If you've been to the center this summer, you may have noticed some staff changes in the office.

Please join me in congratulating Denise Statland on her promotion from Assistant Director to Program Director.  During the past two years, Denise has played an integral part in expanding our programs and outreach in the community.  Denise will continue working full-time under her new title at the center, and she is here to help with anything you need.  

We have recently created a new position: Communications Associate.  We have put lots of energy into outreach over the last year - so much so that it was time to dedicate a separate position to the important job of sharing our message with the whole community.  I am proud to announce that Monica Hicks, MFA, has accepted the Communications Associate position with us.  As one of our art instructors, Monica is already well versed in McGroarty Arts Center’s programs, mission and culture.  Monica brings a strong background in arts education, marketing and nonprofit management.

Last night our caretaker, Connie, found a baby bird outside in a puddle, flapping around looking like it could drown.  One of its eyes was injured, and Connie wasn't sure if the bird was even old enough to fly on its own.  She rescued him from the puddle and put him in a box which she brought inside.  She read through webpage after webpage that told her to put the bird back outside and leave it alone, that baby birds who fall out of their nests have a very low chance of survival.  The best advice she got was to put it in a box and nail the box to a tree, in hopes that its mother would come rescue it.

This morning, the box on the tree was empty.  Ray and others told Connie that the bird was more likely to have been eaten by a predator than to have recovered or been rescued.

After today's heat wore off, I opened the office door that leads out to the side terrace, hoping to get fresh, non-recirculated air.  I heard birds outside chirping so loud I almost thought they were in the office with me.  Not far outside the door, I saw a tiny, young, yellow-brown bird in a bush... with an injured eye.  I called Connie and she came to look, and sure enough, it was her bird!  He looked healthy, and he didn't seem too frightened by our presence.  Hopefully he's able to fend for himself and stay safe.  If we see him again, I'm officially declaring him our mascot.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our annual fundraising campaign.  McGroarty Arts Center survives and thrives because of the deep support in this community.  It's really true that if we don't give to the places we love, the places we love cease to exist.  Thank you for making sure that McGroarty Arts Center continues to exists.  Thank you for investing the future of our community.  Thank you for your donation.  We can't do it without you.

As we head into the summer, our board of directors takes a break from meetings, but they are busy working behind the scenes.  Over the next two months, they will be carefully searching for the perfect candidates to invite to join the board.  Serving as a board member takes lots of dedication and hard work, but the pay off is big:  creating a better community by sharing the benefits of arts education.  If you're interested in serving on our board, I always recommend serving on one of our committees first.  Give me a call and I'll put you in touch with the right people.

That's the number of people that visited our Ceramics Exhibition this year.  In just two days, the whole gallery has been taken down; most of the art work carried off.  It's time to gear up for the summer classes - they start in just a week! 

I'm happy to welcome Laurel Diskin to our team of teachers this summer.  Laurel will be filing in for violin instructor Suzanne Inwood while Suzanne recovers from shoulder surgery.  You may have heard Laurel's amazing music during our 2009 Holiday Boutique.  She is well qualified and will take good care of our precious violin program while Suzanne is on the mend.  I'm sure Suzanne's students will be thrilled with Laurel's approach and enthusiasm - it always helps to learn from lots of different teachers.

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Henry!  Our caretakers James and Connie tied the knot this weekend in a lovely ceremony at Edwards Mansion in Redlands, CA.  James and Connie have been working at McGroarty for nearly 5 years, setting up for all our classes and events and keeping the center and grounds in good condition.  Their job is actually cooler than mine - they get to live in the center!  They have an awesome apartment upstairs with some of the best views in Tujunga.  No, they aren't planning to leave anytime soon.  No, you can't have their apartment (someone asks every 2 weeks or so).

If you haven't enrolled yet, you better sign-up soon.  I can't believe how quickly the classes are filing!  Seems like our big marketing efforts are paying off.  We have lots of new families discovering the center for the first time.  I'm so excited to see our McGroarty family growing.  But we don't want you to miss out, so call or stop by the office quick to get your summer classes.

