Felix Padron

San Antonio is at a crossroads.

It is a city whose traditional identity has been shaped by generations of families rooted in the region and immigrants from Mexico. This identity has deep historical and cultural implications shaped by a unique set of economic and cultural dynamics; the backbone of a context that more often than not, influences most political efforts and outcomes.

Yet San Antonio is undeniably a growing city. The bulk of its population growth comes from the outside, creating a more heterogeneous cultural environment, where different and specific cultural identities are now being engaged.

The challenge becomes: Can San Antonio expand in a global economy while staying committed to an “authentic" culture?

This question is at the forefront of most discussions regarding the city's future.

It is a delicate balance for San Antonians, and it makes it difficult to reach consensus when trying to formulate strategies that allow for the cross-pollination of innovation and cultural preservation. This is certainly a challenge for local arts and cultural organizations as well.

Can our city's cultural community embrace innovative change aligned with the belief that the best efforts are “San Antonio’s and San Antonio’s alone”? This is a highly emotional topic in any San Antonio dialogue about moving forward as a city.

Early this year, Mayor Julian Castro speaking to his city-wide community visioning initiative SA2020 said: “Growing into a world class city, while holding on to what makes us special, will be our worthiest accomplishment...".

The result of this mayoral initiative outlines eleven significant vision areas, including arts and culture. The overarching SA2020 vision is as lofty as grand visions need to be, yet it is in fact anchored by pragmatic indicators and measures stating that most cultural stakeholders, including OCA, are willing to lead the effort.

I am encouraged by SA2020's potential to promote risk-taking and innovative investment for substantive transformational change. I am equally excited because it also has the potential to build on The Cultural Collaborative (TCC), the city’s 10-year cultural plan devised by OCA, and implemented in 2005.

TCC was successful to the extent that 86% of its 38 strategies were implemented and/or completed, thanks to the three million dollars in public funding invested so far.

This investment by the city cemented important advances in public art issues, economic and cultural awareness, a new performing arts center, artist development, and international cultural exchanges. Like Mayor Castro's Vision SA2020, TCC helped facilitate community conversations affirming art and culture as key to San Antonio’s future.

San Antonio is mostly a poor community with limited philanthropic resources. Fortunately, thanks to OCA's focused initiatives, and sustained political support, city art funding has increased -- the economic downturn notwithstanding -- allowing the stability that many of the arts and cultural groups need to maintain a desired level of service. Of course, some of the less efficient organizations are barely hanging on.

However, even while taking into account its many individual successes, TCC did not foster innovation or any significant long-term sustainable change.

Our evaluations and analyses indicate that these types of broadly designed master plans are spread too thin and return only re-packaged versions of the same cultural offerings. In my opinion, effective plans should be designed with a much narrower, more specific scope, encouraging intelligent risk-taking, flexibility, and providing consistent levels of funding for defined periods of time.

At the end of the day, within our current local political and economic context, there are a number of initiatives in progress that could turn out to be potential game-changers for our creative environment.

I am hopeful that the vision and effort behind SA2020 will bring about the kind of change that fosters growth that is both innovative and authentic to San Antonio.

So what now? Stay tuned...