Arts Beat

Citing a lack of government funding, the Arts Resource Center closed its doors last week for an indefinite period. Created in 1984, the center was designed to serve as a clearing house for arts information and as a legal referral service to artists. The center also prepared a directory of San Diego artists and arts organizations and developed a materials bank for recycling lumber, paint, fabrics and other materials to artists that had been junked by businesses.

Fred Colby, the center’s president, said that the Arts and Cultural Task Force recently recommended that a city commission perform the same functions the center had been doing. “We’ll be watching to see what happens” at City Hall, he said.

Gustavo Segade, a prize-winning poet and professor in the San Diego State University Spanish department, has been appointed to the California Arts Council’s Education Task Force. The task force has been charged with researching ways to bring effective arts education into the classroom from the elementary through high school grades.