In a visit with William Turner at his eponymous gallery at Santa Monica's Bergamot Station compound we sat around sharing reaction to the gallery's current Greg Miller exhibition. Our conversation lead to other topics, in particular the recently launched campaign to re-inflate the California Art Council's operating budget with, of all things, auto license plates. Turner sits on the eleven-member Council, a group of volunteers appointed mostly by the Governor that works to line up support for the agency, mainly in the face of public indifference. He genuinely lit up over the rectangular image designed by Wayne Thiebaud that sports the candy ass appellation "ART LVR" that is the standard arts plate. The passion for a car license plate that will set you back around a hundred bucks (about forty ends up in the CAC's operating budget) will never make the gallery one penny more profitable. I like this guy's heart.
The California Arts Council enjoys the laughable distinction, in the Union's most populous state (which also may or may not still be the world's seventh largest economy), of being fiftieth and last in terms of the size of its allocated arts budget. This distinction, ironically, dates back to former Governor Gray Davis (look up "Enron, energy scandal"), who responded to a then seemingly thunderous budget shortfall of nearly $10 billion by all but eliminating the CAC. Thus saving California about, um, $25 million.
The standard California Art License Plate, designed by Wayne Thiebaud
How, then to rectify this and bring the CAC back nearer the top? The Big Idea is that if a million residents buy the license plate the CAC will increase its budget to about $40 million, more than that pre-Enron. If a tenfold jump in current license plate sales seems a bit daunting, well, that's what marketing campaigns are for. It's hardly a stroke of genius, but it is a bird in the hand: The plates have been around for about fifteen years. It will take people like Turner who not only believe in but can envision a CAC that must be taken seriously again. I don't for a moment believe that goal will be met, but even coming close would raise more than a few eyebrows. More important it would transform expectations that the agency can make a difference. The unaffected optimism expressed by Council member Turner isn't merely pleasant to see; it's a requirement. And it will allow the next Governor to recognize that there are a lot of Californians who expect more and better from our public arts sector.
Go to cac.ca.gov/licenseplate. The next move is yours.