Res 2022-055R/Arts Master Plan approval

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There is a disconnect between the I-35 breaking up the Hispanic community from the rest of the town. “When people think of arts, they don’t think of music … and vice versa.” Arts and culture are lacking if you exclude the university. The City piggybacks off the university, but the demographics are not all college attending clients. Current state of the San Marcos arts market.The following provides information on interviewees’ perceptions of the state of the San Marcos arts market today. Some progress towards normalcy. Several interviews indicated that the arts market is slowly picking up and events are returning. “Hesitantly waking up.” “There is a thirst for it now.” People might have more appreciation for artists based on work they did during the pandemic. Trying to engage more with hard-to-reach populations/areas/low-income areas. Visual artists seem to have been doing ok. Nonvisual artists have suffered more than the visual artists. Arts squared was well attended recently. Not as many people attending as pre-COVID. Population \[is\] either not comfortable yet or not interested. Arts/culture events are starting to come back now. We’ve got a lot going on. Very diverse. A lot of it is young people (20s and 30s). It’s hard to know because we haven’t been seeing the events happen yet. They are scheduled though. “From what I am hearing, people are desperate do to something.” It is the best it has ever been, even though we \[arts organization\] shut down for some time. Market is active. Events are happening and businesses are open. “… impressed with the efforts that have been made.” During the pandemic, some groups who applied for grants managed to have events online. They learned adjust to the change to bring art to even a farther-reaching audience. “They pushed through.” University has made significant progress. Not perfect, but have diversified student body and faculty. Outdoor events \[are\] where people want to be. Events are beginning to slowly pick up. Seen more opportunities and events lately. People get excited about festivals and annual events. Safe to say that we are pretty much coming out of the pandemic. “Starting to get back to some semblance of normalcy.” Need for additional support. Many interviewees indicated that the arts market needs more support in various areas (e.g., awareness, outreach, business assistance, venues, funding). There needs to be a lot more support and awareness of the arts. KEEN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH — SAN MARCOS ARTS MASTER PLAN 2022 APPENDIX E,PAGE 4