SAACA’s REBOUND, RECOVERY & REOPENING ANNOUNCEMENT

SOUTHERN ARIZONA ARTS & CULTURAL ALLIANCE
MAY 2020
The Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance (SAACA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation, preservation and advancement of the Arts.
SAACA strengthens the bonds between people, place and purpose through collaborative, arts-driven experiences.
At the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance (SAACA), we believe arts and culture are the vital roots of a healthy community. SAACA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, preservation and advancement of the arts in Arizona.  Our work strengthens the bonds between people, place and purpose through collaborative, arts-driven experiences.

Arts and culture have kept us all connected during the COVID-19 outbreak, but the sustainability of those opportunities in our community, as we know them, has been decimated in a matter of months, and SAACA is no exception.  

By convening, collaborating, gathering feedback and innovating, we will rebound and recover. Through this transformative process, we will address the changing tides facing the arts and creative sector and explore ways to thrive again.  

Below are some important updates from SAACA including what to expect at our future events, programs and at CATALYST Arts & Maker Space. We are approaching decision-making in a phased and thoughtful manner. 
​
Right now, we are working vigorously to preserve the organization’s mission through this initial emergency phase. Then, to help us begin our recovery phase, we’ll look to you for support--the community that has always been our backbone. In time and together, an evolved and reimagined organization will emerge.    
The organization is experiencing an unprecedented operational blow, with the loss of nearly every significant revenue opportunity since early March and major event cancellations through fall 2020.  We anticipate a continued loss of revenue through the end of 2020 which will continue to affect feasibility and operational ability for a considerable time into the future.  

​Over the past two and a half months, SAACA has leveraged sustained services to our Creative Sector and partners with some of the below significant community programs:
  • Online Streaming Resource – Partnered with more than 50 local organizations and individual artists to provide the most comprehensive streaming network in Southern Arizona.  It includes to-go arts experiences, performances, workshops, virtual arts experiences and more.  The project continues to grow and has been focused on collaborative work, in partnership with local organizations and individuals.  
  • Earth Day Collaboration with other area organizations and Virtual Painting Experience
  • SAACA has sustained paid performance opportunities with the production of streaming concerts as well as online featured interviews with community educators and leaders.  
  • Provided the CATALYST Arts & Maker Space towards the preparation of over 60,000 handmade face masks by Tucson’s MENDING SOULS project.  
  • Partnered with Roche Tissue Diagnostics to launch a global employee photography project.  
  • Produced a Southern Arizona Spoken Word Poetry Project, as well as an Arts and Cultural Advocacy Video Project airing on local television stations throughout Southern Arizona.  
  • Arts Care Packages – More than 700 provided to date, in eight Assisted Living communities, including the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration.
  • Southern Arizona Creative Sector Rebound and Recovery Survey – Launched a digital survey, now with more than 600 respondents, to document how COVID-19 has affected local artists and makers, explore new solutions for rebounding stronger together, and propose creative ideas for long term collaboration.​
There is no doubt that communities will be forever changed by this pandemic, and different sectors and populations will be impacted in different ways.  SAACA’s commitment lies in serving those communities dynamically and building equitable and diverse programming to address the shifting needs.

We know it will be a challenge, but one that we are undoubtedly up to. 

OUR FIRST MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

SAACA is developing a calendar of webinars, training and online workshops, kicking off the second annual MOMENTUM Creative City Initiative launching Summer 2020, in partnership with Startup Tucson.  

The online content will be provided at minimal cost, attracting speakers and resource-sharing from arts and cultural partners throughout the country.  It will be an imperative program to support and direct the future of our programming for years to come.  

We ask that each of our Creative Sector partners fill out this brief online form which will be an essential guiding tool for the future: https://www.saaca.org/creative-sector-survey.html  
​
To date, we have received over 600 submissions from individual artists, musicians, performers, organizations and individual businesses which make up our diverse and abundant Creative Sector here in Southern Arizona.  Our goal is to receive over 750 submissions before the survey closes on May 31, 2020.  If you have not yet participated in the 2020 Creative Sector Rebound and Recovery Survey, we invite you to do so.  SAACA will be publishing the results in mid-June. 

COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING IMPACT

SAACA maintains a strong reputation in cultivating meaningful community programs and collaborations.  

Some of the most significant of these include:
  • Festivals & Community Cultural Celebrations (culinary, performing arts, music, visual arts)
  • Business & Arts Partnerships (community galleries, film, chalk art festivals, culinary events, employee engagement)
  • Arts & Healthcare Programs (arts therapy, literary arts, mobility, lifelong learning, music and memory, creative veterans’ initiatives) 
  • Arts Education (connecting hundreds of artists to the classroom annually)
  • Arts & Cultural Resource (Undercover Arts Magazine featuring more than 1,200 individuals in our creative sector, Creative City Summit Professional Development Conference, Annual Creative Sector Impact Survey) 
  • CATALYST Arts & Maker Space (home for arts and culture, learning and innovation)
Scaling back these services has already significantly jolted the community, especially among the 1,200+ makers, creatives, artists and organizational collaborators who define the essence of our work. Most of our creative sector artists, designers, makers, chefs and businesses are self-employed and rely on monetary streams of revenue from selling, promoting and presenting their work. 

The void is also felt among tens of thousands of patrons. 

In the next year, SAACA will implement a phased approach to rebuilding and recovering many of the above programs. To adapt to the changing times, the organization will also lean into an innovative approach with a solutions-focused vision. We anticipate providing leadership and opportunity towards a complete creative sector re-energization, ensuring a vibrant future for arts and culture.  

Both short and long-term changes are inevitable. We will assess adaptability and feasibility of a wide range of festival, event and CATALYST-based programming considerations, including:
  • Capacity, sanitation and layout modifications at larger events
  • Newly envisioned arts experiences, including digital and in-person access
  • Innovative approaches for the changing needs of healthcare and business partnerships
  • New opportunities for artists
  • Dynamic opportunities to convene, lead and provide professional development training
  • Funding and advocacy avenues for the creative sector
You can expect continuous communications as we work with our business and venue partners to establish new parameters, dates and formats for our 2020/2021 calendar of festivals, events and programs.  

There is no doubt most programming and events will look and feel different for some time, but we must make these modifications for the health and safety of our community.  

Certainly, many of these decisions will be difficult, especially in this ever-changing experience. However, we promise to reach for the best interests of the arts and culture community, preserving and sustaining what we have built through unified support and partnerships over the past 23 years.
​
This pandemic will teach everyone new ways to come together, connect, collaborate and support each other. We see many challenges along the way as we begin to work harder with less resources, while intimately facing more complex issues than ever before.  We understand the community is looking to SAACA for answers and to reflect the voice of our stakeholders and diverse communities we serve.  

FESTIVAL & COMMUNITY EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

After close review with our venue and culinary partners, SAACA has decided to cancel the below culinary and larger community programs and events that were originally scheduled for summer 2020.

Tucson 23 Mexican Food Festival at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa 
This event has traditionally brought together more than 23 locally owned restaurants and 800 attendees to celebrate heritage and cultural foods, alongside traditional performances and experiences.  We will be replacing this in-person celebration with a local, month-long dining and take-out promotion in August 2020 to support the 120+ restaurants that are highlighted in the Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food in America, right here in Southern Arizona.  SAACA will continue to look at feasibility to host this community celebration as soon as it is safe to gather in larger venues once again. 

World Margarita Challenge
SAACA has partnered with the Tucson Originals Restaurants for more than 6 years to bring this exciting community event to Southern Arizona.  Although this larger in-person culinary celebration and competition will be cancelled for the summer of 2020, we look forward to new ways to partner and collaborate with local chefs on smaller and more intimate culinary experiences in the fall.  We look forward to bringing the event back again in 2021 in partnership with local chefs. 

Southern Arizona Salsa, Tequila & Taco Challenge
For more than 10 years, SAACA and the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona have collaborated to bring this storied culinary celebration to the La Encantada Shopping Center.  Without question, it has grown to become one of our community’s largest annual celebrations of art and food.  Although this event has been held in tradition on Labor Day Weekend, we have decided to postpone this larger gathering to a future date. 

