Passionate View of Art : Gallery: Exhibits at San Diego’s ECC gallery reflect administrator’s view that art should inspire people to think about their lives.

“A lot of what is wrong could be fixed . . .” reads a greeting card pinned to the wall of Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson’s office. Photographs of black leaders and actors, commendations and notes frame the card with a cluttered chorus of related messages.

The greeting is one that Thompson took to heart when she moved to San Diego in 1983 from Washington, D.C.

Something that needed to be fixed, she said, was the lack of attention paid to artists of color. Galleries and museums were ignoring African-American, Native American, Chicano and Asian artists.

In 1985, the actress became the cultural affairs officer at the Educational Cultural Complex, part of the San Diego Community College District. Two years later, Thompson, who has a background in arts administration, launched an active and ambitious art gallery in the Southeast San Diego center.

“It’s not that I am here just to present art from an African-American experience, or a Chicano experience,” Thompson said in a recent interview, “but rather art that inspires people to think about what’s going on in their lives. That can come from a drum company, a jazz band, a sculpture or a youth dance workshop.”

Thompson, a self-described “passionate, overzealous, highly ambitious and hard-working woman,” doesn’t limit her mission to broadening the local art scene. She wants the art shown in the ECC gallery to broaden the minds of its audience, to nourish their sense of self and their sense of community.

In keeping with the original mandate of the 14-year-old complex, Thompson’s gallery programming complements the high school and community college courses offered there. A current exhibition, “African Influences in the Americas,” combines text, posters, reproductions and artifacts to clarify the give-and-take between African cultures and those in the Americas.

“African history, Chicano history, Asian history, Native American history--these are not discussed a lot in the school systems,” Thompson said. “We have to rely on the artists to bring that information out.”

In more than 50 shows, Thompson has presented the work of hundreds of artists, avoiding what she calls “Sunday art” in favor of “the kind of art that doesn’t lend itself to being ignored.” Situated in a large open area often used for socializing, the ECC gallery offers 3,000 students and other visitors each week a continually changing vision of their history, their community and the world.

“There aren’t many schools like this where students can be surrounded by art on a daily basis,” she said. Such familiarity with the arts can act as a positive, unifying force, bringing people together and sparking new dialogues.

Thompson encourages high school students, especially, to “partake of art forms they have never seen before, from (performance artist) Rachel Rosenthal to Swan Lake. When they get that as a regular part of what’s going on, then it’s not such a cultural shock when they go downtown to the symphony or the Old Globe Theatre. That’s what makes a difference.”

“Art shouldn’t be a special thing, it should be a regular thing in people’s lives. Once that happens in San Diego, I think we’ll find that we have less negative things going on in our communities, and more positive things, more interaction between people.”

Thompson already sees some of that happening, at least within the local art community.

“The art scene in San Diego is changing. It’s changing rapidly and for the better. It’s changing to include more people, particularly people of color.”

Thompson’s determination to see this happen has surged beyond the confines of the Educational Cultural Complex.

As vice chairwoman of San Diego’s 2-year-old Commission for Arts and Culture, she has helped shape guidelines and funding criteria that encourage arts organizations to be more responsive to the diversity of San Diego’s population.

“There is a consciousness in San Diego that people can’t ignore anymore. Organizations that are being funded through city dollars are realizing that they can’t ignore it anymore either, and they’re making sincere efforts to include more people.”

The diversity of both its programming and its audience makes the ECC “a treasure chest in the community,” Thompson said, but not necessarily one overflowing with gold. Funding remains an uphill battle, even for such fundamentals as gallery lighting. Being part of the community college district prevents Thompson from seeking support for general operating expenses from local, state or national arts agencies.

Despite such funding limitations, the ECC’s programs have helped fill a gap in San Diego’s cultural offerings and, Thompson hopes, in its cultural awareness.

“If I can have any kind of impact on different cultures finding out what their commonalities are, as opposed to what differences they have,” she said, “then I feel like I’ve done something.”