A Visit with the Sacramento Arts Community

Meeting: August 10th, 2021

PRESIDENT BOB MILLER (Business Services Manager at First US Community Credit Union) greeted the club with his homage to the 80’s music. Some Rotarians jumped when the music started. MICHAEL BULLINGTON filled the room with world class piano tunes demonstrating one of his many talents! Rotarians were welcomed by the diligent and pleasant greeters LINDA GEERY (Shareholder/Gilbert CPAs), STEVE JOHANSON (Johanson & Associates), and the self-proclaimed “Big Cheese” DAVE HIGDON (California Moving Systems). PRESIDENT BOB gave special acknowledgement to our three Greeters of the week. As we were missing a designated photographer for this meeting, Rotarians were forced to get in touch with their creative sides as they collaborated to create digital memories of the meeting! ELFRENA FOORD (Partner/Certified Financial Planner at Foord, Van Bruggen, & Pajak) and BRUCE HESTER provided the vintner libations – more formally known as wine – during the pre-meeting social.

KERRY WOOD (Chief Marketing & Donor Engagement Officer at Sacramento Region Community Foundation) led our weekly theme of the arts with poignant, appropriate quotes ranging from Picasso to Al Hirschfield. A particularly striking quote came from Hirschfield, who stated “Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.” Some might even say this about Rotarians!

GIULIANO KORNBERG (Sergeant-at-Arms) (Chief Revenue and Development Officer of Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera) presented our visitors including prospective new member CATHY CONJCE, guest BARRY SICADA, and MARY JO STRENG, wife of our very own JIM STRENG (President of Streng Bros Rentals, LLC).

Our meeting sponsor, PAST PRESIDENT WALTER DAHL (Partner at Dahl Law, Attorney(s) At Law) did not promote his firm to expedite his retirement while taking care of his valued current clients!

Rotary meetings always carry an extra dose of purpose when we have the luxury of welcoming aboard a new member! JUSTINO SANTANA (Non-Profit Business Development Manager at eFundraising Connections) is lucky enough to be sponsored by the wonderful BOBBY REED (CEO of Capitol Tech Solutions) and TODD KOOLAKIAN (Director of Philanthropy at Sacramento Children’s Home). BOBBY, who had the honor of introducing JUSTINO, explained that the two of them met in 2020, pre-covid. JUSTINO grew up in Lodi but has lived in Sacramento for the last 22 years and loves everything about our local community. He is a graduate from CSU Sacramento as well as a 1st generation graduate. His non-profit and volunteer work would simply take up too many pages for a weekly newsletter, so you’ll have to just trust us on this one! Fun fact about JUSTINO: After he finished his first full marathon, he rewarded himself with a full “sleeve” tattoo on his leg! What is his tattoo of, you may wonder? Well, take it on yourself to find out when you meet our new member! A big welcome to our newest member, JUSTINO, we are so truly honored to start collaborating with you!

KATHE NATHAN (Retired / Vice President Relationship Manager at Merchants Bank of Commerce) was joyful while she recognized TOM BACON (Senior Vice President of Bacon Commercial Real Estate) and all his excellent work with the Sacramento Century Challenge, praising him for

his ambitious (and nearly approaching!) goal of $20,000. Thank you TOM. As he said, “people are glad to help!”

CLICK HERE to see a slideshow containing pictures of TOM in action.

DAVID BRANDENBURGER (Managing Director at Newmark Knight Frank) pinched hit for RUTH TESAR (CEO of Northern California PET Imaging Center) by promoting Bike Day on Saturday August 28 from 8 AM – 12 PM at William Land Park. We currently need one hour shifts to promote the Sac Century!

STEVE HUFFMAN alerted our club of ART BREUER’s recovery from a medical procedure. We prepared Caregrams for ART and KIEFE. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers!

SARAH HODGE (Director of Resource Development at NeighborWorks Sacramento) surely let out a sigh of relief, and a smile, when she announced that she has tripled the size of the Brown Bag Committee (1 → 3) since her spotlight last week. She asked everyone to complete the choice email again if you haven’t already. The Brown Bag Day is coming up soon and on schedule for Tuesday, August 17.

DAVID BRANDENBURGER honored PRESIDENT BOB with gifts from Greece including Olives and Ouzo. Although DAVID was unable to attend a Rotary meeting while in Greece, he committed to take the RCS pennant to another chapter during PRESIDENT BOB’s term. He went for a 10k run ($100)!

KERRY WOOD wanted to display her appreciation and experience from the American Leadership Forum, as she went on a 6-day trip in the wilderness! She ran a 10k ($100).

BOBBY REED wanted to honor his wife and her new position as a high school counselor at JFK High School by running a 5k ($50).

In preparation for our Arts Panel, PRESIDENT BOB provided a primer for our fellowship asking how we express our art. I learned that KERRY WOOD is a woman of many instruments, and is currently enjoying the freedom of the organic flute. NANCY TEICHERT, along with her accomplished writing career, really enjoyed sewing prior to retiring her machine. PAST PRESIDENT FRED TEICHERT (Executive Director of Teichert Foundation), as we all know, is an aspiring master chef who is expecting a letter from Gordon Ramsay any day now. Humbly, I talked about my cartooning and many novels started; Mr. Hollands Opus.

ALLISON CAGLEY (executive Director/Friends of Sacramento Arts) successfully moderated our esteemed guests as they provided feedback and insights into the arts in Sacramento. According to the 2018 Creative Edge Culture Plan, the arts in the Sacramento region created 19,961 jobs and contributed $350 million of revenue. Attendance in the arts dropped by 1.6 million during COVID. On a positive note, our community did not succumb to defeat. Our city’s very own, Mayor Steinberg, made a bold step forward in September 2020 by providing arts recovery funding from the CARES Act at the highest percentage of any mayor in the country. Our panelists were STACEY SHELNUT-HENDRICK (Director of Education at Crocker Art Museum), MICHAEL STEVENSON (Executive Director at Capital Stage), and MARIE ACOSTA (Executive Director at The Latino Center of Art and Culture). All panelists had their different, yet similar responses in how they had to prepare for the unexpected. They collectively stressed how digital content was key to keeping staff working and operations functioning.

MICHAEL shared the impending fear his theater actors felt, as he explained that health insurance is provided to actors as long as they meet a certain amount of weekly hours on stage. To ensure actors maintained their health coverage, Capital Stage began virtually producing entire plays on Zoom (remember when Zoom was this new and foreign thing?)

STACEY acknowledged the Crocker Art Museum’s process of going virtual and how they explored their ideas through a variety of online programs, Youtube, etc. They emphasized making their Wellness program accessible in an online format to help those struggling from the effects of social isolation.

MARIE and her organization used government funds to sprout a new seed. In just two months, the Sacramento Artist Corps was born. This newly-established group is a collective of artists that were significantly affected by COVID, and decided to come together to use their passion for art as a way to serve the community amidst the nationwide crisis.

Overall, it is true that the pandemic wreaked incomprehensible havoc on the arts & culture. What we learned in turn, is that our community is filled to the brim with resilience. Desperate times call for new ideas. Ultimately, the resourcefulness of the leaders in the arts – including our panelists among countless others – demonstrated the strength of donors, patrons and community members, as well as highlighting the importance of getting all artists back to work in their natural setting.

To see the full Panel discussion, CLICK HERE.

To see ALLISON CAGLEY’s introductory slideshow, CLICK HERE.