Concerts
We continue to be in conversation with all our civic, retail and hospitality partners to advocate for live music opportunities when it is safe to gather. This summer, we do not expect the Tucson Premium Outlets concert series, St. Philip’s Plaza LIVE! Tuesday concert series or Westward Look Lookout Tucson concert series to resume until fall, at the earliest. We continue to facilitate online concert series and support for local musicians to live stream performances, offering audiences access to live and local music. 

Fall Arts and Cultural Festival Season 2020
SAACA is currently working with each of the communities in which we partner on larger community celebrations of arts and culture.  These celebrations have not only grown to become significant economic drivers for participating artists, musicians and makers, but they have also become integral elements of the cultural fabric of the communities who host the celebrations. 

We are working with both local and state government leaders to establish working timelines for approvals of these public gatherings and establish and implementing necessary event changes to uphold and protect our public health. 

We remain dedicated to our exhibitors, food vendors, artists, performers, and audiences, and we are actively scenario planning many options for the best way to move forward in the coming 2020/2021 Season while maintaining the community spirit of creating more vibrant and equitable communities through the process of arts and cultural gathering. 

COVID-19 INFORMATION
At this time, we are moving cautiously forward with planning this event as normal and will continue until we hear otherwise from local/federal leadership regarding health practices and gathering in large groups.  Currently, Arizona is in Phase 1 of Reopening (which limits gatherings to people 10 or less), and hopes to move into Phase 2 very soon (limits gatherings to 50 or less).  Phase 3 details have not been announced yet, but we are actively working with our decision makers to provide broader definition to outdoor festival capacities once we move into Phase 3 of planning. 
  • Due to the COVID-19 situation, we want to assist our artists, vendors and exhibitors in any way possible. Because of that, we have implemented the following COVID-19 policy in case it impacts our event:
  • Full booth space refund if the event is canceled due to COVID-19 shutdowns enforced by local/federal leadership.
  • If you were originally invited/juried into the Sahuarita Creative Arts Festival (March 2020) and Spring Oro Valley Festival of the Arts (May 2020) which were both cancelled because of COVID-19, and opted for a credit, you can apply that credit to one of the below shows.  We will be reaching out again a few days before applications and details would be announced in August to confirm that festival for which you want your credit applied.  Many of you have already indicated which festival you want it applied to, and you can be assured, that your place in line is safe. 
  • Please note, all 2020/2021 new applicants will require a non-refundable application fee of $30.

On or before early August 2020, we will announce details on festival feasibility and structural distancing and safety changes, as well as artist applications, for the following festivals.

2020 Fall/Winter Schedule of Arts Festivals
Announcement and application opening in August 2020
  • Patagonia Fall Festival (Currently Scheduled for October 10 & 11, 2020)
  • La Encantada Fall Fine Art Festival (Currently Scheduled for October 24 & 25, 2020)
  • POP: Art in Unexpected Places Festival (Currently Scheduled for November 14 & 15, 2020)
  • Oro Valley Holiday Festival of the Arts (Currently Scheduled for December 5 & 6, 2020)

2021 Winter/Spring Schedule of Arts Festivals
Announcement and application opening in October 2020
  • Winter La Encantada Fine Art Festival (January 2021)
  • Sahuarita Creative Arts Festival (Spring 2021)
  • Spring Festival of the Arts (March 2021)

We believe this amended schedule of application release to be essential to ensuring continuity and relevance of communication, while ensuring and evaluating any critical community changes in public health.  For any additional questions or concerns, please contact festivals@saaca.org for more information. 

CATALYST COLLABORATIVE ARTS & MAKER SPACE

The CATALYST Arts & Maker Space is a unique 14,000 square foot facility, with five dedicated meeting and classroom spaces, as well as a main flexible performance floor for larger gatherings.  SAACA will begin a Phased Reopening Strategy of CATALYST Arts & Maker Space at Tucson Mall, including limited-capacity operation plans. We are committed to providing a safe and secure facility for all visitors.  

To start, the CATALYST space will be closed to the general public, which includes all drop-in activities, and larger community gatherings through September 1, 2020, or until further notice.  This will include cancellation of our monthly First Friday celebrations, Artisan Markets and Second Saturday events through September. 

