The art of promoting the arts

The clarinet, an MBA from Wharton and acting have served David Colley

well. After only four years as a resident in Newport Beach, Colley,

40, has brought together those parts of his background to serve as

chairman of the Newport Beach Arts Commission.

The commission is a seven-member, appointed city board with job

duties including giving city officials advice about public art and

sponsoring summer concerts. Colley acknowledged that Newport Beach is

“conservative” when it comes to the arts, but he does see it as a

city with a great appreciation for the arts.

So, his commission, which Colley said includes people with skills

in sculpting, painting, administrating and educating, works to bring

Newport residents new ways to enjoy the arts. It also promotes art,

with grant programs, among children and seniors and in the city’s

neighborhoods.

Shakespeare By the Sea, for instance, was a recent commission

success. On Aug. 7 and Aug. 8, the commission sponsored free

performances of “Richard III” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” at

Grant Howald Park. The popularity of that event has grown over three

years, Colley said.

Colley seemed proud of the weekend performances but didn’t stop

there. He also touted the series of summer concerts that the

commission sponsors, along with other arts ideas the commission is

bouncing around.

Ideas on the horizon to enhance the arts include public art

competitions and maybe even a city building dedicated to the arts. Of

course, in a time of tightening government budgets, particularly in

the arts, Colley had no guarantees.

The Pilot’s Ryan Carter sat down with Colley to talk about the

arts in Newport Beach.

How successful have the Shakespeare By the Sea performances been?

How did they start performing here?

We started it three years ago. Shakespeare by the Sea is a company

out of San Pedro, and they contacted us, among other cities, trying

to build their schedule up. It was kind of a Los Angeles

County-based, or focused, organization that hadn’t really made it

this far south. At the same time we were looking at opportunities to

spread the arts greater in terms of free events in the city. So, it

kind of seemed like a good match. So, we started with just one

performance, which to our surprise drew about 700 people to Grant

Howald Park. And we decided to do it again last year. We had

somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 people come out to

performances last weekend, across both of the shows.

The company has told us we are their biggest site, that we have

the biggest audience that they bring to their organization.

That makes us feel we’re bringing something to the city that

people really want. The Arts Commission, with the help of its

foundation, is responsible for sponsoring it, bringing it and

fostering it.

Will it be back next year?

We definitely plan on having it back next year.

What is the artistic climate in Newport Beach like right now? Is

there a hot genre, or kind of art that is flourishing?

I’m not sure there really is one. It’s a pretty conservative city

compared to some places that have some pretty radical downtown areas,

like Santa Ana, which has put in an Artists Village, which has some

galleries that are kind of out-there. I would say we’re a little

closer in alignment to maybe Laguna Beach -- you know, an older,

established beach city. You’ll see a lot of nautical-themed stuff,

beach scenes, pastels, water colors. It’s a beautiful environment and

city, so there have been a lot of people who want to go out and

capture that.

So, I’m not sure it’s a real edgy town when it comes to art, but

certainly it’s a kind of art-appreciative kind of town.

What are some challenges for art in the Newport Beach area? What

would you, a leader in terms of the arts in this city, like to see

more of artistically?

I think we’d like to see a little more of everything we’ve kind of

started continued to the next level. For example, things in the fine

and visual arts. We have a couple of exhibitions, which the

commission sponsors directly, for the artist to have an opportunity

to have their work shown, juried and exhibited. We have galleries in

town, and we want to kind of further the artists’ outreach into those

areas. We had a brochure we did earlier this year. That was the first

time anybody tried to catalog the arts in Newport Beach. One of the

other things we do is offer grants, to award them to civic

organizations to benefit citizens of Newport Beach directly. Most of

those are education areas.

The arts have been significantly reduced in schools, and we’re

passionate about that in terms of making sure those kids get the same

kind of exposure that we did. So, those grants benefit Newport Beach

specifically. We’d like to increase the budget for that and make sure

more of that kind of thing happens. In performing arts, we’ve got not

only Shakespeare, but we’ve got these concerts in the park that we’ve

done. On all of these fronts we’d like to see more of that.

We also have public art, and we talk about opportunities for that

in the future.

Why is youngsters’ participation in the arts important?

I’m not the educator, but from my observation of successful

people, many of them have been exposed to the arts in a significant

way, at an early age. And it kind of helps make them a well-rounded

person.

Is there enough emphasis on the arts, in this area or in the

state?

I don’t think it’s endemic to Newport Beach as a community, I

think we might be more art-aware than a lot of communities. But

certainly as a state and a country we’re really in a time of reduced

funding. It’s unfortunately an easy line to cut in the budget.

Have state budget cuts in the arts affected Newport Beach at all?

Probably only indirectly. The state sponsors organizations such as

something called Arts Orange County, which is the Orange

County-based, arts-support organization, and their budget has

diminished their ability to support other smaller organizations out

there. But it hasn’t really affected our current budget from the city

in a significant way.

It’s the luxury of living in a city of Newport Beach. I never feel

that burden in that way. The fact that we even have an arts

commission, and as supportive as the city is, is a good thing. We

also have a foundation that in the long-run can raise additional

money for things that perhaps the city can’t fund. Because of our

residential base, we have options that some cities don’t have.

Tell me about the Arts Commission. What is its goal or mission?

The Arts Commission, with its seven members, is one of several

bodies appointed by the City Council. It has a three-fold mission.

One is to advise the City Council on anything having to do with the

arts, aesthetically, any project proposed to the city that has an

arts-related theme on it. It could be a proposal for a public piece

of art. It could be advice on aesthetic design of ash trays. It could

be anything having to do with signage color.

We also provide organizations with funding through a grant

process. And third is providing these events in the city.

What kind of budget does it work on?

Small. Infinitesimal, compared to the budget for everything else.

Could you put a ballpark on it?

We get a budget of $40,000 a year to do the grants. We have one

staff member, so we also have a small budget for that.

What motivated you to be on the Arts Commission?

I have an arts background personally. I was a clarinetist as a kid

-- played that all the way to college and then got into acting. I

grew up right outside of Washington, D.C., in Virginia, and my dad

worked for the federal government for 40 years. His hobby was

politics. So, I have a lot of depth of knowledge of that side of the

world, along with being a businessman. With the intersection of those

three things, I decided to get more involved in the civic affairs of

Newport Beach.