also who are probably in those other sectors, who also care about how to move a community forward. And so I guess one of the things that I think continues to be a bit of a tension within arts advocacy sort of conversations is what arguments work. Obviously acknowledging different things land with different audiences and as you just mentioned. But I think that what keeps coming up now and then is this question of whether to emphasize arts, and I'm totally using the shorthand of arts for arts sake, but recognizing that's a shorthand, but essentially those sort of the benefits or the intrinsic value that art has, the people view art to have, versus then there's other community benefits that we also know the arts and culture brings. And in fact, a recent study commissioned by Knight Foundation, the Community Tie Study, examined many different parameters of what cultivates community bonding and community togetherness and one of the key elements was in fact, arts and culture. And so what have you found to be, it sounds like you emphasize different components of that depending on who you're speaking with, but I wonder if you could tease apart a little bit more, maybe even if you have an example or two of how you found approaching that differently has worked. Okay, so I'm gonna set aside a moment that the elected officials, the issue of economic impact is always relevant to them. And that's kind of in the small business category of what do we generate as an industry in terms of local economic impact? In Silicon Valley, that's pretty tough to make that an argument when you're talking to the titans of industry. In fact, when we've done research on this, the entire ecosystem in Silicon Valley is equal to one small division of one company. So to make that argument doesn't work. What I have found recently, and I was invited to be part of the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable, 59 liters, C-suite level of Silicon Valley heavily weighted towards industry, so I was the only arts person on there and had an opportunity to get to know a small group of high level executives from industry over the course of a couple of months. And what I learned in those conversations is that once again, as I referenced earlier, you lead with a had logic reason and all of that. And so what resonated with them is when I was able to talk about the industry, the arts and culture industry as a community serving small business, okay? So that we don't get recognized when a region comes together and says, let's save small business. We're not necessarily recognized in that realm. And we're not recognized or prioritized in the realm of basic needs nonprofits. So like we're in between. And so my value proposition was that we have an industry, we have artists that are of value to this community that are underemployed in this moment, okay? And it's part of the earned income, March and March earned income disappeared just like all the small businesses earned income. So that made sense to them. And then I think the other part that made sense to them was that using sort of the business modeling techniques that they are familiar with and putting out a case that for a relatively small investment, meaning that if you're in, trying to sell hunger, housing, healthcare, that's billions of dollars in our sector, it's a relatively small $15 million could be leveraged dramatically by this sort of network of projects that could essentially employ our artist community. And to my surprise, and I had five minutes to make this pitch, I was invited and then I had five minutes to make the pitch and the 15 person high tech group unanimously embraced the idea. And part of it was, is that logically it made sense to them. And then it also felt feasible and relevant in this time of need to do real projects in our community of value, placemaking, arts education, storytelling and health messaging. So that's one example of seizing the moment given the audience to make a case. Yeah, that's great, thank you. So I definitely heard you sort of bridging different arguments and sort of merging them into one cohesive sort of case that was fine tuned to that particular moment and that opportunity. Yeah, and if I could add, and it kind of goes with my earlier comment, the thing that we, we often judge people's intentions and sometimes they're wrong, our judgments are wrong. And I went into this conversation somewhat skeptical. I came out actually hopeful. And part of it is, I go back to this, we've got to have the logic, the reason, the data, the business case, the business plan, all of that in Silicon Valley. And by the way, those of you who are in other regions of the world, I'm not pretending you're like us. Nor in some case would you want to be. But the other thing we have to remember is, these people are parents, they want their children to be exposed to culture. They have their own creative expression that is soulful. So they're human beings. So that's where I'm saying, don't stop making the argument with logic and reason and all of that. You've got to sprinkle in the heart, the soul. And it's the truth, beauty and justice is also important to every human being. Thanks for reminding us of that, Connie. And I do, I appreciate the acknowledgement that Silicon Valley is a unique environment. And at the same time, I think a lot of what you are sharing with us today are sort of principles and conditions we've observed in other communities as well. And I think folks tuning in from all over will be able to relate to various pieces of that. I want to just come back to something that you mentioned with that last example of the group of leaders that are working toward recovery for COVID-19. So as you noted, artists are an industry, the arts are an industry that are underemployed right now. Probably most of the folks are