‘Art connects us to our shared humanity’

The smells of beer and urine permeate the alley behind North Park’s oncelively Digital Gym CINEMA. This venue once held outdoor screenings and welcomed neighborhood kids making movies and volunteers planting flowers during our annual Take Back the Alley event. This formerly loved space is now a gathering place for old office equipment, movie theater chairs and our homeless neighbors.

This mix of odors and remnants of what was a vibrant community nonprofit is all that remains of Media Arts Center San Diego’s Digital Gym CINEMA North Park location. On the sweltering last day of August 2020, our team locked the doors for the last time and said goodbye to our home of the past 10 years.

We had already planned to move to a new space in 2021; COVID-19 provided the extra push. Looking at all the closures along El Cajon Boulevard and throughout San Diego, it’s apparent the long-term effects of the pandemic will be catastrophic. COVID-19 forces us to confront norms we’ve grown comfortable with. It forces us to seek new and viable opportunities. I am humbled by my colleagues in the arts who have bravely and quickly created new and innovative programs to continue their important nonprofit missions.

In addition to planning a move during a pandemic, we were forced to postpone our annual San Diego Latino Film Festival for the first time. We course-corrected in September and presented a virtual version of this celebration of Latino film and culture. We continue to provide education programs, online, like Teen Producers Project and Youth Media Tech Camps.

Running the annual San Diego Latino Film Festival and a small nonprofit arts organization for the past 28 years has been an uphill battle: a fight to diminish the constant blows that come at us from all sides — lack of funding, staff capacity, facility challenges, economic crises, lack of current technology, external and internal pressures, etc. Still, we remained, and we often succeeded.

Our strength has always been flexibility and innovation. Facing challenges and coming up with new ways to present our programs is something we, and all of our arts colleagues, are used to. However, even with a vaccine and the hopeful return of in-person movie screenings and live arts events, it’s imperative that city, state and federal governments continue to support arts organizations and venues throughout 2021 and beyond.

Now is not the time for budget cuts, but for a major infusion of cash to support artists, musicians, filmmakers and arts organizations. Additionally, it’s crucial that outdated bureaucracies be reformed, existing empty facilities be converted into arts spaces, and services made available to help the arts community thrive for years to come.

We believe in the power of art. Art connects us to our shared humanity. Artists and nonprofits cannot be the only ones to keep the arts alive. More must be done by our larger institutions and governments to assure the survival of our country’s artists and arts organizations.

The empty windows at the old Digital Gym CINEMA are now full of graffiti. It’s become, once again, a new and blank canvas for the young street artists living in the neighborhood. This street art on the windows can be seen in many ways. I view it as hope and evidence of how art adapts and innovates despite the challenges.

Media Arts Center San Diego is growing, adapting and innovating. In 2021, we’ll open a new state-ofthe-art facility in downtown San Diego to screen independent/foreign movies with classrooms to educate youth in filmmaking. MACSD will also present a hybrid version of the 28th annual San Diego Latino Film Festival (March 11-21), thus continuing this important tradition with both in-person and virtual activations.

We look forward to sharing the new venue and our plans and programs for 2021. Please visit mediaartscenter.org for more details and ways to support our efforts. Happy New Year!

COURTESY PHOTO