(FYI, we'll do our best to open more sections of the classes that fill, so be sure to put your name down on the waiting list if your favorite class is closed.  That way, we'll know there is enough demand to open another sections, and we'll know to call you first)

Participation in the arts improves critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, and empathy.  Children who participate in the arts have higher test scores, are more likely to volunteer in their communities, and have better interactions with peers and family members.  McGroarty wants to expand access to the arts to the entire Foothill Community.  Right now we reach 2,200 students each year with quality, affordable arts education.  Next year, we want to reach 400 more.  We need $20,000 to make that happen.

Let's face is, access to the arts is often restricted to those who can pay for it.  That means that the children who would benefit the most from art classes are usually the ones left out.  But not at McGroarty.  We see arts education as a social justice issue.  That's why we keep our prices so low.  That's why we awarded over $10,000 in scholarships last year.  We are working to raise $20,000 by June 30th to reach 400 more students.  Won't you help? Make a $10 gift (or more if you can) online.  $10 will provide a child with her first drawing class, her first ballet class, or her first violin class.  Give her the benefits of an arts education. It only takes $10 to put the paint brush in her hand.  But we can't do it without you.

Make your gift today by clicking here.

Hooray!  After twice delaying the vote, the City Council voted today to move the nonprofit lease subsidy issue to committee.  I'm so relieved.  Aside from this proposed policy having serious fiscal ramifications for McGroarty, it was just a bad policy.  It wasn't well crafted, stakeholders weren't consulted, there were too many unanswered questions.  The full Council made the same assessment and acted accordingly.

A big thank you to the City Council for acting in such a thoughtful way.  In fact, I thanked them through the Arts for LA website this afternoon.  Did you?  Our policy makers hear our complaints all the time, but rarely are they thanked when they make the right votes.  Tell them you noticed their good work today with a thank you email.

There is no question that the thousands of letters and phone calls generated by our supporters and others caused the vote to swing our direction.  There was a lot of advocacy work that went into this, and we couldn't have done it without your help.  Certainly there are many issues that do need to be addressed when it comes to nonprofit partnerships, but this broad sweeping policy wasn't the way to do it.  I'm confident that the Arts, Park, Health, and Aging Committee will give this issue the due diligence it deserves.

Our board chair Michelle Barone, board member Regina Clark, and I just finished the final day of Alchemy - a training program for nonprofit leaders that takes place over a 3 month period.  The Annenberg Foundation designed and funded this training (and similar trainings) to strengthen nonprofits in Los Angeles.  To date, some 400 nonprofit organizations have been trained in board governance, fundraising, and nonprofit management.  It's one likely reason that the Los Angeles nonprofit community has weathered the economic storm with fewer closures than the rest of the country. 

Four happy California quail were running around the grounds this morning.  Part of the magic of McGroarty are our wildlife friends.  I'm so glad they have a nice home on our grounds.

Nonprofit lease agreements with the City have become the latest target in the City's budget crisis.

For 40 years McGroarty Arts Center was 100% City-run and City-funded.  Back in 1995 the operating costs for programs and staff were passed to our nonprofit as a cost saving measure for the City.  It's been a successful arrangement.  The nonprofit runs the programs, the City owns the building and covers the infrastructual costs:  building maintenance, utilities, janitoral services, and grounds keeping.

That could all change.  A new proposal out of the City's Budget and Finance Committee could cut all subsidies to McGroarty Arts Center AND require that we pay market-rate rent for use of the building.  If we have to take on all these new costs at once, we might not be able to survive.  This won't just impact McGroarty and the arts.  Over 100 nonprofits providing vital services throughout Los Angeles are housed in City-ownd facilities, and they are facing the same fate if this passes the full council.

Check out Arts for LA's website and take action.  This proposal needs a full hearing in the Arts, Parks, Health, and Aging Committee before it moves forward.  We're working closely with Arts for LA and Councilman Krekorian's office on this issue.