all of the folks tuning in are aware of how hard hit arts and cultural sector has been with the pandemic. And at the same time, I think we've been seeing how artists have also been really central to our communities coping with the pandemic. It's that some of the truth and beauty that I think people are really connecting around. And then they've also been really stepping forward among the first, I think to, as we've seen in many communities, figuring out how to put their skills and their special kind of expertise to use to contribute to community resilience and recovery. And I wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about also what that looks like in this moment. San Jose is one of the communities in which the public funding for the arts has taken a hit due to the city governments shifting of funding to things that also relate to COVID-19 recovery. And some cities, Philadelphia is just one example where an arts and culture office of the city was in fact eliminated. So a lot of communities are struggling with some of these infrastructural and financial shortfalls. What are some of the things that you are seeing happening with folks coming together, whether it's an arts or the other sectors that you're working with to address this shortfall? And what do you see as being the risks of maybe not, if we don't do that, whether it's near-term repercussions or longer-term repercussions? Jose, I think that there's two parts to that question that you just posed. And the first is about, how are the artists showing up as second responders in this time of need? And what we're finding is incredible creativity and resiliency among the artist's community. I'm not saying they're not suffering just like the small business community and having lost their income, but they're figuring out a way. And to some degree, Priya, the fact that our ecosystem has never had what I would call the legacy organizations, the large, well-funded, most often Eurocentric, we don't have the overhead that a lot of other regions have, if that makes sense. So there's some resilience built in. Back to the city and the local government. The primary source of funding that the city of San Jose has for the arts is the transient occupancy tax, the hotel tax. That's there around the whole, people use that across the nation. So people are pretty familiar, especially in the arts. So as you can imagine, that's been hit incredibly hard, okay? So I think the example I would want to give you is that how have we coped? I think the first thing is, is that the leaders of the arts have come together initially to just sort of support each other. I mean, this is really hard times. So it was initially sort of the comfort of having a group come together and there's a group of us that are part of the American Leadership Forum, which is a multi-sector network, but the segment that our arts leaders started meeting every Monday morning. And the reason I'm bringing that up is that that group had conversations with elected, invited electeds in. We had strategies of how we would make our case and not go to the city as the, whoa, are we whining arts community, but rather how can we be of service in this time of need? How can you leverage us so that we can not only make it through this pandemic and this crisis we're in, but that we're actually there on the other side, okay? So we started having these conversations, very human, very, very thoughtful, and numbers matter. And so by the end of this, we had pitched a whole series of recommendations and the one that stuck and actually has played out is that as a result of that, the CARES money that came from the feds, they backfilled our TOT with $2 million. And I'm not saying it was just one voice, one leader or one conversation, but to me it was a proof point that when the arts organize for the benefit of the community and have a voice, it matters. Thank you, that's helpful. And we have a question from Mitzi that I think relates to what you were just mentioning, is could you talk about placemaking and how the arts can contribute to that goal? And I'm going to just broaden it a little bit as well. I think if you could also share some of these ways that either you've already seen the arts contributing to resilience and recovery in your area, in your geography or some of those things that you all brought to the city to say here are ways we can contribute. So first of all, I kind of want to say out loud that San Jose grew up over a course of a few decades because of Silicon Valley, grew up fast. And so it doesn't have the history that a lot of American cities of our size would have. And to that point, we're an unfinished city. So the arts have played a very important role in giving the texture and the activation to public spaces as the city grows into its potential. And in fact, we've been there when nobody else has been there. So, and you have a group of leaders who truly care about this community in a very authentic way. So there has been an impact. I think right now, where the leaders of the arts community are engaging in conversations with the city and in fact are playing leadership roles about reopening, activation, activation in physical public spaces are what placemaking's about. So to create that texture and those things that bring people not only into the space but in nurture their experiences, if you will. So those specific examples, I think are current and but they're also a decades of coming if that makes some sense. I don't know, go back to the question. I don't know if I really hit it completely. Well, the question is about how artists can contribute to the goal of placemaking. And I do think you hit that. And then my sort of part two of it was about what you're seeing happening in this moment or some of those recommendations that your group made to the city