Although our operations of the organization and of the CATALYST will be significantly scaled back, SAACA is committed to making the CATALYST space available in a limited capacity for private events, smaller gatherings under 50 attendees, and reserved group classes on a weekly basis during Summer 2020.  Private rentals and use of the space will be evaluated upon close review on a case-by-case basis, factoring in safety and operational feasibility.  The CATALYST Coworking operations will remain functional during this period, as well as partner collaborative use of the space.  

If you are interested in reserving the space for classes, workshops and private rentals, please contact Director of Programs, Matt Rolland at matt@saaca.org.

Community-Driven Decision Making
We know that reopening CATALYST means we cannot return to the pre-pandemic normal. Innovative and flexible changes are essential.  A successful reopening will be community-driven and collaborative in nature.  Our focus will be on the ways employees and visitors can be proactive in protecting the safety of our community while advancing community opportunities through the reopening.  

PHASED OPENING RESPONSE

Phased Reopening Strategy
The community strategy for CATALYST’s Phased Reopening is a three-level approach, emphasizing safety, health and collaboration with individuals and partners.  This strategy is complementary to Governor Ducey’s framework, the White House’s “Opening Up America Again” guidance, as well as guidelines from local government.  It provides guidance and a strategy to support a safe reopening of CATALYST Arts & Maker Space.  As additional federal and state guidance is released, amendments may be issued.  Phase 1 includes detailed information regarding the initial stages of reopening, while Phase 2 and 3 represent a broad framework in which collaboration and community feedback is essential. 
The guiding principle of this framework is the health and well-being of our community.  In these challenging times, we cannot predict what lies ahead.  

PHASE 1 – Summer 2020
The initial phase of the CATALYST Reopening Strategy will reduce operating hours and opening to the general public, limit operations, decrease room capacity and only be available to pre-booked activities and events. Below is an overview of the opportunities the unique space can safely provide for meetings, classes, remote learning, special events, concerts and more in the more immediate future. Each room is built out with technology for streaming, web-based meeting experiences and recording for webinars. 
  • Private Teaching Kitchen
  • Robotics and Engineering Lab
  • Music & Digital Arts Studio
  • Arts and Craft Studio 
  • Community Room
  • Main Floor 

During this phase, we will implement the following adjustments for all CATALYST events:
  • New Limited and Reduced Capacity Layouts for each of the spaces.  
  • We will conduct rigorous cleaning protocols through the entirety of the space, including disinfection before and after scheduled classes.
  • Tucson Mall is restricting public access to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, until further notice.  Therefore, all CATALYST classes, events and meetings must take place during these modified hours.  
  • CATALYST will not be open to the public for drop-in visits but will remain open for pre-paid, scheduled classes, events, meetings and activities.  
  • All activities, meetings and classes must be scheduled and arranged with payment a minimum of 48 hours prior to the event date.  
  • Reduced rental rates will be enacted throughout the phasing process and provided to our community where applicable. Rental rates will continue to be determined based on use of the space and overhead costs to ensure safety and cleanliness.  

PHASE 2 – Dates TBD
The second phase of reopening will still include many of the precautions taken in Phase 1 but with an expanded scope of events and gatherings.  This phase could continue to operate on limited hours and staff but would restore regular operating hours and allow for drop-in activities and higher concentration of larger and more frequent community celebrations.  This phase will be enacted once local and state guidelines have eased the capacity and clearance of larger gatherings and local data relates to steadily declining rates of infection. We’ll also assess demand within the community for classes, events and use of the space.  SAACA can only operate CATALYST within the confines of budgetary limitations related to operational capacity.  We anticipate this phase being the longest of the three phases.  We hope to be able to begin Phase 2 before the end of 2020.  

PHASE 3 – Dates TBD
The extent of the third phase of reopening will largely be dependent on federal, state and local health guidelines and community feedback.  Once SAACA has stabilized our operations, community indications have reached a sustained level of strong community health, as well as demonstrated demand in the community to restore a full-time gathering community arts space, we can move into the final phase of reopening to former levels of activity and integration.  

