—World Commission on Culture and Development
The new year’s greeting incorporated in the above headline has nothing to do with the fact that Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown tomorrow. I’m not inviting anyone to join me in eating apples dipped in honey and celebrating the arrival of year 5777. This has everything to do with the fact that the city entered its new year today and is now operating under the terms of the recently passed budget for Fiscal Year 2016-17. Among other things, it means the salary increases granted to all those city employees kick in today as well as the pay increases given to police officers under terms of the meet-and-confer agreement approved by the City Council yesterday.
It also means it’s time to officially start thinking about next year’s budget. In fact, I’m betting City Manager Scott Sellers and Finance Director Perwez Moheet have already thought about it and have even had a few discussions about it.
This year’s budget includes what amounts to a completely new department, a Stormwater Management Department. The creation of such a department and a means to fund it, which will be instituted next month, was long past due.
I, too, have already been thinking about next year’s budget and I would like to see another department added for FY 2017-18, an Office of Cultural Affairs.
Mention the term "culture" or "arts" in Kyle, and the discussion usually stops at mariachi festivals. (Yes, I’m aware of the culturally enriching programs at the Katharine Anne Porter house, but my sense is those behind those programs, even though the house is within easy walking distance of City Hall, would rather keep their distance from city government.) And far be it for me to disparage mariachi festivals, but there’s more to culture than performances of 18th century musical expressions from Mexico.
Two new hotels are scheduled to open in Kyle during this year and more are on the way. These hotels pay the city a Hotel Occupancy Tax that goes directly into the appropriately named HOT fund. The dollars in this fund, under state laws, can only be spent on narrowly defined items. They "must clearly fit into one of nine statutorily provided categories for expenditure …" And Category No. 4 is "Expenditures that promote the arts."
"Specifically, it allows funding the encouragement, promotion, improvement, and application of the arts including instrumental and vocal music, dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture, design and allied fields, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft arts, motion pictures, radio, television, tape and sound recording, and other arts related to the presentation, performance, execution and exhibition of these major art forms," according to this presentation from the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association to the Texas Municipal League. The one caveat is that the cultural programs receiving these HOT funds must "also directly promote tourism and the hotel and convention industry."
Specifically, it would allow the city to fund such a program as a summer Concerts in the Parks series. Imagine gathering at City Square Park at dusk on a June evening to hear a chamber music quarter play on the gazebo there. Imagine the family spreading the blankets and lawn chairs out at Lake Kyle Park to hear a performance from the Mid-Texas Symphony, the Austin Philharmonic Orchestra or the Starlight Symphony, to name just a few.
My son’s best friend, Peter Seymour, is a member of an innovative chamber music ensemble called Project Trio. Not only do they perform absolutely marvelous concerts (you can see Project Trio's version of Sergio Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf here), they will also go into the area schools and conduct educational programs. It’s web page states "Project Trio is dedicated to galvanizing artistic awareness through performance, education and community engagement. We believe that there is a direct correlation between artistry and scholastic achievement. Creativity encourages critical thinking. By combining classical repertoire with elements of hip-hop and popular music, Project Trio engages today’s younger audience." A performance by a group such as Project Trio combined with an educational presentation to music students at Hays and/or Lehman high schools would truly be an enriching event on a number of levels.
There’s the Hill Country Community Theater outside Marble Falls, the Sam Bass Theater in Round Rock and the Amilyann Theater in Wimberley. Why can’t Kyle form its own community theater group? I’m sure there has to be a handful of theatrically inclined residents in Kyle with greasepaint in their veins or at least on their minds, who would like to find some way to work with city officials to get a community theater program underway and successful here.
What’s wrong with devoting one weekend out of the year to hosting a juried art show at Texas Old Town?
An Office of Cultural Affairs funded by an ever increasing influx of HOT funds could help facilitate all of these activities as well as such events as the Hogwash Festival, should it become an annual event, and the Fourth of July fireworks display. It could be the department that creates the standards that promoters of such events as Veterans Day concerts must meet in order to be eligible for city subsidies. It could then be the office that screens the applications for the money and recommend to the City Council which ones should receive such HOT-funded largesse. It could also be the umbrella under which the so-called city special events coordinator operates. In fact, that coordinator might become the City of Kyle’s very first Director of Cultural Affairs.
Kyle is becoming large enough to begin hosting events that will enrich the cultural fabric of our city, to provide enjoyable and enriching cultural events not only for our own residents, but those of such significance that they attract visitors from outside our community, including those who might even spend a night at one of our local hotels. I encourage you to read this presentation, How the Arts Impact Communities, presented by Princeton University's Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies.
Pardon the pun, but this is a HOT topic for next year’s budget and one definitely in need of serious consideration. And it’s never too early to begin thinking about the next fiscal year, even, on this, the first day of the new year.
Our Hays CISD Mariachi Booster Club sponsored Dia de Los Muertos Mariachi Extravaganza is not a City related event. It is a scholarship funding event that is produced by our mariachi parents and community club. And FYI it's only getting bigger because many people enjoy the music of our culture. It continues to thrive. The organization you are disparaging is a group of parents supporting their children. You could have made your point without putting down an event that brings out over 5000 guests a year.
ReplyDeletePete, I think it's a great idea and a terrific use for HOT funds.
ReplyDeletePlease make sure you do your research before making ignorant comments about music. You speak of Mariachi Music as antiquated forms of "Musical Expressions from Mexico", yet have you even bothered to inform yourself of the many tonal and harmonic evolutions that Mariachi Music has undergone in the last fifty years alone? The majority of Mariachi musicians in Grammy Award winning groups today are CLASSICALLY TRAINED musicians, which means that they grew up playing that 18th century music you spoke of. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. ALL 18th century musicians, but I guess since they're European, it's ok? Mariachi Music has become SO MUCH more than it was. It infuses traditional western music with Afro-Cuban rhythms, incorporates pop music, R&B harmonies and lyrical techniques, and so on and so on. You mention symphony orchestras like the Austin Philharmonic, a wonderful organization that brings music to the community. What exactly do you think orchestras play? What is it exactly that bothers you about Mariachi Music? Is it the music itself, or the fact that it is from Mexico? Curious.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Baird