1.  The arts community supports SMAC. Unbeknownst to us, Cultural Arts Award grantee Teatro Nagual attended the June 12 City Council budget hearing to give testimony on how much public support for their theater company makes a difference.  I love that Barbara Falcon independently chose to testify publicly.  To see it click here, then click on "Barbara". 

2.  SMAC stabilizes the arts community.  I started at SMAC exactly 11 years ago this month, working with nonprofit arts organizations. They inspired me from day one with their talent, dedication and passion and continue to do so today.  We have worked very hard to keep our Cultural Arts Awards, the re-granting program to nonprofit arts groups, intact by offsetting cuts with private donations.  We also have expanded our technical assistance programs with the WHERE's THE MONEY series.  In March, the Where's the Money Symposium kicked off our week of SMAC OPEN DAILY - four days of workshops, panels, and events; then continuing the momentum by offering six free workshops on board development, individual donor development, our inaugural Elephant in the Room series and concluding on June 15 with social media for fundraising.  In total, we served over 625 individuals and many organizations. Click here for a summary of this outreach initiative. 

And building on #1 above, I saw this posted on Facebook over the weekend by Cory Jackson, who attended all of our workshops: "Your leadership & vision for SMAC ensures the 916 region Art & non-profit community the education & platform to grow and create natural collaborative partnerships. Now it is up to us to grow and give back to SMAC as advocates & future donors so SMAC can do more. Thank you."

3.  SMAC brings quality programs to the arts community- no matter what!  This month marks three years since FAS (For Arts Sake) began; and although many of you have expressed to me emotions ranging from confusion to outrage over the years at the seemingly duplicative roles of SMAC and FAS, we are proud to have been key implementers and igniters of FAS's initiatives; specifically Any Given Child and Artober, especially given our reduced staff and budget. 

We have played a key role in the implementation of the Kennedy Center's Any Given Child program, which has served over 38,000 students per year in the Sac City and Twin Rivers Unified School Districts over the last two years.  Any Given Child's governing committee, including the spectacular leadership of Priscilla Enriquez, Ruth Rosenberg and our very own  Arts Education Coordinator Erika Kraft, doggedly and persistently sought- and continue to seek- to build a successful collaboration with high standards. 

I am proud to say share with you a wonderful affirmation of Erika's leadership.  John Bertles, on behalf of the Kennedy Center, recently sent me this email:  "It's very clear to me that SMAC presents a national model of how a central arts institution can raise the level of arts education for an entire community.  SMAC seems to have gained the respect and trust of the local arts educators by providing high quality professional development... In my travels across the country as an arts education consultant, it is an arrangement that I have seldom seen, but in your case seems to be spectacularly successful."

 In addition to playing a key role on the Civic Amenities Committee of the Metro Chamber, which seeks to identify funding and support of cultural and civic amenities, and was the igniter/originator of Artober, we have also continued and expanded SMAC's professional development programs for teaching artists by offering more workshops with Kennedy Center's trainers for our artists, cultural institutions and classroom teachers.  I am proud to say that we have been key to FAS's successes to date. We survived the confusion of For Arts Sake and came out stronger than ever.

Onward!