Thank you Mike Boehm at the Los Angeles Times for the article covering this proposal!

We regularly get calls and visits from people who tell us they have lived in this community for 20 years or more and never knew about McGroarty Arts Center.  That's why we need passionate volunteers to promote our programs on Volunteer Canvasing Day, May 16, 2010! On the morning of May 16, we will send volunteers into the commercial districts of our community to distribute McGroarty fliers and class schedules to local businesses.  In the afternoon, the volunteers will come back to McGroarty for lunch and a re-cap.  Rumor has it we'll be giving out prizes!

We will post more info as it becomes available.  For now, mark your calendars!  We need volunteers!

The artist submissions from the American Ceramics Society have arrived, and all I have to say is: wow.  This year's ceramics show is going to be incredible.  I wish we had a bigger gallery; there's no way we can fit every worthy artist into our existing space.  Curator Brian Peshek has a tough job ahead of him.

If you've visited McGroarty in the past few weeks (and if you haven't, you should), I'm sure you have noticed our beautiful tulips. Connie spent the last weeks of winter planting tulip bulbs throughout our grounds, and now the vibrant spring flowers are blooming everywhere! Beautiful fuscia tulips are now growing outside the office windows and below our front terrace. Flaming red tulips are thriving near our parking lot and our outdoor sculptures. They are truly stunning.

For those of you who can't see the tulips in-person, please enjoy this photo, taken at McGroarty Arts Center.

I am excited to announce the exhibit of three artworks by our talented artist instructor Marie Calkins in the McGroarty offices. We are displaying three artworks for the Spring session, two pastels and a colored pencil drawing. Not only are these artworks colorful, but they are also thought provoking and definitely enliven our space. Come check them out!

The city council meeting today addressed to disasterous closures that have already taken place and are pending at art centers across the city.  Check out the video.  The issue gets taken up around the 3 hour 20 minute mark.  My public comment is at 3:43.  I am pleased to see that Councilman Tom La Bange of the 4th district is moving forward on his ingenious plan to move the needed funds to keep the centers running through the fiscal year (about $600,000) from the $19,000,000 pool set aside for public art.  If it's legal, it sounds like it will happend.  He has been a true champion for the arts in this battle, as have councilmembers Reyes, Garcetti, Hahn and others.

The video is posted on the city council site. It's the March 24th council meeting.

If you haven't heard already, arts programs have been suspended at a number of centers across the city.  The reason?  The budget crisis.  The solution?  Public-private partnerships.  McGroarty is an example of the public-private model at its best.  The city maintains the building and infrastructure; a nonprofit runs the programs, pays the staff, and raises the operating budget.  In the mid-90's, serious budget cuts faced the city and community arts centers were put on the chopping block.  McGroarty survived because a small nonprfot (the Friends of McGroarty Arts Center) came to the rescue.  They took over operation of our programs beginning in 1995, and things have never been better.  The Department of Cultural Affairs and the Committee on Arts, Park, Health, and Aging (where I was all morning) agrees that the public-private partnership is the way to go.  In our case, the city provided McGroarty with $70,000 in the first year and a declining sum in years to follow.  It wasn't enough to run all the programs, but it was enough to get the right staff in place to build the sustainable organization we are today.  This time around, the centers are being offered $0.  $0 will not attract the needed staff.  $0 will not attract additional funding (who wants to tie their money to a sinking ship?).  $0 essentially means the end of nine centers across LA, including Barnsdall, William Grant Still, and Watts Towers.  The full city council will hear this issue Wednesday morning.  I'll be there again.  I hope you'll join me.

Just before the ceramics show each year, we make a point of scrubbing down the entire ceramics studio. We started a little early this year. As of 10AM today, the Ceramics Studio Clean-out Extravaganza is in full swing. Historically, Connie and some of the ceramics staff have taken care of much of this enormous task. This year, we mixed things up and announced to students that we need volunteers to help with the clean-out. We got responses from about a dozen volunteers. At first I was surprised that so many people would be happy to help with such a huge, dirty job. But my surprise wore off quickly. This is McGroarty, afterall. We've always depended upon our generous band of volunteers.

