CV Town Council Approves Formation of Arts Commission

After much debate and a postponed decision, the Crescenta Valley Town Council held a special meeting on Saturday morning, March 17, to vote on the formation of an arts commission. The meeting lasted 50 minutes and the vote was six to one in favor of forming the commission.

There was speculation that the meeting was held purposely on Saturday meeting to exclude from the vote council members who were against forming the commission, however, Town Council President Grace Andrus claims that was not the case.

"That's ridiculous," she said. "Our executive committees [sessions] have been going too long and I didn't want to rush through this because I felt everyone's viewpoint was important."

Although two members of the council were not present, had they voted against forming the commission, it still would have passed by a two-thirds margin.

The commission's official title will be the Crescenta Valley Town Council Arts Commission. It will be co-chaired by Robert Thomas and Steve Pierce. The commission will be responsible for encouraging the creation of new venues for performances and displays, advising the Town Council on spending money designated for art purposes, and seeking out private, local, state, and federal funding to promote arts and other cultural projects within the Crescenta Valley Community.

Among the goals for the commission are constructing a stage for performances at Two Strike Park, exploring the possibility for a stage in the community room of the soon to be built La Crescenta Library, and investigation into possible locations along Foothill Boulevard to build a playhouse/gallery.

There was concern among Crescenta Valley Town Council members that an arts committee formed by the Town Council would be redundant, or in competition with the La Crescenta Arts Council, another newly formed group dedicated to bringing the arts to the Crescenta Valley community.

Andrus, however, offered assurances that there would be no conflict between the groups.

"I absolutely do not see any competition. These groups have separate, distinct purposes," she said.

"The Crescenta Valley Town Council Arts Committee is to help facilitate the organizations that work with artists. Another one of our goals is to build venues."

Richard Toyon, member of the board of directors of the La Crescenta Arts Council, agreed that there would be no competition between the organizations saying, "The Crescenta Valley Town Council Arts Commission is doing venues; we're not about that."

The hope is that the organizations will complement each other.

"Our job is to help them and support them, not to interfere with them," Andrus said of the La Crescenta Arts Council.

The formation of Crescenta Valley Town Council Arts Commission is important to the Town Council because several projects will be coming to fruition after years of planning. Among them are the new library, the Community Standards District for Foothill Boulevard, and a "Welcome to La Crescenta" sign at the 210 freeway off ramp on La Crescenta Avenue.

It's important for the Town Council to have new goals in place in order to continue progress, otherwise the Council could stagnate, Andrus said.