about. Yeah, and so, and I think I'll give one more example which isn't necessarily pandemic driven but it kind of goes back to that being at the table. You first have to get invited and then you have to show up and you have to have a broader view of the world in my view and not just art centric. That gives you credibility if that makes sense. So one example where we weren't invited is the Google development. Probably folks on the line have heard about this. It's national news, huge major development being planned for downtown San Jose. We were not on the community advisory group. We weren't invited. And they had many, many, many, many meetings. And to be honest, I wasn't paying enough attention to this issue. And so it wasn't like I made it an issue but rather we were working on developing the relationship directly with Google, developing a relationship, understanding what their needs were, what we had to offer. And I think, I mean, the jury's out but we've organized thoughtful community conversations with arts leaders and Google. And as a result, we're seeing, we have seen some progress in terms of how our input has impacted their development. And that didn't come by being in your face. It came from listening, showing up with the intentions to do both of us on both sides to do something better for our community. I think there's great power in that and there's nobody better to be in those conversations than the arts. Thanks, Connie. I think something that you brought up is really kind of resonating with me in terms of other conversations that we've been having on this show, on other Night Foundation shows and other program areas as well. Which I think is especially, I think comes up even more with this, I think heightened attention to equity in our communities. And so, and that is the question of the table. So you mentioned and understanding this is the way that this works can be different from one community to the next. But there is that question of like, who's inviting to the table, getting invited, how do you get invited all of that? But what I heard in what you just said is in a case where you weren't invited to a table, you built a relationship, you developed a relationship and then sort of built your own table or created a table where then you were convening people. And I think that's something that is also important for folks to think about in terms of who's building the table, who's doing the inviting and how that can happen in an equitable way. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit too about how that's manifested or maybe the importance of that at least in your area. I just wanna acknowledge too that San Jose is one of the largest cities in the country. It's also one of the most diverse communities, San Jose and Silicon Valley. And so, and you're serving a wide range of organizations and artists in that community. Can you talk a little bit about that idea of the table and equity? Yeah, so I'm gonna go back to a couple of things that I touched on but integrate this issue into it. And part of it is the message that this is a moment for the arts to really amplify, to elevate and amplify our voices relative to the issue of racial equity and inclusion. So I think there's an opportunity for us to leverage this moment across our country. And where it showed up is the, we would never have had the conversations we had at the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable but through the social unrest that our country's experiencing. So it kind of opened the door for that. And I think an answer to your question, I don't think we should be timid about setting the table, inviting the others to our table. And it works best if you actually have relationships to begin with that are outside of the arts. So that authenticity and relationship over time. So it's not just that we're leveraging this moment for our own interests. It's like we already have relationships with this community. This now is an opening to talk about things that may not have been able to talk about before. And we are the best medium in which to have those conversations. I experienced it firsthand on the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable. And I'm actually a big fan of enlightened self-interest with an emphasis on the enlightened part because Silicon Valley companies have the most diverse workforce in the, one of the most diverse workforces in the world. So they have, and the workforce is their greatest asset right in this knowledge, brainy economy that we're in. So it's in their best interests to pay attention to this. And so when the arts can, when they can start seeing how the arts can play a role in it, our credibility, our value goes up. And so I think that's the moment we're in. So I think two parts to the issue of being at the table, you have to have relationships and you have to give outside of your little bubble of the arts to actually sometimes be invited and be noticed. And the other side of it is, is that you don't be timid about setting your own table. Thanks. I wanna bring in another couple of questions from viewers before we wrap up. So one actually relates to that. And I feel like you've touched on this. So let me know if there's not anything additional you would say, but one of the questions is beyond the pandemic, how can we get arts advocacy into the mainstream political and or public service conversation? Yeah, I think, I mean, part of it is, is leveraging the moment we're in and then taking those relationships and the conversations where the arts are in service to the community and continuing them. So, don't stop after a crisis is essentially build on it. And so I think that's part of the answer. And it's, as leaders of the arts, it's kind of on us to make certain that we don't let go. And the other thing is, is to the degree