Sedona Arts Center December News

Yes, we are still short-staffed but it seems like this is the way of the world.  We are somewhat stuck at the moment anyway as we’d hoped to be in our new offices shortly after the first of the year.  And we simply don’t have room for additional staff in our current space. But everything with construction is delayed these days so I’m not even going to speculate when the move will be made.  Let’s just say we are progressing forward – just not very quickly.

We are also still working on our Campus Master Plan.  We’ve received some ideas and numbers and are laying the groundwork for making it all happen.  This will be a multi-year project and also future-changing for the Arts Center and our region.

We have exciting plans for Vision & Sound: An African American Experience, which will open on February 1.  But also mark your calendars for February 10 & 11, when we will be holding a day-and-a-half long Symposium exploring the art of this year’s exhibit tied in with ADEI conversations, awareness building and training.  We are working very closely this year with the ASU Center for the Study of Race & Democracy and their Director, Dr. Lois Brown and her staff.  She is terrific and we are thrilled to be partnering!

We are also partnering with the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) on a series of facilitated discussions around cultural appropriation.  A few months back, I was looking for ANY arts organization/museum/etc. that had a policy on Cultural Appropriation.  After finding nothing through a google search, I called MNA and one of my contacts at the National Endowment for the Arts who were also unaware of any organization with this type of policy.  While the US Department of the Interior has very clear laws around specific types of cultural appropriation, nothing really applied to organizations.  This is a very sensitive subject and MNA was also interested in exploring it further.  So we are partnering on a funding request and hope to conduct these discussions next fall.  Our ultimate goal is to issue a joint statement/policy that can perhaps be a model for other arts organizations here and across the country. Stay tuned for more.

On a lighter note, we now have almost our entire Gallery up online.  So if you can’t make your way to Uptown, please check out items here:  https://sedonaartscenter.org/product-category/fine-art/  I’m sure we have something to make your holiday just a little bit brighter!

In the meantime, stay healthy – stay safe – and have a wonderful holiday season. Please come see us soon!

Warm Regards,

Julie A. Richard
CEO