San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
COUNCIL DISCUSSES ARTS CENTER FUNDING, DEBATES EXHIBIT
Escondido officials push for more transparency
Escondido City Council members called for more accountability, transparency and better communication by the foundation that runs the city-owned California Center for the Arts, Escondido, but stopped short of cutting the center’s funding at a meeting last week.
Council members also spoke out for the first time at a public meeting about a controversial installation that opened at the arts center in June, in which police officers were depicted as cartoon-like pigs dancing on a pile of doughnuts, in front of a large photo of officers clad in riot gear. The installation is part of a street art exhibition that also features graffiti, tattoos, skateboarding and lowrider culture.
Wednesday’s discussion was intended to provide direction as city staff negotiates a new management agreement with the foundation, which will include setting the city’s annual contribution to the arts center’s budget. Currently, the foundation is operating under the terms of a management agreement that expired in 2019.
Under the agreement, the city will pay $1.8 million this year, which includes a management fee, the center’s utility bill and maintenance costs. Over the past decade, the city’s contribution has represented about 20 percent of the arts center’s total budget.
Councilmember Mike Morasco sought to reassure the public that council members don’t intend to slash the arts center’s budget.
“We always will keep the arts center. It’s a phenomenal investment and I think we’re all proud of it and we love it and we want the best for it,” said Morasco.
But the current agreement fails to clearly spell out important elements of the center’s operation, including responsibilities, communication, funding allocation and more, Morasco said.
While the controversy over the art installation — which Morasco described as “hate speech” — isn’t driving the conversation, he said it is another factor that has added “burdens and strains” to relations between the city and the arts center.
“This latest incident may have brought to light that there is significant need to enhance communications, define our responsibilities and get a management agreement that’s not laughable,” Morasco said.
As for the installation, which is called “Three Slick Pigs – A.P.A.B. Edition” and is the work of Los Angeles artist OG Slick, Morasco said he is an art lover but believes the installation crossed the line.
“It’s about what is qualified as art, when in reality someone may have strong emotional and hateful feelings for a certain group, entity, gender, race, religion, whatever it may be, and in the name of art we have to accept it. I don’t buy into that premise,” Morasco said.
Councilmember Consuelo Martinez, though, saw the piece differently. “I didn’t have a shock factor walking into that exhibit,” she said, perhaps because she’s attended many Chicano street art exhibits in the past.
But she questioned the timing of the council’s discussion on the heels of the controversy, as the arts center’s budget is already set for this year.
“The timing of it seemed to me very retaliatory. And I know it caused a lot of angst and it upset the community,” she said.
Two dozen people, including members of the arts center’s board, spoke either in person or in writing, urging the council to maintain the arts center’s funding and decrying any effort to censor the facility’s art exhibits.
“Having been a law enforcement officer for San Diego County for 29 years, I am not offended by this piece,” wrote Escondido resident Bill Flores. “While some may view this art piece as offensive, it does not bother me nor, I venture to say, most law enforcement officers. If anything, it stirs up feelings of humorous nostalgia from the 60s and 70s seeing pigs and cops in the same art piece. I’m sure the council has more important things to do than target the Center for the Arts in the form of defunding for an image that a small minority of Escondido residents might find offensive.”
But Mayor Paul Mcnamara said many people in the community were offended, not just a few. And Councilmember Joe Garcia said he received similar negative sentiments through conversations, calls and emails.
“It was 5 to 1 defund the center for the arts, over and over and over again,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the arts center seemed unprepared for the controversy unleashed by the art installation, and waffled on whether to remove the piece from the exhibit or cover it, before ultimately deciding to leave it in place.
Garcia also took issue with a statement put out in the midst of the controversy by the arts center board asserting its independence on the artistic choices made by the facility.
“When I read that, I said, ‘Shut up, you in the city shut up, you have nothing to say or do with this,’ that’s how I read it,” Garcia said. “I said this is not wood on the fire, this is gasoline on the fire. If we’re trying to build a relationship, how can we do it with language like this?”
Garcia said he wants the arts center to provide quarterly reports of its activities to the city, and that funding should be divided into portions paid out periodically rather than in a lump sum.
Mcnamara said he wants more transparency on how the center spends its money. He also said the center could have done a better job of handling the controversy surrounding “Three Slick Pigs,” providing context to explain the piece and why it was included in the exhibit.
“This thing divided the city, it didn’t really unify it,” he said.