Organization: Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture
The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture is a Division of the County’s Community Services Department; it serves as the local governmental umbrella for all arts and culture projects and programs within Santa Barbara County. The Office of Arts & Culture represents a remarkable longstanding partnership between the County of Santa Barbara and the City of Santa Barbara. For more than 30 years, both governments have shared resources and staff to maximize support for Santa Barbara arts and culture institutions, programs, initiatives, and projects. The Office is available to city and county residents for consultation and support.
The Office of Arts & Culture provides administrative support for the County Arts Commission, the City Arts Advisory Committee, and the City Events & Festivals Committee. In collaboration with these groups and the City and County, the office oversees and disburses four separate grant programs: Arts Making Impact, Community Arts, Events & Festivals, and Organizational Development. As the regional cultural development agency, the Office of Arts & Culture is a State and Local Partner of the California Arts Council and manager of the Poetry Out Loud Program. On a federal level, the Office of Arts & Culture partners with the National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts to conduct countywide surveys to assess the ongoing positive financial impact arts have on the local economy. The Office is involved with numerous city, county, and state-wide arts advocacy initiatives on an ongoing basis.
The Office of Arts & Culture will host one intern, who will complete one of the following two projects, to be assigned based on the intern’s skills and interests.
Project 1: Countywide Percent for Art Research and Mapping Project
This project will require a deep dive into the archives of the county to identify and document past public art projects produced with Percent for Art funds over the past 40 years. These funds are generated from County capital investment, and the Office has partnered with the Arts Commission to produce corresponding projects countywide. Currently, there is no master roster of the completed projects, although there are several binders and archival sources from to draw information. The Fellow’s duties would be to: assess past county art projects; determine if Percent for Art funding was used; catalogue the location, artist(s), and photographs using county software; and ultimately compile and create an electronic database and catalogue of the public art projects for the public and publication on the Office’s website. Ultimately, it would be ideal to geocache these projects as well. The Fellow would be responsible for presenting the final project as an agendized item to the County Arts Commission.
Analysis of these projects and recommendations regarding strategy of future project investment would also be duties of this role, as well as suggested chronology and prioritization for maintenance of existing artwork. Additionally, the Fellow would have the opportunity to develop and design a web index of all percent projects. There will be opportunities to work with a variety of audiences and stakeholders, including: local government, local artists, regional artists, county administrative staff, community members, and elected and appointed officials.
The position will commence after June 2019, and the Fellow will work ten hours a week for 20 weeks.
Project 2: County Poetry Out Loud Program Administration
The project will require a Fellow to manage the County Poetry Out Loud program for one season. Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a program that utilizes poetry to help high school students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, learn about their literary heritage, and compete for college scholarship funding. The structure of POL is similar to a spelling bee. This annual program starts in the fall with high school teachers using the free Poetry Out Loud Teacher Toolkit and related materials to teach poetry recitation and run classroom competitions. Winners from each schoolwide competition will advance to a countywide competition. County winners participate in the California Poetry Out Loud State Finals in Sacramento. The county champion receives a certificate of recognition from his or her legislative representative. At the state level, one winner will be selected to represent California in the national competition for scholarship funding.
The Fellow will be responsible for: writing the basic grant to renew state funding (previous application materials and narratives already exist to aid with this process); recruiting high schools and poetry elocution coaches (drawing from existing contact lists and relationships, though the Office is always receptive to new ideas for coaches and judges); and working in tandem with the City Poet Laureate. The Fellow will also disseminate and explain the catalogue of poetry and process; coordinate coach visits to the schools; communicate with the participating schools about the program timeline and requirements; organize a countywide competition for each respective school’s winners to compete; coordinate the panel of judges; and document and market the program. The project will provide opportunities to work with a variety of audiences and stakeholders, including: local government, local artists, regional artists, county administrative staff, community members, elected and appointed officials.
The position will commence in October 2019, and the Fellow will work ten hours a week for 20 weeks, though mid-February 2019.