The clean-out will run Monday-Saturday, 10AM-6PM.  We started today, March 22, and will continue through March 31. If you want to help, please stop by or call the office for more info. Don't forget your gloves!

Every returning student knows that you have to fill out a blue registration form every time you enroll... every quarter... every year... even if you're taking the same class for the 14th time... (sigh).  We know; it's annoying.  Until now we haven't had a better way of managing our growing student body.  For the last 6 months we've been developing a database system to eliminate those clumsy blue registration forms, and we're beta testing it now.  In the last 5 years, we've grown from serving 225 students a quarter to 700 students a quarter.  We knew we'd need a smarter system to keep up with the growing demand.  So far, the new system is pretty great.  This summer you will find yourself freed from the blue forms forever.  And our staff will never have to face triple entry tasks again!

One of the new wheels we purchased came with a $70 credit for glaze of our choice.  Ray, the head of our ceramics department, decided to use the credit to test out some brand new colors.  We have a pretty nice glaze selection in our studio, but we like to switch out a glaze recipe here and there to keep things new.  Our order just arrived and I can't wait to see how the test tiles come out.  We have a couple new shades of red, one of the more difficult glaze colors to get just right.  Maybe we'll replace that fussy copper-red soon.  But most exciting?  We got FUCHSIA!  Ceramics will never be the same.

General registration opened at 10am today.  It's been so busy in the office, I can't believe I'm finding time to write this! 

It's only 5pm, and we already have 102 people signed up for spring classes.  As I write this, five of the 11 piano classes we offer are already full!  We're really not kidding when we tell people to call at 10am on the first day of General Registration.  It's the only way to get into our most popular classes.

We'll be here to take registration from 10am-6pm, Monday-Friday.  You can call and register by phone with a VISA or Mastercard, or you can register in person.

James Komen, a recent graduate of USC Film School, is spending the week with our staff and students.  He's capturing the magic of McGroarty on camera to share our awesome-ness with the wider world.  So if you stop by this week and find yourself in the middle of a shot, don't say I didn't warn you!*  You can easily avoid making your film debut with a simple request to James or anyone in the office.  Even though we're big stars now, you can still chat with us.


*Actually, there will be signs up when and where filming is taking place.  You're double warned.

Stay tuned for our latest and greatest partnership: after school art classes for kids at the Verdugo Hills YMCA.  We're ironing out the details now.  Expect to see classes starting in March taught by our very own Monica Hicks.  These kinds of partnerships are great.  It allows McGroarty to reach more students, without building additional classrooms.  It allows the YMCA to offer more opportunities to its members, without reinventing the art education wheel.  We're excited.  Only one small catch: you'll have to be a YMCA member to join.

Whew!  What a week.  The proposed funding cuts to the Department of Cultural Affairs have been abandoned, thanks to a huge outpouring of public support.  I have to admit that I was sweating bullets.  McGroarty is run in partnership with DCA.  We were privatized during a similar budget crisis in the mid-90's, but that doesn't mean we don't rely on support from the city.  The impact of these proposed cuts on McGroarty, at minimum, would have meant the city's refusal to pay $26,000 in already-contracted-and-spent funds.  In a worst case scenario, they would have shut us down:  the McGroarty Arts Center building and grounds belong to the city.

Instead, the system worked!  The city council, including our own Paul Krekorian, listened to the impassioned pleas and economic truths about the importance of the arts and places like McGroarty Arts Center.  The tiny trickle of funding that keeps DCA afloat isn't going away for now.

But budget cuts will still be coming.  McGroarty will be looking for new funding streams and prioritizing.  DCA should do the same.  DCA has spread itself thin working on many valuable programs, but in times like these, DCA leadership needs to focus their limited resources into the most important areas:  grants, public art, and public and private centers.

