In the coming months, the Encinitas Arts Commission will be exploring ways for the city’s nearly 1-year-old Pacific View Arts Center to generate more revenue.
The project comes at the request of the City Council, Dave Knopp — the city’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department director — told the arts commissioners during their meeting Monday. The seven arts commissioners, who are volunteers appointed by the council, meet monthly to make recommendations on everything from public sculpture selections to community music events.
“I really look forward to this and I think it’s going to be a great thing as we go forward,” Knopp told the commissioners as he brought forward the council’s request and made some revenue-generating suggestions of his own.
Occupying a full city block of Third Street between E and F Streets, the Pacific View Art Center opened to the public last summer. The facility features seven classrooms, each with dedicated purpose, ranging from a sculpture-making space to a performing arts area. The city contracts with private instructors to provide both adult and children’s art courses in the rooms.
In the months since its grand opening ceremony in August, the center has been gradually expanding its hours and its course offerings, city arts division manager Collette Murphy told the commissioners. The facility now offers night classes as well as daytime ones, and it’s about to start its first summer art camps for kids, she said.
Knopp encouraged the commissioners to take time this summer to visit arts facilities in Carlsbad, Escondido and Poway and collect revenue-generating ideas, then craft some recommendations for the council this fall. He suggested that they consider non-traditional options, noting that one private preschool in town offers its building to a church on Sundays. Things like that are worth considering, he said, because the arts center doesn’t have a strong demand for arts classes on Sundays.
Also, he said, commissioners might consider whether there are artists who would be willing to donate their time to teach at the new art center and receive the benefit of publicity rather than payment. The city could still charge participants a fee for those classes and that would bring in extra revenue, Knopp said.
His money-raising comments generated some questions and a little concern from the arts commissioners.
“Is there a (financial) crisis in ing the programs that Pacific View is offering?” Commissioner James Hebert asked him.
Both Knopp and Murphy said there was no financial crisis. Knopp said he saw the council’s request as “an opportunity to do even more” and Murphy said the center did have its challenges getting going in its first year, including delays to the grand opening date and issues with sound-proofing the classrooms, but those were ultimately surmountable.
“I’m thrilled to announce the sound dampening has been completed as of last week,” she said.
The City Council, which has three new , made its request to the arts commission at the same time that the city is doing its annual budgeting. The new fiscal year begins July 1 and the council expects to vote on a proposed city spending plan June 18.
When city financial officials unveiled the proposed spending plan last week, they said Encinitas was in an excellent fiscal position. Due to rising property values, they forecast that Encinitas will have nearly $5 million in additional revenue next year. The extra revenue is expected to help fund more policing services, roadway repaving work and sewer line upgrades, among other things.
