Client: City of Concord, CA

Overview

When we first began to envision a unique art-centered program that was in the suburbs of a major city, we knew that in order to succeed it was essential to stage it in a city and place where it could take root. Which is why we selected Concord, Ca as the ideal Contra Costa County location to launch a celebration of art, music and creativity we dubbed Creative Concord. The catalyst for this idea was the lack of a cohesive countywide arts program in the county. The physical location of Concord oriented in a central Contra Costa County, and the people of Concord who are vibrant, eclectic and welcoming to everybody visiting. This was why we started the program here. However, Creative Concord is meant to inspire all the cities in the county and other cities that are suburbs and exurbs to follow suit.

We set out to create an experience unlike existing art programs in the San Fran Bay Area. The Art and Music Jam is a Creative Concord highlight and brings together contemporary artists who are given the opportunity to create art in the park on large-scale canvases, and also highlights the performing arts, including music as murals are being painted in close proximity to the event.

Goals

When we envisioned Creative Concord, our goal was to create a platform for collaboration amongst the arts community in our area. Particularly in East Contra Costa County where we were seeing minimal opportunity or funding for the arts, a lack of diverse public artworks, and limited access to public art experiences. There’s a hunger here for the arts to expand and thrive.

We’re purposefully spending thousands of dollars to commission murals, pay for musical performances and heavily incorporate a budding amateur and aspiring local creative community with additional paid opportunities. We are building engagement and community across all sectors of Contra Costa County and beyond through this arts and culture experience by providing a way for people to gather, discover, learn, and collaborate in an accessible and inviting place. Creative Concord is about building something special together, a unifying celebration of the arts.”

Process

This is a creative placemaking endeavor along with an arts and culture experience and we have dozens of partners in the form of sponsors, participants and other stakeholders. Local Edition Creative is the executive producer, so all of the project management and funding ultimately falls on us to facilitate.

This is put third year so we have a fairly streamlined process amongst the collaborators.

Additional Information

Creative Concord has generated a lot of buzz and organic press for a smaller budgeted program in a suburb overshadowed by San Francisco and Oakland.