Points of Interest, by Rhyena Halpern, Executive Director
Chair's View, by Dan Gorfain
SMAC Highlight— Arts Education Resources at your Fingertips
SMAC in Your Community
Opportunities—New Funding and Support for the Arts

As of March 3, 2009, the County has cut our budget mid year another 10%, for a 
total 29% cut this year. We are grateful for the wisdom of the Board of 
Supervisors, that in light of our contribution to the richness of cultural 
life in Sacramento for those who live, work and visit here, they voted to 
lessen our blow by cutting us 10% rather than the recommended 17%.  Warm 
thanks for the wonderful arts folks who came out to testify on behalf of SMAC 
and the arts in the region.  

Budget planning for the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2009, is underway 
and the elected officials do read and listen to all the email, phone, and face 
to face messages they receive in support of the arts and culture.  

SMAC recently published a document that captures the relevancy of the arts 
industry to the local economy.  Here is a noteworthy except:
Cultural Arts Award Grantees:
•Leveraged the $700,000 In FY 08 City/County funds into $54 million plus.    
•Served Estimated Total Audiences of approximately 1,620,000 in FY 08.
•Reached more than 300,000 youth and disadvantaged people through their  
outreach.
•Impacted the Local Economy by $94 Million in FY 08:  according to the 
Arts & Economic Prosperity Calculator provided by Americans for the Arts.
 
For a complete copy of this document and other information and press on the 
budget crisis in the arts locally (including contact information for our 
elected officials), please log onto www.sacmetroarts.org/ImpactInfo.html.

We have also included several SMAC action updates and new arts support 
contacts in this e-newsletter under “Opportunities,” so please take a moment 
to review  up to date information on the economic stimulus money for the arts 
and SMAC initiatives. 

Clearly, the arts community is coming together strongly now - partnering, 
sharing and supporting one another’s efforts. I know there’s going to be a lot 
of great art created and experienced through this storm.

Warm Regards,
Rhyena Halpern

When Confucius said: "May we live in interesting times" he probably did not 
mean it in the sense of the challenging times the arts community is 
experiencing these days.  
 
If you received funding or technical support from us, or are familiar with 
their many benefits the metropolitan area has derived from them, please let 
your local elected officials know now!  The following link will give you some 
specific information about SMAC's accomplishments and program impacts--
http://www.sacmetroarts.org/ImpactInfo.html.
 
Last, but not least, I would like to reiterate how thankful and impressed I 
and the other commissioners are by our superb dedicated staff who continue to 
do a tremendous job despite these difficult ("interesting") times.
 
Sincerely,
Dan Gorfain,
Chair, Sacramento Metropolitans Arts Commission

Are you looking for artists who know how to design and deliver engaging 
educational experiences in performing, visual or literary arts?  Have you 
checked out the Arts Education Resource Directory on SMAC’s website recently?  
By the end of March, more artists and their listings will appear on this 
online database of high quality teaching artists. The recently accepted 
artists are all graduates of SMAC’s Artist Residency Institute (ARI), an 
excellent professional development program for artists interested in teaching. 
The listed artists have all been through an application and review process, 
demonstrating excellence in both their artistic and teaching skills. Schools 
and other organizations seeking to hire quality teaching artists use the 
directory to find artists for their projects.

Artists, check the SMAC website for the next application cycle for the 
directory in late Spring. To view the teaching artists listed in the Arts 
Education Resource Directory, go to www.sacmetroarts.org, and click on the A-Z 
Arts Education Directory button.

Public Art Tours on Second Saturdays Beginning April 11, 2009

Want to know the more about Sacramento’s superb public art collection? Take a 
walking tour of the best public art in town. Beginning April 11, 2009, the 
Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, Art in Public Places Program will 
offer free public art walking tours in conjunction with Second Saturday in 
downtown Sacramento. The tours will continue every second Saturday through 
October, 2009. A trained docent will lead the tour for individuals or groups 
of all ages. To make a reservation and for more information on the tour call 
(916) 386-8240 or email dixie@dixielaws.com  by April 8th, 2009. The tours are 
limited in size, so reserve your spot early! 
-----------------------------------------
Airport Gallery Present Tom Hulse, Digital Photography 

WHAT:  Exhibition of digital photographs by Sacramento artist, Tom Hulse  
entitled “Timeless Sacramento” 
DATES:  February 24 - June 23, 2009
LOCATION:   Airport Gallery--Sacramento International Airport Terminal B
6900 Airport Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95837  Free parking for the first half 
hour is available in the Terminal B Hourly Parking Lot. 

Four enclosed exhibition cases are located in the public areas on the lower 
level of Terminal B. Three enclosed exhibition cases are located on each of 
the secured passenger concourses and are only accessible to ticketed 
passengers. 
 
Don’t miss the exhibition titled, “Timeless Sacramento”, a series of color and 
digitally manipulated photographs by Tom Hulse that illustrate the often 
overlooked beauty of the architecture in Sacramento neighborhoods.

SUPPORT AND FUNDING FOR THE ARTS:
•NEA Economic Stimulus Money is now available via grant applications!  
Applicants must have received NEA funding in the last four years to be 
eligible to apply and the deadline is April 2, 2009.  For more info please go 
to NEA Recovery website: 
http://www.nea.gov/news/news09/nea-announces-recovery-programs.html 

•The Kennedy Center is still offering free technical assistance to any 
performing arts organization in crisis.  For more information, visit 
www.artsincrisis.org.

•SMAC is holding a series of Town Hall Meetings with our Cultural Arts Awards 
(CAA) grantees to share concerns and new ideas for surviving these times. A 
wealth of ideas came from these meetings about keeping the arts strong, and 
more are planned for April and May. 

SMAC INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT THE ARTS:
•The City has just released its ERA Performing Arts Venue Study.  The study is 
posted on the SMAC web site under “What’s New” This is an important step in 
the development of new arts venues in Sacramento. For your copy, logo onto 
www.sacmetroarts.org. 

•SMAC will release our trimmed-down application for the next Poet Laureate, 
based on the belief that the power of the written word is more important now 
than ever. Please refer to our web site in the next month for more information 
on this. 

•The SMAC Arts Education program is working to expand its Model Art Program 
into two new schools next year in Sacramento Unified School District.

•SMAC is processing the next round of Community Arts Partnership programs, 
where arts programs are developed to help social service organizations achieve 
their mission.

•SMAC has embarked on our next round of panels for the second phase of the 
Airport TMP public art program.