​COMMUNITY RESURGENCE
If at any time local health guidelines and warnings change, or a new outbreak within our community occurs, SAACA will take every measure to quickly respond with a temporary closure of the space to provide adequate time for planning and assessment.  We will be working closely with our Tucson Mall partners to assess this information on a weekly basis.  You can view the updated Tucson Mall COVID-19 Safety Guidelines and directives online HERE.

ADDRESSING THE PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

Although the organization remains in a bit of a holding pattern today, we want you to know that we spend most days making active plans for the future.  It would be difficult to express our current feelings and fears for the future of arts and cultural organizations, without finding some solace in the past of this organization's story here in Southern Arizona.  
​
We were founded in 1997 as the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council (GOVAC).  Its charter was enacted when a passionate group of leaders believed the community they lived in was growing too fast, and that without an anchor organization advocating for arts and culture, their community would fail.   
Saying that these leaders “believed in something” hardly does the vision justice. 

As an all-volunteer run organization, our founding community leaders were able to achieve something more monumental than many of us may ever know in the world of arts.  Within only 8 years, they had effectively built a funded arts organization with representation at every level of decision making.  Artists and representatives of GOVAC sat at the table alongside transportation planning committees, public safety, economic development, tourism, education and parks!  This was a rare model at the time, and today, even more rare. It is not common practice for the arts to be so integral into community planning, but what we learned is that it was essential for true impact.
 
We were given the opportunity to see firsthand the impact that can come when we invest in culture as our strategy to connect.  Through public art initiatives to holiday fireworks with the symphony, Saturday morning youth programming to parades, council meetings and partnerships with the police department to jazz concerts, GOVAC did it all. 

Each one of these programs shaped who we would become as an organization today.  
By 2008, we had been given the opportunity to meet hundreds of jewelers, painters, musicians, designers and chefs.  The enthusiasm was so deep that we were starting new projects and programs weekly, and constantly connecting ideas and people together.  We quickly moved from an annual calendar of about 20 events and festivals, to more than 50 in just a year or so. 

We met so many people, who would continue to change us and play key roles in our development.  It was at this point in GOVAC’s growth that we truly began to understand where art lived and to whom it belonged. 

We had grown to become an organization that represented a wider scope of arts and culture.  We attempted to build something that was defined by the people, and not a singular discipline or interest.

It was because of these people that we decided to take a leap of faith in 2009, and during an economic recession, to walk into the unknown.  To keep this model alive, we changed our mission and vision to spread these ideas throughout the region and became the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance.  
It has remained true that the two most important pillars of who we would become are rooted in the collaborative word ALLIANCE, and the importance of attaching the word ARTS to CULTURE.  We believe that you do not have one without the other. 

Today, we can attribute nearly every element of our impact points in the communities we serve, directly back to leaning into collaboration, advocacy and into new ideas. 

It took us more than 10 years to get here, but today our dream has become a reality.  Although we opened the new CATALYST Arts & Maker Space in December 2019 and have had to close the doors just a few months later, we know that the enthusiasm and dedication to the process of collaboration and innovation is imperitive now more important than ever. 
We want to thank our community of supporters, volunteers, artists and creatives, which are the foundation on which we stand.  You have stood with us through hard times and good times, and you continue to show up for the arts time and time again.  You are the backbone of our organization. 
​
We are entirely grateful to our business partners and collaborators, as donors, supporters and advocates, we salute your dedication to the arts. 

Thank you to our artists and creative community, which has fueled the mission of our organization since its inception.  We will continue to lean on you to fill CATALYST and our community with color and life. 

Without each of you, this organization would not exist.  We will continue to communicate, collaborate and inform you as we move through these very difficult times ahead, continuing to make investments and decisions which will become more mission and vision-centric than ever before. 

If you would like to support our efforts to find this future and a stronger arts and cultural community than we had before, you can do so by donating with a $10-$25 monthly donation, or a one-time gift to the organization.  You can rest assured that whatever you donate, will be reinvesting into bringing the organization back to the important work ahead.  Learn more HERE

We know there will be much need in our creative sector, as well as in rebuilding our healthcare systems and placemaking efforts in communities more affected than others.  We will rise to the challenge together.  ​

Kate Marquez
Executive Director
Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance