The Arts Roundtable: Creating “A Masterpiece” - Process and Product

​Sometimes creating an arts “masterpiece” has little to do with paints or pigments.  And the
“Arts Roundtable” that was held on Friday the 25th of January at the Frida Theatre in Downtown Santa Ana demonstrated that there are other kinds of “masterpieces” being created.  
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This Arts Roundtable was the 5th in a series of what was described as a process for creating a network and support system for practitioners of the arts, crafts, and industrial arts.  Before the event started, I sat in a seat, and was thankful for the Mediterranean food provided usurping my usual pre-show popcorn and drink. Instead of the pre-movie fare of previews, and commercials, I was able to preview in the conversations and interactions around me what this roundtable would be.  To name a few, I spoke with a film producer, a film maker, an artist/muralist that I had become familiar with almost twenty years ago, an engineer, a fabricator, and a ceramicist. All of these personalities were in attendance to ensure that they would be active participants in a cohesive, articulated, and supportive community of artists, artisans, and crafts people.  

The program for the evening reviewed and celebrated the past roundtables over the course of two years throughout Orange County.  Selected speakers spoke of how the results of those roundtables impacted their work and resulted in their own personal successes.  One resulting partnership resulted in a school, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and an industrial designer working together to create an art installation that was displayed at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.  Another presenter spoke of his international status as a filmmaker of food for an internationally renowned online food network. The two-hour program was engaging and served to remind those in attendance of the importance of creating and maintaining a network of engaged and supported creators.  It was noteworthy, and pointed out, that it was the creative community that wanted to be connected formally. The online “arts registry” was the response.

​Over twenty years ago I opened up two galleries in Santa Ana.  One in the Santora Building, and another on Main Street. Any connectivity I had to other creative forces were made by me in order to survive; and any support given to my gallery and artistic endeavors were usually limited to my galleries being used as backdrops for redevelopment and sought after gentrification.  (But that is another story). I would have been ecstatic to open my galleries with the support and networking capabilities that the “Arts Registry” presently provides. To me, the product that individuals like Robyn McNair, Ryan Smolar, and Madeleine Spencer have been able achieve and create (with the support of others who I’m sure should be mentioned) is nothing short of a “masterpiece”.  

​Is the masterpiece finished?  I’m certain that it is not. After all, art is more than just a product, it is a process.  And I for one, can’t wait to see how this masterpiece evolves in the ongoing process of Arts Roundtables.              
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Learn more about the Santa Ana Artists Registry >

Story by Matthew Cruz
Photos by Matthew Martinez

ABOUT THE ARTS ROUNDTABLE SERIES
This event is part of a multi-event series, the Santa Ana Arts Roundtable events organized by Santa Ana’s downtown improvement district, with the hopes to connect and empower artists in-person and online at SantaAnaArts.org. The Arts Roundtable series kicked off in 2015 at Santa Ana High School and has traveled to the Bowers Museum, OC Heritage Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and now The Frida Cinema with the mission of building resources to help artists and arts organizations connect and thrive in the Santa Ana.

The Santa Ana Arts Roundtable V was created to showcase the launch of the Santa Ana Artists Registry by the Santa Ana Business Council, Downtown Inc., major arts institutions across Santa Ana and SanArts Conservatory and the City of Santa Ana under the banner of SantaAnaArts.org.