Today we say goodbye to our amazing intern, Ines Coelho.  Ines has spent 9 months in the McGroarty office working 40 hours a week on marketing, design, and creating the brilliant website on which I am posting this blog.  She has been a delight to work with.  She's charming, efficient, professional, and incredibly positive.  I wish I could express how much value Ines has brought to McGroarty, and how much we will miss her:  we will really really miss her.  Ines returns to her home in Portugal this weekend.  We sent her off with a big dinner at DISH in La Canada on Sunday night, and a small breakfast this morning with just the ladies in the office.  Farewell Ines!  And safe journeys.

I know it seems silly, but we've had a heck of a time finding a site in Sunland-Tujunga to host our free outreach program for low-income, non-mobile seniors.  We've been running the program for a few different senior centers in the San Fernando Valley, and we have another 4 SFV sites showing interest.  We had a round of promising meetings this week, and it's looks like we've finally found a Tujunga site who wants it too.  We'll keep you posted.

McGroarty Arts Center isn't in any danger from the rains.  Luckily our hill didn't burn in the Station Fire (the fire would have had to burn through the entire town to get to McGroarty).  But we are very worried about our students and staff who live in the Foothills.  Lot's of us have packed our bags and companion animals (again) and evacuated (again).  If this year of catastrophic weather is any indication, maybe McGroarty should start offering a few new classes:

The Art of Evacuating
Sandbag Sculptures
Making Movies in Natural Disasters 

You've probably seen the hodge-podge of forty-year-old furniture, the tangled mess of wires, and the awkward layout that is the McGroarty Arts Center reception area.  It's the typical office of a small nonprofit on a tight budget.  But it's time to turn in those broken desks and squeaky chairs for stuff that's shiny and new!  The board of directors has set aside a little cash to upgrade the office, and I spent the afternoon spending it carefully at an office furniture liquidator.  We're going to have a functional space where staff can get more done and students can enroll for class where there's actually space to fill out forms.  Imagine that :).  The new stuff will be here in about two weeks.  Can't wait!

It’s so busy!  The first week of classes always turns into a whirlwind.  Returning students coming back to their favorite classes, lots of new students who just discovered the magic of McGroarty, big art supply orders, teachers putting the finishing touches on their curriculum.  The phones are ringing off the hook this week.  The office is packed.  Email boxes are full.  Our tiny administrative staff can barely keep up, but we love the excitement of the new session. 

All this busyness raises an important question:  how big should McGroarty get?  People love the homey atmosphere at McGroarty.  When you take classes here, you aren’t shuffled through as some nameless number.  The staff and students and teachers know each other.  We’re a family.  And I don’t want that to change.  At the same time, we’ve more than doubled enrollment in the last few years.  We ran 320 classes in 2009.  When you have 700 students coming each week, you have to put some systems in place that make things less personal.  So, how do we meet the needs of our community, while keeping it personal?  It’s a big question that we’re trying to figure out. 

If we ever needed proof that McGroarty events are popular, this weekend provided it.  Torrential rains can't keep this community away from a good party!  With a few pop-up tents and heaters on the veranda, we were good to go.  The Holiday Boutique was as packed as ever.  If you found a parking space in the lot, you were one of the lucky "damp" guests.  The "drenched" guests had to park way down the street and hike their way up the long driveway.  We don't know quite how many people turned up, but there were definitely more than last year.  We sold 380 chili bowls - a new record!

And here I stayed up half the night worried that the storm would keep everyone home.  I should know better.  The people in this community have never been scared to get their feet wet.

Is it just me, or do our decorations get better every year?  Connie's outdoing herself with the lights as always.  The mantels, the windows, the banisters:  it's like McGroarty Arts Center tumbled out of jolly xmas past into 2009.  The upper terrace (behind the office) is getting the royal treatment this year - lots of extra seating for the chili bowl sale.

Last count, the ceramics department has whipped out nearly 500 bowls.  They look amazing by the way.  We're all bracing for the rain, which probably won't show up anyway.  It threatens every year but never attacks.  But rain or shine, the annual holiday boutique will be fab as always.  You're coming right?  Saturday December 12th10am-5pm.