The Bay to Silicon Valley

I've been in San Jose, capitol of Silicon Valley, since Tuesday night.  This morning I spoke to a big group of downtown developers and tonight I'll be speaking to the Great Cities Speakers Series for 1st ACT Silicon Valley.  Last night, I had dinner with Connie Martinez, founder of 1st ACT.  She is a remarkable civic entrepreneur who is turning 1st ACT into a potential civic powerhouse.  Connie and Bruce Chizen, her chair and retired CEO of Adobe, are focusing 1st ACT on four initiatives:

1) Cultural Participation--expanding the breadth and depth of cultural participation, creative expression, and cultural connections
2) Creative Place-working to create a sense of place and attract creative people and ideas by building on what we have and advocating for Silicon Valley amenities and environments that fuel our creativity and make us want to live here
3) Funding Model--revolutionizing the arts sector donor engagement and financing model
4) Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute--fueling the diversity of arts, connecting and building community across cultures in Silicon Valley, and strengthening multicultural arts leadership.

1st ACT is using art as a platform for achieving other civic purposes -- nurturing multicultural leaders, upgrading the city's place-making standards (although San Jose's City Hall and the library it shares with San Jose State are really fabulous), and developing a new model for art in a city like San Jose (particularly admirable -- mid-size and newer cities should take note).

In so many ways 1st ACT is mirroring the behavior of Silicon Valley's business community.  For instance, 1st ACT is packaging public improvements in targeted areas of downtown for "investment" (actually donations) to appeal to the VC way of doing things.  One particularly interesting note:  1st ACT set itself up with the intent to sunset the organization in 5-10 years.

  

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