that we are during this time, there are proof points that may not have been obvious to our communities before. Then we actually, that gives us strength and credibility as we move forward. So part of it is, is don't give up the fight, accelerate it. Thank you. And then another question, this is sort of a more specific question that has to do with recovery, but also with community resilience and sustainability. Wendy asks, would if corporations provide one-time grants to artists for short-term project creation, will that do anything to build community resilience, recovery and sustainability? Yeah, I don't think, you know, there's an intervention and then there's this long-term strategy of building resiliency. And so I'm not pretending that some of what our work that I just shared with you isn't one-time. But if you take that one-time and then leverage it in relationships that didn't exist before, I think you are building towards a longer-term resiliency. And by the way, the intention of our recommendation, we call it the Silicon Valley Creative Core, was a public-private partnership, whereby the private sector leveraged the public sector's investment, some of which is already there, right? But hasn't been, hasn't been, you know, or we haven't challenged the sector or been successful at them investing. So that concept, in my view, is not just an intervention strategy, it's a longer-term strategy. Once again, it takes a lot of work to not, you've got to build the bridge and then you've got to stay on the bridge. Yeah, that's great. And I think it leads well to one closing question from one of our viewers from Heather. With extreme reductions in city budgets, other than funding, what are other ways you recommend to cities to help sustain the arts community? Okay, well, that's a great question. And everybody needs money, we know that. But I think what we're learning in this time of crisis is that we also need each other. So we're gathering, we're having the almost these small group gatherings with different segments of our arts community. And part of it is, is to learn from each other and share what works and doesn't work. But it's also just moral support during this time. So don't underestimate the importance of that. We've also, and just like everybody else, we, you know, all of our capacity building programs, we have, you know, we're now providing them online. And the virtual experience is now focused on the issues of dealing with the recovery. So there's content that we can provide our community. And we've certainly gotten good reviews on some of the programs that we've, you know, we pivoted to. So there's that piece, you know, the whole advocacy. We've probably done more advocacy for the arts in the last, you know, 10 months than we've done in the last 10 years. And so that is important in the moment, but it's also important to leverage going forward. So those are some of the sort of non-cash things. And then I think this whole issue of connecting the arts leadership to civic leadership that's beyond the arts to use this as a, as a moment in time where we are really relationship building a cross sector. So whatever we can do to facilitate that, I think, and whatever a city can do to facilitate that would be helpful. Thanks, Connie. Great, great advice. Thank you so much. We are, we're out of time. So I want to thank you again so much, Connie, for being with us and sharing these insights from your work. I want to just mention a report that I believe came out from the, the working group that you mentioned, Connie. Let me know if I, if I got that wrong, but it's called building a better normal. And you can find that online and we'll put the link in the chat. And also wanted to let you know about Content Magazine, which is an arts-focused publication. Connie, do you want to say a quick word about Content Magazine? Yeah, you know, I mentioned those three bubbles of capacity building, visibility and voice, raising the voices. This is Content Magazine is our version amplifying the voices of our local artist community in a beautiful publication and all of the social media and event programs that go along with it. So we publish quarterly now and it has created a network of creatives who feel supported and connected to one another. So yes, thank you for mentioning it, Content Magazine. Daniel Garcia is the creative genius behind it and we are the publisher. That's great. And I can vouch that when I'm in San Jose, I see it everywhere and folks outside the arts mention Content Magazine and often have a copy nearby. So that's a great example. So again, thank you, Connie. Thank you everyone for tuning in. We hope you found some of these ideas and tips to be helpful. Next week, please join us on Friday, September 11th when my colleague, Chris Barr will be joined by Catherine Yu, executive editor of NoPresenium to discuss from live to live streamed about how performing arts organizations are adapting during the pandemic and what they can learn from early experimentation in this realm and what opportunities exist to create rewarding experiences for attendees and creators alike. And for those of our viewers who are in Miami, just wanna give a quick reminder that the Night New Work Miami open call for new work in the performing arts just such as the kinds of projects that Chris and Catherine will be talking about, that open call closes on Tuesday, September 8th, Tuesday, September 8th at 11.59 p.m. You can find information about that in the chat. The same, same Chris Barr, my colleague composed our intro music and our exit music is by Akron Jazz artist, Theron Brown. Thank you to all of our Night Foundation colleagues who work hard behind the scenes to make this show happen every week. And until next time, we wish you good health, safety and joy in art. Thanks and take care.