ARTS CONGRESS TO FOCUS ON THE LONG TERM

How the state’s arts community can rally public and private support for the arts during a period of tighter budgets will be the theme of the California Confederation of the Arts’ 11th annual Congress of the Arts opening today at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel.

“Visions: Laying Artistic and Political Groundwork for the 21st Century” is the title of the three-day congress, expected to draw about 400 artists, arts groups leaders, arts funders, educators, public-policy planners and others.

Susan Hoffman, confederation executive director, said convention participants will learn “how to be more powerful in their communities with people in education, with people who are planning the future of their cities, and with people in politics and public policy.”

In a confederation newsletter, Hoffman warned that the state may soon face fiscal limits imposed by passage of the Gann initiative, “which limits the amount of annual growth in the state budget.” She said it signals a “larger, more systemic issue faced by all whose futures are affected by the state budget.”

The convention will also address the confederation’s new three-year plan, and goal of $1 per capita spending on the arts by 1990, Hoffman said.

Four convention panels will explore the future for individual artists, arts in education, demographics of future arts audiences and the role of the arts in community development and planning.