Art Needs Support, Not Dilution

Mention culture in the same breath as the San Fernando Valley and you generally get a chuckle from those whose image of this multicultural suburb is limited to outdated stereotypes about shopping malls and Valley girls.

Perhaps that’s why it’s hard to take the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department seriously when it argues that a new Valley city could pose a major threat to such cultural institutions as the Los Angeles Opera or the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

If the Valley were to secede, department officials told consultants studying the secession proposal, it might try to build its own cultural empire, which in turn could siphon support away from what’s left of Los Angeles.

OK, OK, so this is more tempest in a teapot than Shakespearean tragedy. Valley secessionists after all assured the consultant that opening an opera company is not exactly their top priority. And the city’s cultural czars disagreed among themselves as to how big a threat a Valley city would pose anyway, given that “middling size cities” haven’t had much success creating major arts institutions.

But the point remains that funding for the arts is hard to come by these days. National grants are practically nonexistent. Corporate donations depend on budget constraints and competition not just between municipalities but between causes. Mergers and relocations have also taken their toll.

And yes, breaking Los Angeles apart would mean less clout--and consequently, less support--for institutions in both the old city and the new. In short, it makes about as much sense to have competing art museums as it does to have two water departments or two police departments or two sewage systems--that is, no sense at all.

The last we checked, the Valley is still part of this sprawling city of Los Angeles, and resources such as the Mark Taper Forum, the Hollywood Bowl and the Getty belong to Valley residents as much as to any other Angeleno. Anyone who loves the arts takes pride in such institutions. Call it pride of ownership.

The challenge is to make these great institutions even better, not dilute them. That’s the challenge for cities as well.